Virginia · Nonprofit
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Virginia) receives grants from 424 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,132,156 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($11,130,500). 290 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $149M
- Funders on record
- 424
- Grants received
- $66M
- Net assets
- $1.3B
What Colonial Williamsburg Foundation does
Mission
Preserve, restore, reconstruct, or otherwise maintain historical structures, objects, works of art and locations and to promote, encourage, and carry on any historical, interpretive, research, or related educational activities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Education, Research and Historical Interpretation-The Historic Area is a 301-acre outdoor history museum with over 600 original and reconstructed houses, outbuildings, shops, taverns, and public buildings. Interpretation by costumed employees engage visitors in dialogue with historical residents of Colonial Williamsburg and at trade sites. Tours are offered through the houses, taverns and public buildings. Specialized tours are available that focus on African-Americans, the role of women in the 18th-century, and the origins of the U.S. Constitution.
$53,459,812 spent$16,832,566 earned by the program62% of program spendingTaverns and Colonial Houses-Ideal for guests who wish to fully immerse themselves in the 18th-century, Colonial Williamsburg offers authentic period accomodations in the Historic Area where our founding families once lodged. Servers in taverns are in period dress and interpret the 18th-century dining experiences.
$16,641,801 spent$14,365,418 earned by the program19% of program spendingMuseums, Preservation and Historic Resources-Colonial Williamsburg's wide-ranging collections, acquired over the past 90 years, provide the art, objects, artifacts, and buildings necessary to accurately recreate the environment of 18th-century Williamsburg. The archaeological and architectural collection include 500,000 whole archaeological artifacts from excavations in and around Williamsburg as well as 60 million fragments (probably the largest single archaeological holding relating to 18th-century America), and some 19,000 architectural fragments.
$16,206,382 spent$622,655 earned by the program19% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $86,307,995.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.5B to $1.7B (+10%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 7% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
35% of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (56% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Clifford Fleet III
President & CEO
Board chair
Carly Fiorina
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 127 funders to 190 funders, grant income rose $3.8M → $13M.
35 of 424 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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: $2.6M from 23 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Silicon Valley Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Colonial Williamsburg Foundation raised.
From the IRS filings of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 424 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
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
42% 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 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 19% · 2019 27% · 2020 21% · 2021 36% · 2022 39% · 2023 19% — 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
49% of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation draws 73% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 39 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $26M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 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
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 54 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 54 arts & culture nonprofits over $100M, FY2024
Government funding Colonial Williamsburg Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.6M on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.3M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$348k
- Department of Justice$11k
- Department of Defense$6k
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 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 38 states
Part of a family of 5 related entities
- Charltons Coffeehouse LLC · disregarded
- Colonial Williamsburg Company · corp_trust
- Williamsburg Developments Inc · corp_trust
- Nancy B Spillane CRUT · corp_trust
- Kathryn Mae Renner CRT · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: 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 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation?
- Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Virginia) receives grants from 424 organizations whose IRS filings report $66,132,156 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($11,130,500). 290 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Colonial Williamsburg Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 424 organizations giving $66,132,156 in grants to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 290 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation?
- CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $11,130,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 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.
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 424 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