California · Nonprofit
COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM
COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM (California) receives grants from 108 organizations whose IRS filings report $39,957,662 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($11,962,520). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 108
- Grants received
- $40M
- Net assets
- $60M
What Computer History Museum does
Mission
Chm decodes technology - its computing past, digital present, and future impact on humanity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Collections and research:chm stewards the world's foremost collection of computing artifacts and oral histories to generate profound insights grounded in history. We advance knowledge and the exchange of ideas through focused research and scholarship.see schedule ochm's collecting scope spans calculators to robots and artificial intelligence and provides unique perspectives into the online world, entrepreneurship, and software. Chm's comprehensive collection of over a million artifacts, documents, photographs, moving images, digital objects, and oral histories lies at the heart of everything we do. The collection covers a vast array of iconic computers and companies, from an apple 1 computer to the latest trillion-transistor ai computer-on-a-chip. The museum's ever-expanding collection of 1,399 oral histories with 1,849 participants and archival collections bring critical histories and personal stories to light. In fy2025, 31 new interviews specifically related to artificial intelligence were recorded.at the core of chm's preservation and efforts is the shustek research archives, the museum's 25,000-square-foot research and storage facility. Established in 2015 and named for…
$3,712,393 spent$8,238 earned by the program24% of program spendingExhibitions:through comprehensive and timely exhibits, interactive learning experiences, dynamic programming, thought-provoking publications, and original media productions, chm facilitates learning and encourages personal connections with the history of computing and the possibilities of technology.see schedule othe museum has more than 40,000 square feet of exhibit halls designed to engage, educate, and entertain the general public. Signature exhibits include revolution: the first 2000 years of computing and make software: change the world. In fy2025, a new exhibit, chatbots decoded: exploring ai, opened. With multimedia, artifact displays, and interactives, the exhibit reflects multiple perspectives on artificial intelligence and chatbots and answers questions like: what are chatbots? Where do they come from? Why do they matter? The exhibit received positive coverage in a new york times article in april 2025. Visitors to the museum could see special displays featuring items from the collection throughout the year, including a portable speech processor in a briefcase that was a major innovation for the hearing impaired and dozens of computer mice spanning five decades.. Visitors…
$7,670,219 spent$1,301,284 earned by the program50% of program spendingPublic programming:chm convenes dialogue and stimulates debate through public and community programming to encourage civic discourse about critical issues and to inspire the next generation of creators and innovators.see schedule olive programming and public events convene today's thought leaders, entrepreneurs, historians, scholars, authors, company founders, and journalists from a wide variety of fields and disciplines. Chm's live programming series connects its community with diverse viewpoints and unique perspectives at the intersection of technology and humanity. In fiscal 2025, chm produced 10 hybrid events with 5,881 in-person and online attendees. Notable programs included we hosted education innovator sal khan, bill gates, and many more thoughtful trailblazers and experts in areas as diverse as video games and using ai to decode ancient scrolls.the 2025 programming calendar also honored chm fellow award recipients allan alcorn, nolan bushnell, elizabeth "jake" feinler, jensen huang, and steven mayer,. The chm fellow awards program honors the distinguished technology pioneersunsung heroes and legendsfor their outstanding merits and significant contributions to the…
$3,850,458 spent$213,124 earned by the program25% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $15,233,070.
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 2021 to 2022, from $77M to $71M (−8%).
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 0% · 2021 11% · 2022 6% · 2023 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
71% of COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 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
Stephen Smith
Board member/chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 30 funders to 45 funders, grant income rose $2.7M → $7.0M.
15 of 108 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 49% 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 COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 108 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
COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% 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
49% 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 COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 25% · 2019 38% · 2020 33% · 2021 36% · 2022 47% · 2023 44% — 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
46% of COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
53% of COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $19M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM is better cushioned than half of the 550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 550 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $811k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$706k
- National Archives and Records Administration$100k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$5k
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 COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM
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
60%
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 COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM: 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 COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM?
- COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM (California) receives grants from 108 organizations whose IRS filings report $39,957,662 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($11,962,520). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 108 organizations giving $39,957,662 in grants to COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM, 66 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $11,962,520 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM 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.
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 108 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