Virginia · Nonprofit
CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Virginia) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $34,397 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($22,764). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $465k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $34k
- Net assets
- $4.3M
What Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society Inc does
Mission
To collect, preserve and interpret in perpetuity the continuing history of the chesapeake & ohio railway, its predecessors and successors. To share the history by disseminating it, or otherwise making it accessible to the society's membership and all others.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Operation of the c&o railway heritage center, a railway heritage museum and an educational and interpretive visitor's center that tells the story of the c&o railway. The center maintains what is believed to be one of the largest collections pertaining to the technological development of a single railroad institutionally held in the united states. Publication of a periodic magazine devoted to historical and current information on the c&o railway. Sales of c&o branded retail products through a small walk-in gift shop.
$400,376 spent$255,403 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $400,376.
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 2019 to 2020, from $4.5M to $4.7M (+3%).
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: 2023 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Board chair
John C Watson
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income rose $7k → $8k.
1 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC’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
CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
73% 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 CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 94% · 2021 91% · 2022 92% · 2023 94% — 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
CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2k 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.
Organizations like CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: 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 CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
- CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Virginia) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $34,397 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($22,764). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $34,397 in grants to CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
- MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $22,764 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHESAPEAKE & OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Chesapeake & Ohio 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 6 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