New York · Nonprofit
BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $823,576 to it, the largest being CHARLES D & MARY A BAUER FOUNDATION ($87,122). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.2M
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $824k
- Net assets
- $8.4M
What Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society does
Mission
Experiencing history with you, by remembering, discovering, safekeeping, and sharing our stories; learning and exploring together; sparking emotional and social connections within our unique community.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Museum collections-catalogue and safeguard a vast array of treasures. More than 100,000 physical objects and over 450,000 archival items comprise our collection and shape our understanding of wny's story. Customized artifact storage units and climate controlled storage are features of our off-site collections facility. Three full-time staff members, together with specially trained interns and volunteers, care for the collections. They process new donations and conduct inventory work in accordance with our collections management policy and processing manual. Collections staff also prioritize and recommend artifacts for conservation treatment. Annually, we spend at least $20,000 on artifact conservation from a fund restricted for collections care-augmented by special grants and designated gifts. Accepted over nearly 156 three-dimensional items to be accessioned, highlights include: 23 artifacts relating to rouville tony lebarre's service in the military during the vietnam war; 2 buffalo bandits world championship rings (1992, 1993); 12 objects of art documenting the old pink and mulligan's brick bars that were recently destroyed by fires; a fan and flag from buffalo's pride parade…
$627,181 spent39% of program spendingMuseum program and exhibits- the buffalo history museum plays a critical role in both preserving the legacy of our region and understanding the unique character and cultural identities of its people. We are distinctively located at the crossroads of past and future a vibrant, historic destination set at the heart of a re-energized cultural corridor. Since 1862, we have served as the community's historical ambassador, the dedicated safekeeper and storyteller of our collective memory. Through a collection of over 550,000 objects and an ever-changing array of exhibits and programs, we share the stories of our region's triumphs and struggles.our 2020-2030 master plan builds on our generations-long commitment to western new york by establishing a new vision and by refocusing on how we engage with communities to share their histories from their perspectives. Our goal is to foster an atmosphere of storytelling, conversation, and engagement that is built on input from our whole community. We aim to create content and connect with people of diverse backgrounds, sharing different perspectives on history and how it connects with contemporary issues. We believe sharing in local history builds…
$856,939 spent$580,443 earned by the program54% of program spendingLibrary-responsible for all two-dimensional items in the collection: books, pamphlets, letters, diaries, personal papers, organizational & business records, periodicals, newspapers, scrapbooks, photographs, postcards, prints, drawings, posters, maps, atlases, microfilms, and even some dvds.in 2025, over 500 patrons used our library's resources for on-site research, many of them on multiple occasions. The director of the library serviced these guests and tours; answered hundreds telephone and email queries, and scanned hundreds of artifacts to fulfill requests. Digital preservation makes collections accessiblemost of buffalo's english-language, public domain newspapers from 18111923 are now searchable online through newspapers.com. This partnership provides users with otherwise cost-prohibitive access to these historical resources for research and educational purposes.2025 archival acquisitionsstaffing capacity in the archives remained reduced at times during the year due to the retirement of our long-time library director after 18 years of service and other team transitions. From the greg d. Tranter collection, hundreds of paper materials were rehoused and numbered. The archives…
$111,471 spent7% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,595,591.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $7.4M to $11M (+48%).
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 19% · 2018 32% · 2019 32% · 2020 61% · 2021 52% · 2022 47% · 2023 32% · 2024 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Melissa Brown
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $39k → $126k.
6 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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: $1.0M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY raised.
From the IRS filings of BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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
BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
25% 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 BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 59% · 2019 34% · 2020 22% · 2021 35% · 2022 15% · 2023 36% — 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
43% of BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
100% of BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $154k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.
Government funding BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $296k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$296k
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 BUFFALO & ERIE 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
58% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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
- Bhm Development LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BUFFALO & ERIE 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 BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $823,576 to it, the largest being CHARLES D & MARY A BAUER FOUNDATION ($87,122). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $823,576 in grants to BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- CHARLES D & MARY A BAUER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $87,122 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 41 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