Texas · Nonprofit
Houston Museum of Natural Science
Houston Museum of Natural Science (Texas) receives grants from 184 organizations whose IRS filings report $84,236,347 to it, the largest being The Cockrell Foundation ($11,786,784). 105 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $48M
- Funders on record
- 184
- Grants received
- $84M
- Net assets
- $254M
What Houston Museum of Natural Science does
Mission
The mission of the Houston Museum of Natural Science shall be to preserve and advance the general knowledge of natural science; to enhance in individuals the knowledge of and delight in natural science and related subjects; and to maintain and promote a museum of the first class.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Since its establishment in 1909, the Houston Museum of Natural Science has served as a valuable resource for the Houston community, offering extensive collections, exciting interactive exhibits, immersive environments, engaging films, compelling traveling exhibitions, and comprehensive classroom experiences. See Schedule O.- In its permanent venues - drawing from its diverse collections of over 1.5 million objects - the Museum provides visitors with opportunities to expand their knowledge of anthropology, malacology, mineralogy, paleontology, entomology, chemistry, physics, biology, and other disciplines. - The 400-seat Wortham Giant Screen Theatre presents relevant and entertaining films covering a wide variety of scientific topics. The Burke Baker Planetarium provides state-of-the-art, immersive learning adventures in astronomy and related subject matter. - The Cockrell Butterfly Center is a living rain forest, allowing visitors to observe plants and insects and learn their roles in a natural ecosystem. - The George Observatory in Brazos Bend State Park is a direct link to the planets and stars, giving visitors the opportunity to stargaze with a variety of telescopes, including…
$33,509,327 spent$25,584,451 earned by the program92% of program spendingThe Museum's educational efforts are aimed at children and adults alike. Through hands-on interactive opportunities such as summer camps, field trips, outreach programming, teacher trainings, lecture series, and curator-led travel opportunities the Museum seeks to provide an inspirational learning environment that promotes scientific inquiry as a mode of thinking and engages the public in the wonders of science.
$3,071,385 spentof which $8,000 as grants$2,761,732 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $36,580,712.
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 2020 to 2021, from $243M to $286M (+18%).
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 1% · 2021 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of Houston Museum of Natural Science’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Randa Duncan Williams
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 47 funders to 89 funders, grant income rose $5.7M → $18M.
17 of 184 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $7.5M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Houston Arts Alliance). These are real filings, and they are not money Houston Museum of Natural Science raised.
From the IRS filings of Houston Museum of Natural Science’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 184 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
Houston Museum of Natural Science has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 27% · 2019 22% · 2020 16% · 2021 18% · 2022 17% · 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
48% of Houston Museum of Natural Science's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
100% of Houston Museum of Natural Science's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $13M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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 Museum of Natural Science's funding base is broadening — from 47 funders to 89 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like Houston Museum of Natural Science
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
54%
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 Museum of Natural Science: 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 Museum of Natural Science?
- Houston Museum of Natural Science (Texas) receives grants from 184 organizations whose IRS filings report $84,236,347 to it, the largest being The Cockrell Foundation ($11,786,784). 105 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Houston Museum of Natural Science have?
- IRS filings report 184 organizations giving $84,236,347 in grants to Houston Museum of Natural Science, 105 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Houston Museum of Natural Science?
- The Cockrell Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $11,786,784 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Houston Museum of Natural Science 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 Museum of Natural Science →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 184 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing