Connecticut · Nonprofit
CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED
CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED (Connecticut) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $281,605 to it, the largest being CONNECTICUT HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC ($134,372). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $531k
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $282k
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Connecticut Electric Railway Association Incorporated does
Mission
We are a trolley museum. We provide an historically accurate educational experience of the trolley era through interpretation, preservation, restoration and operation of an electric railway.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Education: to operate and display trolley cars and related equipment with the purpose of educating all ages about this historic era. Over 100 hours of volunteer time is spent each week between april and december in the operation of vintage trolleys by motormen dressed in period attire. Motormen also deliver a mini lecture on the history of trolley cars and their role in our country's growth in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Additional volunteer resources are deployed in the visitor's center updating displays and preparing for our key events (pumpkin patch, rails to the darkside, and winterfest).
$304,668 spent71% of program spendingRestoration: to restore trolleys and related equipment from the trolley era. The museum has a restoration and maintenance shop on its campus. The current project is a multi-year ground up restoration of connecticut car 3001 which is expected to be largely completed in december 2024.
$41,981 spent10% of program spendingPreservation: to preserve and maintain vintage trolley cars and related equipment, including track, signals, overhead wiring and storage facilities. Our youngest trolley car is 100 years old. The oldest operating trolley is over 120 years old. With safety being a paramount concern, maintaining trolleys and all the related equipment is an on-going process. Parts that need replacing must be either fabricated on-site or sourced from other museums.
$83,417 spent19% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $430,066.
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 2023 to 2024, from $2.0M to $1.9M (−6%).
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% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 9% · 2021 19% · 2022 8% · 2023 3% · 2024 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
22% of CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $8k → $88k.
7 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED’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
CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
84% 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 CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 43% · 2019 59% · 2020 96% · 2021 95% · 2022 73% · 2023 74% — 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
33% of CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED'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
99% of CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED's grant income comes from Connecticut funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $101k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED is better cushioned than half of the 17,953 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,953 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $837k on record — $750k federal, $87k state.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$750k
- Pass thru Grant Non-State$87k
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 CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED
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 Connecticut
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
100%
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 CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED: 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 CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED?
- CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED (Connecticut) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $281,605 to it, the largest being CONNECTICUT HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC ($134,372). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $281,605 in grants to CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED?
- CONNECTICUT HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC is the largest funder on record, with $134,372 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CONNECTICUT ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Connecticut Electric Railway Association →
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 13 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