Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
Independence Seaport Museum
Independence Seaport Museum (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,404,819 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION ($499,500). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $2.4M
- Net assets
- $18M
What Independence Seaport Museum does
Mission
To discover philadelphia's river of history and world of connections. Serving a wide and diverse audience and holding its collections in trust for the community, the museum tells the stories of the people, historical events and environmental changes of the delaware river and its tributaries. It looks to a broad regional definition of the river to include both philadelphia and camden as well as portions of the southern coast of new jersey and the schuylkill river drainage. The museum is the leading educational organization in the region dedicated to the history and culture of the delaware river and its estuaries. We focus upon building k-16 educational programs that engae students in the rich history of this region as it relates to the waterways in addtion to providng stem and environmental educational opportunities. Our educational mission is to build an understanding of the historical, cultural, and environmental importance of the delaware river watershed. The museum retains a nationa
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Independence Seaport Museum hosted a wide range of programs, events, and activities. Staff undertook the first of numerous changes to upgrade existing exhibitions and programs including the new ship model gallery, integration of its historic boat collection into its existing exhibitions, and environmental upgrades to the facilities. The museum continues to offer its award-winning installation "river alive" as well as the extremely popular exhibition "tides of freedom". The former focuses upon the delaware river and its environment while the latter closely examines the role of african-americans along the river. In addition, the museum operates the cruiser olympia and submarine becuna for the public. Finally, the museum provides extensive on the water educational programming throughout the year.
$4,931,586 spent$609,439 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,931,586.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $28M to $23M (−20%).
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: 2018 2% · 2019 8% · 2020 5% · 2021 32% · 2022 23% · 2024 22% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
23% of Independence Seaport Museum’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 7 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
Peter Seibert
CEO & President
Board chair
Peter Ernst
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $89k → $436k.
8 of 50 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 Independence Seaport Museum’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
Independence Seaport Museum has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 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 Independence Seaport Museum.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 14% · 2018 42% · 2019 26% · 2020 47% · 2021 32% · 2022 22% · 2023 23% — 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
44% of Independence Seaport Museum's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
57% of Independence Seaport Museum's grant income comes from Pennsylvania funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $452k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
Independence Seaport Museum's funding base is broadening — from 16 funders to 18 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Independence Seaport Museum receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $768k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$354k
- Department of Defense$338k
- National Endowment for the Arts$75k
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 Independence Seaport 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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
52%
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 Independence Seaport 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 Independence Seaport Museum?
- Independence Seaport Museum (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,404,819 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION ($499,500). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Independence Seaport Museum have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $2,404,819 in grants to Independence Seaport Museum, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Independence Seaport Museum?
- THE WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $499,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Independence Seaport Museum find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 50 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