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Connecticut · Nonprofit

ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC

ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $863,108 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($353,875). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.4M
Funders on record
21
Grants received
$863k
Net assets
$2.0M
10/21 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 17%
01What it does

What Eli Whitney Museum Inc does

Mission

The eli whitney museum and workshop is an experimental learning workshop for students, teachers and families. We collect, interpret and teach experiences that are the root of design and invention.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. 1. Creating experimental building workshops for children, design, development and teaching of programs in art, architecture, history and science which engage children ages 4-14 in traditional and non-traditional artisanship and learning. 2. Creating experimental building workshops for classroom: design and development and teaching programs in art, architecture, history and science for children in classrooms from pre-school to high school which add a studio, laboratory or workshop level of learning to classroom learning. 3. Creating experimental building workshops for the community: design, development and teaching programs in art, architecture, history and science which add to the tools through which they engage.

    $1,453,386 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,453,386.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.2M) Expenses 100 ($1.3M) Net assets 100 ($2.3M)2018 Revenue 110 ($1.3M) Expenses 99 ($1.3M) Net assets 102 ($2.4M)2019 Revenue 99 ($1.2M) Expenses 110 ($1.5M) Net assets 92 ($2.1M)2020 Revenue 79 ($972k) Expenses 80 ($1.1M) Net assets 88 ($2.0M)2021 Revenue 86 ($1.1M) Expenses 74 ($977k) Net assets 91 ($2.1M)2022 Revenue 107 ($1.3M) Expenses 98 ($1.3M) Net assets 92 ($2.1M)2023 Revenue 125 ($1.5M) Expenses 112 ($1.5M) Net assets 94 ($2.2M)2024 Revenue 122 ($1.5M) Expenses 121 ($1.6M) Net assets 90 ($2.1M)2025 Revenue 115 ($1.4M) Expenses 116 ($1.5M) Net assets 85 ($2.0M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (115)Expenses (116)Net assets (85)Peer revenue range

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 $2.4M to $2.1M (−11%).

$2.4M
$2.4M
$2.1M
$2.1M
$2.3M
$2.2M
$2.2M
$2.1M
$2.0M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 0% · 2021 9% · 2022 14% · 2023 7% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

16% of ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,377 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$93k
’17
$46k
’18
−$237k
’19
−$87k
’20
$76k
’21
$22k
’22
$47k
’23
−$101k
’24
−$116k
’25
4.1
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed192122212222191917
Joined·+4+5+0+1+3+3+1+0
No longer listed·24103612
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $115k → $122k.

6 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 ELI WHITNEY 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

ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

64% 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 ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC.

41%
largest funder
79%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 99% · 2018 100% · 2019 51% · 2020 56% · 2021 77% · 2022 49% · 2023 39% — diversifying over time.

“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

55% of ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC draws 64% of its grant income from funders outside Connecticut, across 5 states in all.

WA
MI
NY
MA
CT

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Connecticut out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $429k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC is better cushioned than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−8% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve4.1mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)2% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $115k on record.

State$115k
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top programs
  • Pass thru Grant Non-State$88k
  • State Aid Grants$28k

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 ELI WHITNEY 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 Connecticut

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

95% of spending goes to programs.

Program 95%Management 5%Fundraising 0%

Governance

17
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

89%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CT

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ELI WHITNEY 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.

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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 ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC?
ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $863,108 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($353,875). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC have?
IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $863,108 in grants to ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $353,875 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM INC 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 Eli Whitney 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 21 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