Minnesota · Nonprofit
HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY (Minnesota) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,396,476 to it, the largest being RMW FOUNDATION ($968,840). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.8M
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $2.4M
- Net assets
- $43M
What Hill Museum & Manuscript Library does
Mission
Preserving and sharing the world's handwritten past to inspire a deeper understanding of our present and future. The organization's purpose is to digitally preserve endangered manuscripts. Once the digital images are acquired, duplicates are created for archival storage. The collections are catalogued to identify them and then made available online for scholarship.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Access refers to the processes by which hmml makes its collections (digital images of manuscript collections received from its preservation sites) accessible online free of charge. When received from the preservation sites, hard drives of digital images are harvested and organized to consistent standards for tracking purposes; scanned for malware; and backed-up for onsite and offsite archiving. Every digital image is rotated to upright position, assigned an identifying file name, and prepped for access in hmml's online reading room (https://www.vhmml.org/readingroom ). In fy25, a total of 1,039,166 images were received from hmml's preservation partners, which then were organized, and prepared for online access. At the end of fy25 the total number of manuscripts with descriptions available online in hmml reading room was 155,504; and there were 9,978 registered users of hmml reading room. The digital images are first made available to hmml's cataloging staff to create descriptions suitable for online discoverability. The catalogers' work makes each manuscript discoverable by uniform and alternate titles, author(s), and language. At the end of fy25 descriptions of 156,157…
$1,017,312 spent$19,503 earned by the program63% of program spendingAcademic programming is one way in which hill museum and manuscript library (hmml) shares its collections. Programs include online and in-person courses, internships and fellowships, lectures, exhibitions, and travel opportunities to preservation sites. In fy25, 1) 11 fellowships funded by hmml were awarded to visiting scholars; 2) 30 people participated in the 'winter school in archival studies' program (december 2024); 3) 15 people participated in a two-week online 'introduction to arabic manuscript studies' program; and 4) in partnership with dumbarton oaks research library (washington, dc) 18 people participated in two in-person summer school language programs at hmml, one focused on the geez language and the other on syriac language; 5) a total of 182 requests were received for digital copies of 307 manuscripts. Two on-site and two virtual exhibitions were created featuring manuscripts, rare books, and art pieces from hmml's collections, curated by staff and undergraduate student employees. The goal of all academic programming is to engage audiences with hmml's mission through its collections.
$356,541 spent$67,093 earned by the program22% of program spendingPreservation is the core of hmml's mission. Hmml establishes partnerships with institutional and private libraries throughout the world to digitize their manuscript holdings, archive the digital data, catalog the manuscripts, and share them online. There is a particular emphasis on manuscript collections in danger of being lost or destroyed due to war, natural disaster, or human neglect. Once a project has been agreed, hmml provides the equipment for digitization studios, the training needed to capture the manuscript images, and financial support for the digitization operations. Projects vary in duration depending on size and condition of the collections, working conditions, and factors related to the location of the project. In fy25, hmml had active projects in bosnia, egypt, india, iraq, italy, lebanon, malta, mauritania, montenegro, nepal, pakistan, slovenia, the united kingdom, and yemen. (a project in gaza was suspended due to war.) a large portion of preservation costs are capitalized as the creation of digital images. In fy25, that represented $477,882 of preservation expenses. The goal is to preserve the voices of the past to help us make wise decisions now and in the…
$251,901 spent15% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,625,754.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2024, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2024, 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 2024 to 2025, from $41M to $43M (+4%).
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.
45% of HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 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
Columba Andrew Stewart
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Keyna Skeffington
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $62k → $256k.
8 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 23 of 25 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
HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 39% · 2019 33% · 2020 55% · 2021 59% · 2022 75% · 2023 55% — broadly stable.
“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
36% of HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
66% of HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $291k 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
HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 27 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Saint John's University · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY: 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 HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY?
- HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY (Minnesota) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,396,476 to it, the largest being RMW FOUNDATION ($968,840). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $2,396,476 in grants to HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY?
- RMW FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $968,840 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Hill Museum & Manuscript Library →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2024–2025), and the filings of 25 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