New York · Nonprofit
FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,606,605 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($1,401,350). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $3.6M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Finger Lakes Cultural & Natural History Museum does
Mission
The organization's mission is to inspire appreciation and celebrate the cultures and ecology of the vast finger lakes region.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The Saunders Finger Lakes Museum maintains a strong presence in its immediate and regional communities. The organization receives significant support from volunteers, businesses, foundations, and private donors from across the Finger Lakes region. The Museum Staff and Board of Trustees oversee the programming/experiences, operations, capital fundraising, and the major construction project (new exhibit building) throughout the year. The expenses incurred are to build the new exhibit building, carry out new and maintain existing programs/experiences, enhance existing campus assets and amenities, and cover day-to-day operations and capital campaign work.
$624,196 spent$23,595 earned by the program100% of program spendingThe Saunders Finger Lakes Museum (SFLM) focused on the following efforts throughout 2024: capital project construction and consultants, programs/experiences, and campus assets. 1) Capital Project - Under the supervision of the construction management team, the new main exhibit building structure was erected with foundations, infrastructure, steel framing, roof, insulation and exterior weatherization, interior framing, and partial in-ground utilities. 2) Capital Project Consultants - a) Landscape Architecture and Civil Engineering Consultants - finalized plaza features surrounding the new Exhibit building and developed full site plans for site entrances, walkways, parking, and landscaping. b) Exhibit Design Teams provided conceptual designs for phase 2 - Backscape work and supported the campaign efforts with graphics and videos showcasing the exhibits in the new exhibit building. c) Architectural Teams performed ongoing construction supervision to ensure structure was being built to the specifications outlined. Minimal change orders were issued during work performed in 2024.
The SFLM installed a new, EZ Dock/Launch along the shore of Sugar Creek which runs through the museum's campus. This new EZ Dock features an easy-to-use ADA transfer bench and drive-through launch that allows people with disabilities, children, or seniors to feel confident in transferring into their watercraft independently and provides extra stability when launching and docking. This dock also has a curbing feature that provides a safe border around the dock edges for wheelchairs. This dock provided incredible ease for paddlers of all ages! The Museum also installed automatic locking systems at its Creekside restroom facilities with seasonal timed access from 7am7pm. This new feature ensured that the new public restrooms were consistently open when residents, visitors, and program participants needed them most. This approach made the new launch and overall facilities a sought after destination for individuals who enjoy paddling on their own time and with their own boats. Along with the enhancements at the Creekside Center, the Museum's main campus had on display its outdoor 11 Lakes exhibit (an exhibit highlighting key cultural and natural history stories from each of the 11…
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $624,196.
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 2022 to 2023, from $6.0M to $10M (+73%).
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 48% · 2019 8% · 2020 12% · 2021 0% · 2024 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Leslie Connolly
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $100 → $473k.
7 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM’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
FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 59% · 2019 93% · 2020 61% · 2021 87% · 2022 81% · 2023 54% — 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
60% of FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 85% 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
63% of FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.3M that is directly attributable, 98% of it comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M 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.
Against its field
FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.0M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$2.0M
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 FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM: 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 FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM?
- FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,606,605 to it, the largest being THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($1,401,350). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $3,606,605 in grants to FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM?
- THE AYCO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,401,350 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FINGER LAKES CULTURAL & NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Finger Lakes Cultural & Natural History Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 13 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