Texas · Nonprofit
HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM
HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM (Texas) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,128,067 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($350,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $545k
What Houston Maritime Museum does
Mission
Houston Maritime Museum's mission is: to navigate houston's origin and maritime connection to the world through exhibit, education and and experience.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Houston Maritime Museum, dba as houston maritime center, was founded by james "jim" l. Manzolillo whose incredible experiences and extensive personal collection of maritime artifacts and ship models set anchor to his dream. As a world war ii merchant marine veteran, naval architect, mechanical engineer, ship builder, and lecturer for cunard cruise lines, jim's vision was realized when the Houston Maritime Museum opened in may 2000. Over two decades the collection has grown extensively to cover the world of maritime history and culture from the early phoenicians to world war ii to the modern energy industry. Museum highlights include a large aerial map and interactive exhibit of the houston ship channel detailing its many facilities and landmarks, the texas navy theater with seating for 15 persons, an exhibit on the history of buffalo bayou and commanding models of ships that traverse the world moving millions of tons of goods in and out of the port of houston annually.
$521,892 spent$23,006 earned by the program100% of program spendingThroughout the year houston maritime center offers a series of lectures on three distinct maritime-related topics: history, industry and environmental. Subject matter experts, industry veterans, and for some presentations joint panelists delve into these matters exploring local, regional, national, and international areas of interest. Started in 2004, our history lecture series is the museum's longest-running educational program. Past lecture topics include lessons learned from the exxon valdez, the history of brown shipbuilding, offshore wind, the jones act, sea monsters on renaissance maps, oyster conservation, and texas shipwrecks among many others. For 2024, lecture topics included underwater pipeline safety, hurricane predictions and preparedness, nuclear power in the maritime industry, and the history of the battleship uss texas. A special presentation, "finding the virgo," at the hobby center, featured the story of lauren vuong and her family's rescue by a liquified natural gas tanker ship as they fled vietnam.
Houston maritime center hosts several major annual events that connect industry and the community. Each event ranges in size from 40 to 250+ attendees/participants including monthly family days, presentations, panel discussions, networking, and museum tours. Each year we serve to create awareness, engage, and educate the public about how significant the houston ship channel and maritime industry are to houston's evolution and how both have fostered growth, opportunity, and prosperity for the entire state of texas and beyond.
Houston maritime center & museum conducts guided tours for student groups ranging in age from primary school through university from houston and all its surrounding metro areas. These students come from public and private schools and include a large constituency of home school groups throughout texas. Both guided tours and general admissions from the public at large engage hmcm visitors of all ages from special interest groups, maritime professionals and retirees, active military personnel and veterans, to tourists and those passionate about all things maritime from around the world. Many tours include stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) /steam (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) principles. Special tours are also offered for a myriad of topics including the houston ship channel and houston's place in the global maritime world, the role of government in maritime development, maritime navigation, nathaniel bowditch, careers in the maritime sector, and life aboard ships. Hmcm also hosts free monthly family day events engaging the local community and families in maritime-themed crafts, experiences, and educational activities. Guided tours,…
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $521,892.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $253k to $2.3M (+821%).
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: 2020 0% · 2021 34% · 2022 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 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.
Board chair
Sara Howell
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $51k → $107k.
3 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM’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
HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 99% · 2019 42% · 2020 57% · 2021 35% · 2022 19% · 2023 29% — 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
45% of HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 37% 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
98% of HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $219k 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
HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
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 HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM: 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 HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM?
- HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM (Texas) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,128,067 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($350,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $1,128,067 in grants to HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM?
- HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $350,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HOUSTON MARITIME MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Houston Maritime Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 27 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