Minnesota · Nonprofit
DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC
DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,532,005 to it, the largest being Minnesota Humanities Center ($671,130). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $631k
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $374k
What Duluth Children's Museum Inc does
Mission
The duluth children's museum's mission is to engage children in hands-on learning through creative play and interactive exhibits.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibits and programs and outreach:programs are offered daily and provide visitors with unique learning experiences in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, history, and art. Museum staff use a variety of learning tools and incorporate minnesota state educational standards to teach concepts such as magnetism and chemical reaction to duluth history and world cultural. The museum owns many interactive educational exhibits. Museum staff provide outreach to numerous classrooms, community centers, and after school programs which impact thousands of children through programs that supplement classroom leaning and youth programs.
$375,278 spent$64,239 earned by the program91% of program spendingMembership, admission and gift shop: the museum operates as an attraction with over 25,000 annual visitors and 948 annual members. As an organization committed to providing access to the whole community, a discovery for all program has been developed to distribute over 310 scholarship memberships to families experiencing financial hardship. In addition, as a museum's for all and blue star museum partner, low cost admission is available to visitors with a valid ebt or active military id. The gift shop provides mission-oriented toys and games of sale to continue learning and exploration at home.
$34,200 spent$179,594 earned by the program8% of program spendingCollection:unique to the children's museum, the museum cares for and curates extensive textile collections, hundreds of dolls from around the world, a cuneiform tablet from 5000bc, and many items relevant to the ojibwe culture as well as duluth's early settlers. Items from the collection are rotated through the museum's gallery spaces as well as used in classroom outreach. Many items are on long term loan to the tweed museum, hartley nature center and the st. Louis county historical society.
$3,095 spent1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $412,573.
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 2018 to 2019, from $2.1M to $654k (−70%).
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 38% · 2018 33% · 2020 28% · 2021 19% · 2022 21% · 2023 39% · 2024 10% · 2025 32%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Drew Jensen
Executive director
Board chair
Kate Van Daele
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 7 funders, grant income fell $213k → $155k.
5 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM 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
DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% 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
65% 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 DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 94% · 2019 86% · 2020 50% · 2021 25% · 2022 75% · 2023 67% — broadly stable.
“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
50% of DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
88% of DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $183k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM 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 DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC?
- DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,532,005 to it, the largest being Minnesota Humanities Center ($671,130). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $1,532,005 in grants to DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC?
- Minnesota Humanities Center is the largest funder on record, with $671,130 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Duluth Children's Museum →
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 23 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