Connecticut · Nonprofit
KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc
KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc (Connecticut) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $913,467 to it, the largest being NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($262,510). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $913k
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc does
Mission
Provide a content-rich learning environment that fosters creativity, sparks curiosity, and builds life-skills through interactive exhibits and programs (see schedule O for mission statement)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
KidsPlay is a museum offering a wide array of interactive exhibits designed to help children thrive intellectually, socially, and emotionally. The Museum provides a safe and stimulating environment that encourages children and caregivers to discover, imagine, and create. Children practice skills, build curiosity, and explore new things through developmental play. KidsPlay participates in Museums for All, Blue Star Museums, and other access initiatives to ensure that underserved and underrepresented audiences benefit from its exhibits and programs.
$455,737 spent$456,376 earned by the program58% of program spendingKidsPlay offers educational programs and outreach activities designed to enhance children's cognitive and social-emotional development. The museum collaborates with experts and partners to provide content in science, humanities, and the arts tailored to children's developmental stages. KidsPlay is a popular destination for educational field trips.
$172,866 spent$25,930 earned by the program22% of program spendingKidsPlay Childrens Museum strengthened its collaborative role through theHub@KidsPlay initiative. This effort brings together schools, healthcare providers, and nonprofits to support child development and family well-being. The Hub features a family resource library and a community meeting room that hosts partner-led programs, including developmental screenings, family engagement initiatives, and intervention services. By connecting playful learning with school readiness, the Hub@KidsPlay helps create a more coordinated early childhood support system for the region. The museum continues to offer below-market access to spaces and a costume shop.
$157,150 spent$20,744 earned by the program20% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $785,753.
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 $2.1M to $2.5M (+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: 2018 6% · 2020 11% · 2021 49% · 2022 28% · 2023 12% · 2024 5% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $12k → $187k.
7 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc’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
KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
69% 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 KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 44% · 2019 93% · 2020 49% · 2021 53% · 2022 52% · 2023 36% — 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
50% of KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
51% of KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc'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 $445k that is directly attributable, 79% of it comes from Connecticut funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $468k 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
KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $732k on record — $249k federal, $483k state.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$249k
- State Aid Grants$412k
- Pass thru Grant Non-State$71k
- Fellowships & Stipends$300
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 KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc
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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
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 KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc: 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 KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc?
- KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc (Connecticut) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $913,467 to it, the largest being NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($262,510). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $913,467 in grants to KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc?
- NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $262,510 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like KidsPlay Childrens Museum Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 KidsPlay Childrens Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 28 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