California · Nonprofit
CURIOUS CASES INC
CURIOUS CASES INC (California) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,707,122 to it, the largest being MUSK FOUNDATION ($2,084,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Curious Cases Inc does
Mission
To advance research of the herculaneum papyri and ongoing efforts to decipher them.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024, vesuvius challenge successfully resulted in the noninvasive recovery of multiple passages of text from an intact herculaneum scroll. The herculaneum scrolls represent the only library from antiquity to survive in-situ, and if read will significantly increase the world's access to ancient texts. Since their discovery in the mid eighteenth century, the scrolls have been the subject of 250+ years of unrolling attempts. All have been overwhelmingly destructive or unsuccessful, until now. We now have methods capable of recovering the contents of the scrolls without damaging them, a pathway that will enable the complete recovery of this library as our work continues.
$1,492,821 spentof which $458,601 as grants$1,841 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,492,821.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 $1.3M to $1.4M (+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.
100% of CURIOUS CASES INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
6 of 9 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 CURIOUS CASES INC’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
CURIOUS CASES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 77% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
“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.
Where its funders are
CURIOUS CASES INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 3 states in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $475k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
CURIOUS CASES INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 174 social science nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 174 social science nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like CURIOUS CASES INC
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
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CURIOUS CASES INC: 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 CURIOUS CASES INC?
- CURIOUS CASES INC (California) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,707,122 to it, the largest being MUSK FOUNDATION ($2,084,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CURIOUS CASES INC have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $2,707,122 in grants to CURIOUS CASES INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CURIOUS CASES INC?
- MUSK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,084,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CURIOUS CASES INC 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 FY2024 (financials across 2023–2024), and the filings of 9 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