Washington · Nonprofit
GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION
GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION (Washington) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,780,924 to it, the largest being GREATER TACOMA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($3,584,300). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $814k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $3.8M
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What George Weyerhaeuser Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection does
Mission
Pacific bonsai museum inspires a closer look at nature through the living art of bonsai. We create opportunities to experience the powerful presence of bonsai and be moved to cultivate a more intentional relationship with nature. Through the presentation of thought-provoking exhibitions that embrace innovation as well as tradition, pacific bonsai museum engages a diverse community and serves as a living repository of cultural heritage.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Collections: we remain an "admission by donation" museum ensuring equitable access for everyone in our community. Pacific bonsai museum stewards a collection of 150 bonsai that are among the finest examples of bonsai anywhere in the world. One of only two museums in the united states solely dedicated to bonsai and one of only a handful of bonsai museums worldwide. Pacific bonsai maintains a collection of 150 bonsai which rotate regularly when new exhibitions are mounted. The collection is also the most geographically diverse bonsai collections in the united states, with trees from canada, china, japan, korea, taiwan and the united states featuring 60 trees on exhibit at a given time. Open to the public six days a week, this cultural gem offers contemporary and traditional bonsai exhibitions, groups tours, education programs, field trips and public events.
$422,825 spent$16,411 earned by the program70% of program spendingExhibitions & innovation: small talk brings the material of textbooks to life with 41 living trees. Through anime-inspired illustrations of miniature trees, emojis, and lighthearted, text-like exchanges, the exhibition bridges the gap between textbook stem education and real-world fun. From "thirst alerts" to "sunlight status updates and "pruning notifications," small talk answers common, botanically-oriented questions about bonsai in the format of a chat. This exhibition will include interactive stations, where you can try your hand at bonsai wiring and sift through the bonsai's special soil.
$82,017 spent14% of program spendingPublic programs: we partnered with puget sound bonsai association to bring bonsaifest! To the museum, a free community event focused on learning about the art of bonsai and furthering our mission of connecting people to nature through the living art of bonsai. Bonsai winter solstice event, a free community featuring a quiet stroll in the woods to explore bonsai illuminated by soft lights. We held summer bonsai solstice in june, an open-house style, free community event featuring taichi, live demonstrations and an opportunity to view the collection. Events were free and open to the public.
$97,841 spent16% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $602,683.
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 2017 to 2018, from $2.5M to $2.2M (−9%).
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: 2021 22% · 2023 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 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
Pat Bako
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income fell $605k → $408k.
6 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 97% 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 GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION’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
GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 95% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder 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 GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 96% · 2020 98% · 2021 94% · 2022 92% · 2023 94% — 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
50% of GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
97% of GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION'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 $124k that is directly attributable, 78% of it comes from funders outside Washington, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.7M 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.
Against its field
GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $3.8M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Asset Stewardship Foundation · exempt
- Greater Tacoma Community Foundation · exempt
- Charitable Remainder Trust · corp_trust
- Charitable Lead Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION: 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 GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION?
- GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION (Washington) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,780,924 to it, the largest being GREATER TACOMA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($3,584,300). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 97% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $3,780,924 in grants to GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION?
- GREATER TACOMA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,584,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GEORGE WEYERHAEUSER PACIFIC RIM BONSAI COLLECTION 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 George Weyerhaeuser Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection →
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 16 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