Minnesota · Nonprofit
BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Minnesota) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $605,152 to it, the largest being MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ($428,015). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $451k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $605k
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Brown County Historical Society does
Mission
The purposes of this corporation are to discover and memorialize the history of brown county, minnesota; to discover, purchase, commission, or otherwise procure, and to publish or otherwise preserve writings, newspapers, journals and the like, which shed light on the hisotry of brown county.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Promoted geneology, historic markers, cemetary markers, assisted research, various preservation projects, century farms, etc.
$129,828 spent$11,789 earned by the program81% of program spendingEducation program, collection assessment
$3,183 spent$10,480 earned by the program2% of program spendingPromote activities in conjuction with the sleepy eye chapter and various capital expenditures funded by grants.
$27,501 spent17% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $160,512.
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 $1.5M to $1.8M (+22%).
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 46% · 2018 34% · 2019 36% · 2020 41% · 2021 50% · 2022 32% · 2023 46% · 2024 48% · 2025 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
83% of BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $27k → $145k.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 71% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 59% · 2019 56% · 2020 61% · 2021 67% · 2022 64% · 2023 86% — growing more concentrated.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $176k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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 BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Minnesota) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $605,152 to it, the largest being MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ($428,015). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $605,152 in grants to BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY is the largest funder on record, with $428,015 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BROWN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Brown County Historical Society →
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 5 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing