California · Nonprofit
Heritage Museum of Orange County
Heritage Museum of Orange County (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $101,658 to it, the largest being NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT CORPORATION ($69,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $579k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $102k
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What Heritage Museum of Orange County does
Mission
Dedicated to preserving, promoting, and restoring the heritage of Orange County and the surrounding region through quality hands-on educational programs for students and visitors of all ages.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
We continue to enhance our programming to accommodate the California education standards in Social Studies, English, Performing Arts, and Sciences. We managed to grow our newest programs: "Exploration and Technology," aimed at 5th grade students to meet the required Social Studies and Science Standards, and D.I.R.T (Delicious, Indigeneous, Riparian, Treats), aimed at kindergarten through 2nd grade students and hosted in our natural environment. We offer additional preschool and early education literacy programs, a children's garden, and agricultural and ecological learning opportunities. We turned our strategic vision to offer programs for secondary students and a true strategic plan. We hosted high school students onsite to learn Organizational Management, Docent Skills, and Archival Methodology. We continued our People's History of OC Summer Program with local high school History Departments, where students are able to delve into their own personal history and appreciate cultural diversity. With the launch of our "Unknown Histories" mural project, we were able to welcome more high school students onsite to learn directly from community members and then interpret their oral…
$467,059 spent$222,132 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $467,059.
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 $2.0M to $2.4M (+20%).
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: 2020 1% · 2021 85% · 2022 5% · 2023 21% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
37% of Heritage Museum of Orange County’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Candace Chromy
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $17k → $36k.
2 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 Heritage Museum of Orange County’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
Heritage Museum of Orange County leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
75% 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 Heritage Museum of Orange County.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 59% · 2021 73% · 2022 86% · 2023 97% — 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.
Where its funders are
96% of Heritage Museum of Orange County's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Heritage Museum of Orange County's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 3 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Heritage Museum of Orange County receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25k on record.
- Department of the Interior$25k
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 Heritage Museum of Orange County
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
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 Heritage Museum of Orange County: 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 Heritage Museum of Orange County?
- Heritage Museum of Orange County (California) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $101,658 to it, the largest being NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT CORPORATION ($69,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Heritage Museum of Orange County have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $101,658 in grants to Heritage Museum of Orange County, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Heritage Museum of Orange County?
- NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $69,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Heritage Museum of Orange County find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Heritage Museum of Orange County →
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 7 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