Wisconsin · Nonprofit
HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC
HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $538,220 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($111,500). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $543k
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $538k
- Net assets
- $229k
What Historic Milwaukee Inc does
Mission
Historic milwaukee, inc (hmi) is a private, non-profit educational organization, founded in 1974, whose mission is dedicated to increasing awareness of, and commitment to milwaukee's history, architecture, and the preservation of our built environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Since 1974, historic milwaukee, inc. Has been dedicated to increasing awareness and commitment to milwaukee's history, architecture and the built environment. More than 400 hmi volunteers share a love of history, milwaukee's architectural treasures and the future of our city. Hmi draws on more than 50 years of programming expertise to deliver engaging and informative walking tours, lectures, and other educational programs. Trained volunteers deliver our tours. We offer walking tours, student tours and group and private tours. We partner with a boat tour company to staff a tour of the milwaukee river and lake michigan. We are milwaukee's only arts nonprofit operating in the architecture and design sphere and the only nonprofit tour provider.
$264,736 spent$51,460 earned by the program88% of program spendingSpaces & traces was held in may 2025 and celebrated the brewer's hill and harambee neighborhoods. Attendees visited 9 queen anne style properties and learned about architectural styles and what it is like to live in these historic homes.
$4,744 spent$20,556 earned by the program2% of program spendingThe 15th annual doors open welcomed thousands of visitors to explore and tour milwaukee on sept. 27-28th, 2025. With 165 locations open, the program offered extensive tours of architectural and cultural gems. More than 82,800 site visits were recorded and 3,519 attendees took one of 131 doors open tours 64% of attendees visited a neighborhood they were previously unfamiliar with and 72% indicated they would return after doors open.
$30,393 spent$83,758 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $299,873.
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.
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 $377k to $519k (+38%).
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 5% · 2020 21% · 2021 12% · 2022 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $35k → $85k.
6 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
28% 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 HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 26% · 2019 27% · 2020 32% · 2021 25% · 2022 30% · 2023 25% — 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
39% of HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
96% of HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $133k 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.
Government funding HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $168k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$168k
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 HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
59% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC: 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 HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC?
- HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $538,220 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($111,500). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $538,220 in grants to HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC?
- GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $111,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Historic Milwaukee →
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 36 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