Vermont · Nonprofit
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC (Vermont) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $41,350 to it, the largest being THOMAS THOMPSON TRUST ($15,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $85k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $41k
- Net assets
- $709k
What Historical Society of Windham County Inc does
Mission
The mission of HSWC is to stimulate interest of present and future generations in the history of Windham County, Vermont, and its several townships, and to acquire a more intimate knowledge of the methods, customs, hardships, and triumphs of its present ancestry. HSWC currently achieves its mission through two museums, the new Windham County History Museum (in the 1825 Jail Building) officially opened May 31, 2025, and the West River Railroad Museum, as well as a Resource & Genealogy Center (in the former brick County Museum) which are all open to the public without charge, and where exhibits and resources share the history of Windham County, Vermont with people of all ages from near and far. The Society houses and maintains collections relating to Windham County and makes them available for exhibitions, educational programs, and events. It sells a limited number of mission-related items at its museums and on-line.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The new COUNTY JAIL MUSEUM: This newest program service is located just steps from HSWC's West River Railroad Museum and County Museum at the heart of Newfane Village. It is planned to be open in spring 2025 and admission will be free of charge. The new Museum will interpret the history of the Windham County Jail and offer additional exhibitions telling the stories of the people of Windham County. It will offer long-awaited additional space to showcase more of HSWC's collections and to interpret the history of the people and towns of Windham County.
$127,475 spentof which $25,000 as grants$118,880 earned by the program80% of program spendingThe County Museum of the HSWC: It is located on Rte 30 (Main Street) in Newfane, VT. It is staffed part-time by a salaried Curator and an Associate Curator and is open to the public free of charge three afternoons a week (from 12 to 5 on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays) from late May through mid-October. The County Museum serves as a repository for the HSWC's significant collections of historic objects and archives relating to Windham County, Vermont. The public is invited to use museum resources for personal research on regularly open days or by appointment. The Museum offers genealogy research services. The Museum includes a mini-museum store where mission-related items such as postcards, notecards, pictures, and publications focused on Windham County history are made available for purchase. Profits from these sales, as well as from donations left by visitors, support the museum's operations. The County Museum is a primary educational resource for students, educators, researchers and the general public. The Society's archives include materials dating from the 17th-21st centuries. Books, journals, photographs, maps scrapbooks, documents and other primary resources are…
$23,707 spent15% of program spendingEducational Outreach services including archives and exhibits, a newsletter sent out three times a year, organizational website (www.historicalsocietyofwindhamcounty.org) and educational events and programs.
$4,765 spent3% of program spendingTHE WEST RIVER RAILROAD MUSEUM: The HSWC extended its scope in the Fall of 2014, when it purchased the old 1880 Newfane Railroad Station and its Water Tank House. The Society saved the buildings, including what is thought to be the last surviving Water Tank House in the State, from total deterioration. The West River Railroad Museum opened to the public in 2017 after undergoing three years of restoration work. For this achievement, the Vermont Historical Society awarded HSWC an "Award of Excellence in Historic Preservation". The Museum, staffed by volunteer docents, is open to the public free of charge, 12-4 PM, on weekends from late May through mid-October. It offers young and old alike tours of the two restored buildings, as well as the opportunity for rides on the old tracks on a manually-operated railroad hand cart. HSWC possesses an extensive collection of artifacts, photographs, manuscripts and oral histories related to the West River Railroad. The restored station and its exhibits provide a visual and accessible presentation and an interdisciplinary learning experience examining Windham County from the late 19th century leading up to World War II. The widespread appeal of…
$3,900 spent2% of program spendingMini-Museum Stores: Located in the two current museums which sell mission-related items such as postcards, notecards, photos, and publications. Profits benefit museum programs.
$16 spent$773 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $159,863.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2023 to 2024, from $723k to $700k (−3%).
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: 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 3 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
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 WINDHAM COUNTY INC’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 WINDHAM COUNTY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
40% 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 WINDHAM COUNTY INC.
“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.
Where its funders are
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Vermont, across 2 states in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 WINDHAM COUNTY INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,242 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Government funding HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $18k on record.
- Grants to Municipalities$8k
- Other Grants$7k
- Grants$3k
- Other Purchased Services$250
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 WINDHAM COUNTY 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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
97% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
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 WINDHAM COUNTY 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 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC?
- HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC (Vermont) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $41,350 to it, the largest being THOMAS THOMPSON TRUST ($15,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $41,350 in grants to HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC.
- Who is the largest funder of HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC?
- THOMAS THOMPSON TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $15,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WINDHAM COUNTY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 2023–2025), and the filings of 4 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