Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,642,751 to it, the largest being HEIZMANN LEWIS J TRUST UW ($430,345). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $632k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Historical Society of Berks County does
Mission
Berks history center leads the way in telling the unique story of berks county & its diverse people, with the aim of building an inclusive understanding of our impact on national history, strengthening our community & inspiring audiences now & in the future.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Historic preservation and exhibiting of 3 dimentional artifacts that depicts the historic legacy of berks county. The preservation of historic records relating to berks county with the intent of making them available to the community and those that visit from all 50 states and abroad. The berks history center provides educational opportunities for all ages relating to the history and culture of berks county and its people, carried out through a diverse selection of programs, museum exhibits, its library, and its quarterly journal.
$580,481 spent$151,229 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $580,481.
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 2022 to 2023, from $8.9M to $10M (+13%).
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 3% · 2018 7% · 2019 3% · 2020 2% · 2021 14% · 2022 25% · 2023 1% · 2024 2% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
47% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS 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. 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
Benjamin Neely
Exec. Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $85k → $176k.
5 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS 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
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
39% 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 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 62% · 2019 54% · 2020 55% · 2021 39% · 2022 75% · 2023 79% — 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
60% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 83% 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
89% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $636k 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
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS 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 Pennsylvania
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
87%
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 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS 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 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY?
- HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,642,751 to it, the largest being HEIZMANN LEWIS J TRUST UW ($430,345). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $1,642,751 in grants to HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY?
- HEIZMANN LEWIS J TRUST UW is the largest funder on record, with $430,345 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BERKS COUNTY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Historical Society of Berks 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 18 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