New Mexico · Nonprofit
EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC
EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC (New Mexico) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,480,231 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,599,869). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 501 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 501 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Brindle Foundationshared fundersportfolio match
- Anchorum St Vincentshared funders
- Association of Children's Museums Incportfolio match
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.
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 43% · 2018 40% · 2019 31% · 2020 41% · 2021 86% · 2022 77% · 2023 51% · 2024 41% · 2025 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
71% of EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $110k → $396k.
12 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 funders by total. 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
EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
25% 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 EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 40% · 2019 39% · 2020 17% · 2021 12% · 2022 55% · 2023 29% — 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
47% of EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside New Mexico, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $586k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 49 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Brindle Foundationshared fundersportfolio matchNM · backs 48 organizations that share your funders · its grantees resemble your mission
- Anchorum St Vincentshared fundersNM · backs 48 organizations that share your funders
- Association of Children's Museums Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Scratch Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Broadcom Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- nVent Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- New Mexico Fund for Women and Girlsshared funderslocalNM · backs 29 organizations that share your funders · funds 23 organizations near you
- New Mexico Community Foundationshared fundersNM · backs 93 organizations that share your funders
- Con Alma Health Foundation Incshared fundersNM · backs 106 organizations that share your funders
- Thornburg Foundationshared fundersNM · backs 76 organizations that share your funders
- The Frost Foundationshared fundersNM · backs 59 organizations that share your funders
- The Taos Community Foundation Incshared fundersNM · backs 32 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.2M on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$2.5M
- Department of Defense$1.1M
- National Science Foundation$299k
- Department of Agriculture$200k
- Environmental Protection Agency$100k
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 EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In New Mexico
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Explora Educational Development Ll · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC?
- EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC (New Mexico) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,480,231 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,599,869). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $5,480,231 in grants to EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,599,869 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EXPLORA SCIENCE CENTER & CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ALBUQUERQUE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Mexico. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 49funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing