Washington · Nonprofit
FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT
FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT (Washington) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,609,300 to it, the largest being THE BAMFORD FOUNDATION ($505,618). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $720k
What Foss Waterway Seaport does
Mission
The mission of the Foss Waterway Seaport is to celebrate tacoma's rich maritime heritage - past, present and future.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Foss Waterway Seaport is puget sound's maritime heritage, education, and event center where families, groups and communities come to discover, explore, work, and play. The Foss Waterway Seaport celebrates tacoma's rich maritime heritage- past, present and future. It is located on the waterfront in a century-old wooden wheat warehouse built for cargo arriving by rail and departing by sail ("where rails meet sails") during the early years of tacoma. Activities include maritime heritage exhibits, heritage boat shop, land- and boat-based education, event rental space and guest boat moorage.
$3,371,580 spent$514,894 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,371,580.
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 $6.8M to $3.1M (−54%).
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 2% · 2018 0% · 2019 40% · 2020 20% · 2021 53% · 2022 5% · 2023 23% · 2024 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
J Brent Mason
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $143k → $557k.
4 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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
FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 63% · 2019 33% · 2020 46% · 2021 18% · 2022 33% · 2023 26% — 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
54% of FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% 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
77% of FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $76k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 21 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
72%
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 FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT: 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 FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT?
- FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT (Washington) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,609,300 to it, the largest being THE BAMFORD FOUNDATION ($505,618). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $2,609,300 in grants to FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT?
- THE BAMFORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $505,618 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOSS WATERWAY SEAPORT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Foss Waterway Seaport →
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 43 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