Hawaii · Nonprofit
BISHOP MUSEUM
BISHOP MUSEUM (Hawaii) receives grants from 96 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,254,156 to it, the largest being C N WODEHOUSE BISHOP MUSEUM TRUST ($5,516,010). 68 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $28M
- Funders on record
- 96
- Grants received
- $25M
- Net assets
- $89M
What Bishop Museum does
Mission
Bishop Museum inspires our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of hawai'I and the pacific.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Public programs - public programs provide informal educational experiences that tell the story of hawaii and the pacific. The program takes full advantage of the comprehensive resources of the museum's collections and research products, and provides visitors and hawaii residents with diverse programs. For the fiscal year june 30, 2025, the museum had approximately 92,331 resident and 84,408 non-resident visitors, and 13,344 military visitors.
$4,858,839 spent$3,521,793 earned by the program42% of program spendingNatural sciences - natural sciences activities include providing understanding of the natural environments of hawaii and the pacific, providing information for conserving the biodiversity of those environments and, by contributing to public programs, expanding educational experiences in science for hawaii residents and museum visitors.
$4,257,233 spent$13,187 earned by the program37% of program spendingCultural resources - activities in the cultural resources program include field and collections-based research undertaken in collaboration with indigenous peoples and more recent immigrants of hawaii. Traditional knowledge systems, philosophies of knowledge, and science are historically applied. The program also provides fee-based consulting services related to the cultural sciences.
$2,420,370 spent$133,215 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $11,536,442.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $89M to $100M (+12%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 23% · 2018 20% · 2019 20% · 2020 26% · 2021 32% · 2022 27% · 2023 50% · 2024 49% · 2025 52%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of BISHOP MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Dee Jay Mailer
President and CEO
Board chair
Ann Botticelli
Chair of the board/director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 49 funders, grant income rose $226k → $4.6M.
5 of 96 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $91k from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Aloha United Way Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money BISHOP MUSEUM raised.
From the IRS filings of BISHOP MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 96 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
BISHOP MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
64% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund BISHOP MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 35% · 2019 56% · 2020 26% · 2021 24% · 2022 22% · 2023 23% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
38% of BISHOP MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
71% of BISHOP MUSEUM's grant income comes from Hawaii funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $420k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
BISHOP MUSEUM holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding BISHOP MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $13.5M on record.
- National Science Foundation$3.9M
- Department of Commerce$1.9M
- Department of Defense$1.8M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.6M
- Department of Education$1.4M
- Department of Agriculture$1.0M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like BISHOP MUSEUM
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Hawaii
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (2) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BISHOP MUSEUM: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds BISHOP MUSEUM?
- BISHOP MUSEUM (Hawaii) receives grants from 96 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,254,156 to it, the largest being C N WODEHOUSE BISHOP MUSEUM TRUST ($5,516,010). 68 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BISHOP MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 96 organizations giving $25,254,156 in grants to BISHOP MUSEUM, 68 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BISHOP MUSEUM?
- C N WODEHOUSE BISHOP MUSEUM TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $5,516,010 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BISHOP MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Hawaii. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 96 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing