Alabama · Nonprofit
COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE
COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE (Alabama) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,203,165 to it, the largest being ALPHA FOUNDATION ($500,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.0M
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $27M
What Cook Museum of Natural Science does
Program
To own and operate an education natural science museum which will be open to the general public and will serve as an educational platform for schools in the area surrounding, decatur, alabama.
$4,989,085 spent
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
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 $45M to $32M (−29%).
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 5 funders, grant income fell $150k → $114k.
3 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE’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
COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 59% · 2019 61% · 2020 41% · 2021 56% · 2022 74% · 2023 80% — 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
36% of COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
69% of COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE's grant income comes from Alabama funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $217k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE has grown faster than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE
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 Alabama
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE: 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 COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE?
- COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE (Alabama) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,203,165 to it, the largest being ALPHA FOUNDATION ($500,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $1,203,165 in grants to COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE?
- ALPHA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COOK MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. 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 Cook Museum of Natural Science →
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 14 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