California · Nonprofit
CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION
CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,267,014 to it, the largest being THE TU FOUNDATION ($1,250,000). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.8M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $5.3M
- Net assets
- $36M
What Charles W Bowers Museum Corporation does
Mission
The bowers museum enriches lives through the world's finest arts and cultures.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibitionsin addition to the long-term exhibition of a small portion of the museum's permanent collection, the museum organizes or arranges for short-term changing exhibitions of objects reflecting an aspect of the museum's mission to increase the visitor's awareness and appreciation of the artistic traditions of other cultures.
$3,479,428 spent$815,847 earned by the program62% of program spendingEducation and public programsthe museum operates its children's hands-on art and activities center known as kidseum. In addition to community outreach activities, programs occurring at introduces children and parents to the art and customs of cultures around the world both past and present. The museum also attempts to make itself more accessible to the surrounding community by conducting in-classroom presentations and maintaining a program of travel trunks and treasure chests filled with cultural artifacts and other significant objects for use in the classroom. The museum also has a 300 seat auditorium where movies are shown and lectures are given to coincide with the current exhibits.
$951,335 spent$201,372 earned by the program17% of program spendingResearch and collectionsthe museum maintains a collection of approximately 90,000 objects. Over the years, the museum has acquired significant holdings of north american indian, pre-columbian, african, and oceanic cultural art and artifacts. Activities surrounding this collection include restoration, preservation and registration of all relevant data on computerized database. Ongoing research and cataloguing efforts have produced numerous publications and articles. The museum holds the most significant collection of mccloskey paintings in the world. The museum has established a website and has ambitious plans to make available over that medium images and information of interest to the general public and scholar alike.
$1,169,980 spent21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,600,743.
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 $25M to $31M (+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 23% · 2018 23% · 2019 24% · 2020 31% · 2021 43% · 2022 25% · 2023 30% · 2024 29% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
51% of CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Sean O'Harrow
President and CEO
Board chair
Anne Shih
Governor, board chairwoman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $567k → $1.4M.
11 of 58 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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
CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
32% 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 CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 36% · 2019 24% · 2020 30% · 2021 25% · 2022 23% · 2023 72% — 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.
How long its funders stay
45% of CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
91% of CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
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 CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION: 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 CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION?
- CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,267,014 to it, the largest being THE TU FOUNDATION ($1,250,000). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $5,267,014 in grants to CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION?
- THE TU FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHARLES W BOWERS MUSEUM CORPORATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Charles W Bowers Museum →
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 58 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