Ohio · Nonprofit
FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS
FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS (Ohio) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,160,632 to it, the largest being COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($10,080,358). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $23M
- Funders on record
- 65
- Grants received
- $26M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Franklin County Historical Society Dba Cosi Columbus does
Mission
Advance public understanding of science, technology, energy, environment, health, industry & history
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Quality educational experiences: the organization offered a variety of quality educational experiences for 678,718 guests. These quality educational experiences included cosi exhibits and a variety of programs, including the following: workshops, school field trips, access for economically disadvantaged people, and other events. Early childhood education-children are natural born scientists, exploring and experimenting before they walk or talk. Designed by early childhood education experts, cosi's little kidspace encourages this curiosity, nutures imagination, and promotes learning through hands-on play. Preschool workshops use children's literature to explore familiar topics such as flight and space. Family learning-from the depths of the ocean to the farthest reaches of space, families can play and explore their way through seven permanent exhibit areas. Cosi's exhibits provide a guided tour to family fun with interesting experiments, hands-on activities, and talking points along the way. In addition, family science quests offer a new way to explore cosi by focusing on specific topics like forensics and physics along with our family workshops. Science education…
$23,581,320 spent$13,627,870 earned by the program99% of program spendingCommunity outreach: community outreach includes cosi connects providing content digitally to be consumed anywhere, cosi connects curbside which brings cosi connects to schools and communities. Cosi connects kit distrbutions to schools, libraries, and other organizations.provided science-themed activities for all age levels for 221,679 participants.
$191,724 spent$114,000 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $23,773,044.
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 2021 to 2022, from $24M to $29M (+25%).
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 6% · 2018 5% · 2019 5% · 2020 21% · 2021 44% · 2022 21% · 2023 20% · 2024 13% · 2025 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
38% of FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Frederic M Bertley
President & CEO
Board chair
Monty Ragland
Chair: cosi community board
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $2.5M → $4.0M.
15 of 65 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 65 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
FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
91% 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 FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 33% · 2019 40% · 2020 32% · 2021 50% · 2022 62% · 2023 51% — growing more concentrated.
“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
37% of FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
88% of FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS's funding base is broadening — from 17 funders to 28 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.8M on record.
- National Science Foundation$2.0M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.4M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$800k
- Department of Agriculture$700k
- Department of Defense$669k
- Department of State$110k
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 FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS
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 Ohio
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
95%
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 FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS: 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 FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS?
- FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS (Ohio) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,160,632 to it, the largest being COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ($10,080,358). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS have?
- IRS filings report 65 organizations giving $26,160,632 in grants to FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS, 43 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS?
- COLUMBUS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10,080,358 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA COSI COLUMBUS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Franklin County Historical Society Dba Cosi Columbus →
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 65 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing