Wisconsin · Nonprofit
CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT
CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT (Wisconsin) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,611 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($25,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 91% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $334k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $28k
- Net assets
- $4.1M
What Center for Railroad Photography & Art Endowment does
Mission
To support the charitable and educational activities of the center for railroad photography and art inc.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
To support the charitable and educational activities of the center for railroad photography and art inc ("center"), the Center for Railroad Photography & Art Endowment ("endowment') maintains a professionally managed endowment fund that makes quarterly distributions to the center. The endowment is the primary vehicle for receiving estate and legacy gifts. These gifts become part of the principal of the endowment fund, invested according to its trustee-approved investment policy, which then contribute to the quarterly distributions to the center.
$130,332 spentof which $130,332 as grants51% of program spendingPurchase of collection items in support of charitable and educational activities of the center for railroad photography and art inc.
$125,000 spent49% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $255,332.
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 2022 to 2023, from $2.4M to $3.6M (+54%).
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.
45% of CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Richard Tower Jr
Trustee/chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2020: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $25k → $3k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 91% 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 CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT’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
CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 91% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
91% 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 CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2020 100% — broadly stable.
“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
91% of CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $3k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Wisconsin, across 1 state.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $25k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Center for Railroad Photography and Art Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT: 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 CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT?
- CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT (Wisconsin) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,611 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($25,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 91% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $27,611 in grants to CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT.
- Who is the largest funder of CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $25,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CENTER FOR RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ENDOWMENT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 2 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