Kansas · Nonprofit
ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Kansas) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,070,980 to it, the largest being ROBERT E AND PATRICIA SCHMIDT FOUNDATION ($835,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $736k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What Ellis County Historical Society does
Mission
Collect, display, and appropriately preserve items that illustrate the history of ellis county; to identify and appropriately preserve historical sites within the county and to enable the people of ellis county to share in the responsibility of preserving the historical evidence of the people of the region.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Museum:admissions totaled about 2,000. Permanent exhibits in the museum total around 30. There are also a couple of new and temporary exhibits each year. The estimated value of the collection is in excess of $1,000,000 not including archival documents. The museum houses more than 100,000 artifacts.
$126,237 spent51% of program spendingArchives/research/education:the archives has nearly 18,000 indexed obituaries, around 10,000 non-indexed obituaries, and over 100,000 photographs and negatives. The archives also holds over 1,500 books. There are more than 98,000 lines indexed on the archive index plus around 25,000 photos indexed. As in the past, they received numerous requests for information, through contact by telephone, regular mail, e-mail and in person. Responses were provided by staff to all interested parties.
$98,875 spent40% of program spendingSpecial projects/events:activities/projects/events during the year were as follows. Pioneer day was held again to present history for area school children. In connection with fort hays state univeristy, there was a heritage harvest. Continue to put on various activities in and around the annual oktoberfest, with the society offering various historical programming. There is also the annual christmas open house, "a volga german christmas".
$23,631 spent10% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $248,743.
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.
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 $1.2M to $1.8M (+49%).
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 56% · 2018 75% · 2019 71% · 2020 73% · 2021 54% · 2022 23% · 2023 17% · 2024 16% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $11k → $428k.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY’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
ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 78% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 91% · 2018 100% · 2019 83% · 2020 100% · 2021 95% · 2022 85% · 2023 82% — 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.
Where its funders are
100% of ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from Kansas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $205k 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.
Organizations like ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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 Kansas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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 ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Kansas) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,070,980 to it, the largest being ROBERT E AND PATRICIA SCHMIDT FOUNDATION ($835,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $1,070,980 in grants to ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- ROBERT E AND PATRICIA SCHMIDT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $835,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ELLIS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kansas. 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 Ellis County Historical Society →
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 7 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