Arizona · Nonprofit
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX (Arizona) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,985,846 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.1M
- Funders on record
- 48
- Grants received
- $8.0M
- Net assets
- $17M
What Children's Museum of Phoenix does
Mission
The Children's Museum of Phoenix mission is to engage the minds, muscles, and imaginations of children and the grown-ups who care about them. With a focus on early childhood education and development for children birth to ten years, the museum provides hands-on exhibits and programs that encourage physical, emotional, and cognitive development.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Children's Museum of Phoenix's mission is to engage the minds, muscles, and imaginations of children and the grown-ups who care about them. With a focus on early childhood education and development for children birth to ten years, the museum provides hands-on exhibits and programs that encourage physical, emotional, and cognitive development. To ensure that all children in our community can visit the museum, we aim to provide free or reduced admission access to more than 110,000 people each year through our every child program. This program gives low-income or at-risk children and families access to the museum's rich learning environment either for free or at a substantially reduced rate. During fy 24-25, 111,092 visitors came through our every child program an investment in our community valued at $1,528,722. This year, in partnership with the city of phoenix, rsp architects, and chasse construction, we began the design phase of our upcoming expansion of the museum which will see the museum grow into its full 80,000 square feet of space, plus an additional 10,000 square feet of new space designed for today's young explorers.in november 2024, the museum received a landmark…
$3,893,626 spent$3,870,197 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,893,626.
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 $14M to $18M (+29%).
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: 2018 2% · 2019 9% · 2020 7% · 2021 32% · 2022 22% · 2023 10% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX’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. 1 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
Kate Wells
CEO/president
Board chair
Nick Reed
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $196k → $1.2M.
8 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 39% · 2019 50% · 2020 25% · 2021 28% · 2022 88% · 2023 51% — 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
46% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
57% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX's grant income comes from Arizona funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $627k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX: 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 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX?
- CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX (Arizona) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,985,846 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX have?
- IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $7,985,846 in grants to CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF PHOENIX find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 Children's Museum of Phoenix →
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 48 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing