New Jersey · Nonprofit
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON (New Jersey) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $396,226 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($141,801). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $396k
- Net assets
- $8.3M
What Historical Society of Princeton does
Mission
The society preserves and interprets princeton's history through educational programming that uses its historic sites, collections, and exhibits to connect the past to contemporary issues and community life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Historical Society of Princeton (hsp) maintained and interpreted its historic farmstead and completed restoration of the wagon shed in 2025. The museum welcomed 513 visitors during the year. The society offered 18 outreach programs and 109 tours. Virtual outreach programs and online exhibitions reached 1,027 participants. School programs served 707 local students. Public programs and lectures reached 1,792 attendees, and walking tours included 1,851 participants. Hsp also responded to 162 research inquiries. The public accessed the society's digital collections 13,775 times, and hsp added three new acquisitions to its collections. These activities advance hsp's mission by preserving and interpreting princeton's history and making it accessible to diverse audiences.
$640,398 spent$133,442 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $640,398.
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 2021 to 2022, from $8.1M to $7.5M (−7%).
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 9% · 2018 12% · 2019 14% · 2020 33% · 2021 24% · 2022 15% · 2023 14% · 2024 18% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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 held at 6 funders, grant income fell $60k → $37k.
3 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 PRINCETON’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 PRINCETON leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
63% 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 PRINCETON.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 40% · 2019 37% · 2020 35% · 2021 32% · 2022 62% · 2023 65% — 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
35% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
55% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $180k that is directly attributable, 52% of it comes from funders outside New Jersey, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $216k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 PRINCETON runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $87k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$87k
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 PRINCETON
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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
38%
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 PRINCETON: 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 PRINCETON?
- HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON (New Jersey) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $396,226 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($141,801). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $396,226 in grants to HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $141,801 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PRINCETON find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 Princeton →
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 23 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