Delaware · Nonprofit
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE (Delaware) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,155,675 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($1,123,140). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Laffey-McHugh Foundationshared funderslocal
- Maryland Historical Society Incportfolio match
- Greater Hudson Heritage Networkportfolio match
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.
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% · 2018 8% · 2019 10% · 2020 10% · 2021 28% · 2022 35% · 2023 36% · 2024 24% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
52% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE’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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $140k → $265k.
6 of 33 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 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% 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
35% 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 DELAWARE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 60% · 2019 40% · 2020 32% · 2021 30% · 2022 40% · 2023 28% — 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
54% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE draws 76% of its grant income from funders outside Delaware, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $783k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 33 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Laffey-McHugh Foundationshared funderslocalDE · backs 165 organizations that share your funders · funds 170 organizations near you
- Maryland Historical Society Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Greater Hudson Heritage Networkportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The William G Pomeroy Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in Americaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolutionportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Maryland Humanities Council Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- General Society of Colonial Warsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Historical Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Virginia Historical Societyportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnatiportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $738k on record.
- National Archives and Records Administration$395k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$225k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$119k
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 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Delaware
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE?
- HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE (Delaware) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,155,675 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($1,123,140). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $3,155,675 in grants to HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,123,140 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Delaware. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 33funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing