Illinois · Nonprofit
Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (Illinois) receives grants from 234 organizations whose IRS filings report $204,138,399 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($156,267,313). 166 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $66M
- Funders on record
- 234
- Grants received
- $204M
- Net assets
- $383M
What Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry does
Mission
The Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (the Museum), a 501(c)(3) corporation, is the largest science museum in the Western hemisphere and home to thousands of artifacts. For 90 years, the Museum has been a premier destination in Chicago, Illinois. The Museum's mission is to inspire the inventive genius in everyone, and its vision is rooted in the Museum's historic rotunda engraving: Science discerns the laws of nature, industry applies them to the needs of humankind. The Museum welcomes over 1.4 million guests annually and is the top Chicago museum field trip destination for students. Through its education programs, the Museum engages over half a million participants annually in science education programs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Griffin MSI features world-class permanent exhibitions that inspire and excite guests and imbue interest in STE(A)M. In Science Storms, guests can experience the extraordinary science behind some of nature's most powerful and compelling phenomena. Visitors can step aboard the U-505 Submarine to learn about the only German U-boat captured during World War II, surrounded by historic artifacts and interactive activities. Guest can also take a real hoist 50 feet down to the Coal Mine, a reproduction of an Illinois mineshaft that first opened along with the Museum in 1933. One of the Musuem's newest acquisitions which debuted in 2024, the Space X Dragon, is featured in the Henry Crown Space Center, where guests can explore and understand the cosmos. And the Griffin Studio is an immersive multimedia space offering state-of-the-art technology to host dynamic and ever-changing exhibits.
$35,598,467 spent$16,603,274 earned by the program68% of program spendingEducational Programs and Activities. Education at the museum occurs both inside the museum walls, and the community and schools surrounding the museum and beyond. Hands-on student programming such as labs, STEAM clubs, Girls in STEM events, career showcases, teacher professional development, maker space training, and camps are some of the ways the museum approaches reaching students and their ecosystem to ensure STEAM opportunities and exposure is at the forefront of what the museum does to prepare them for skills needed beyond school.
$8,568,521 spent$942,089 earned by the program16% of program spendingMuseum and Operations, which include Program Support Services and Exhibit Maintenance. These expenses support the Museum's mission of inspiring the inventive genius in everyone by providing guests and teachers with integrated learning experiences and programming that is centered on exciting and interactive exhibits that help explain how science directly impacts our daily lives.
$7,034,492 spent$2,836,904 earned by the program13% of program spendingRetail and supporting services represent various program offerings that enhance the guest experience. These include the museum store, food services, and parking services.
$1,444,103 spent$1,848,589 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $52,645,583.
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 $301M to $428M (+42%).
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 11% · 2018 7% · 2019 9% · 2020 11% · 2021 11% · 2022 14% · 2023 11% · 2024 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
35% of Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
A Chevy Humphrey
President & CEO/Trustee
Board chair
David J Vitale
Chairman/Trustee
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 60 funders to 112 funders, grant income rose $1.6M → $6.6M.
21 of 234 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% 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: $4.8M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Chicago Community Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry raised.
From the IRS filings of Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 234 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
Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry leans on a few funders — its largest provides 77% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
81% 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 Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 33% · 2019 12% · 2020 75% · 2021 92% · 2022 79% · 2023 30% — 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
48% of Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
81% of Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $39M that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $166M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 772 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.4M on record.
- National Science Foundation$1.9M
- Department of Education$1.0M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$443k
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 Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 12 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry: 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 Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry?
- Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (Illinois) receives grants from 234 organizations whose IRS filings report $204,138,399 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($156,267,313). 166 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry have?
- IRS filings report 234 organizations giving $204,138,399 in grants to Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, 166 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $156,267,313 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Kenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry →
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 234 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