Washington · Nonprofit
HUMANITIES WASHINGTON
HUMANITIES WASHINGTON (Washington) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,656,521 to it, the largest being FEDERATION OF STATE HUMANITIES COUNCILS ($370,486). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $1.7M
- Net assets
- $2.1M
What Humanities Washington does
Mission
Humanities Washington (hw) opens minds and bridges divides by creating spaces to explore different perspectives. We envision a state where all people seek a deeper understanding of others, themselves, and the human experience, in order to discern and promote the common good.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Family reading: hw supports the statewide delivery of prime time family reading, prime time preschool, and prime time boxes, promoting family engagement, preparing students for academic success, creating family bonds, and connecting communities to their libraries. In 2024, hw sponsored 67 six-week family reading programs at libraries, schools, and other youth-serving organizations in all corners of the state, benefiting nearly 3,100 children and their caregivers. Participants demonstrated improved confidence around reading, with 91% increasing the amount of time they read together, 90% experiencing positive changes in attitudes toward reading, and 98% more likely to use library services.
$878,742 spent39% of program spendingSpeakers bureau: drawing from a vetted pool of leading cultural experts and scholars, hw's speakers bureau provides conversational lectures that are free and open to the public. Topics are as diverse as the communities they serve, with 39 speakers covering history, politics, music, philosophy, and more. In 2024, over 9,700 people attended 335 presentations. Participants overwhelmingly indicated that events sparked meaningful conversations and helped them consider new perspectives.
$364,556 spent16% of program spendingCultural traditions: folklife and traditional arts are expressions of peoples' heritage and are critical to cultural communities' health and well-being. In 2024, hw's heritage arts apprenticeship program served 16 master/apprentice groups, preserving important cultural traditions and providing mentorship and job skills to emerging practitioners. In addition, work began on an archival project that will merge three significant collections of materials documenting decades of washington state's folk and traditional arts, making them accessible to the public.
$360,665 spent16% of program spending4d. Other program services: live events engage and inspire audiences with context and new perspectives from scholars on current events; washington state poet laureate builds awareness of and appreciation for the rich legacy of poetry in washington state; and a grants program provides financial resources for citizens to engage with ideas and issues through the lens of the humanities. More information on all programs and accomplishments can be found at www.humanities.org.
$667,117 spentof which $25,000 as grants29% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,271,080.
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 $1.9M to $2.8M (+46%).
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 72% · 2018 66% · 2019 78% · 2020 78% · 2021 92% · 2022 86% · 2023 89% · 2024 89%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of HUMANITIES WASHINGTON’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. 4 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.
Chief executive
Julie Ziegler
CEO/executive director
Board chair
Mark Miyake
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 11 funders to 8 funders, grant income fell $139k → $102k.
6 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 HUMANITIES WASHINGTON’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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
HUMANITIES WASHINGTON has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
41% 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 HUMANITIES WASHINGTON.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 23% · 2019 22% · 2020 29% · 2021 22% · 2022 16% · 2023 20% — 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
25% of HUMANITIES WASHINGTON's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
HUMANITIES WASHINGTON draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $205k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
HUMANITIES WASHINGTON is better cushioned than half of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding HUMANITIES WASHINGTON receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $12.0M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$11.7M
- National Endowment for the Arts$225k
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 HUMANITIES WASHINGTON
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 HUMANITIES WASHINGTON: 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 HUMANITIES WASHINGTON?
- HUMANITIES WASHINGTON (Washington) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,656,521 to it, the largest being FEDERATION OF STATE HUMANITIES COUNCILS ($370,486). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HUMANITIES WASHINGTON have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $1,656,521 in grants to HUMANITIES WASHINGTON, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HUMANITIES WASHINGTON?
- FEDERATION OF STATE HUMANITIES COUNCILS is the largest funder on record, with $370,486 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HUMANITIES WASHINGTON find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 41 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