Minnesota · Nonprofit
LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM
LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM (Minnesota) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $677,964 to it, the largest being THE DEPOT FOUNDATION ($457,090). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $678k
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What Lake Superior Railroad Musuem does
Mission
Educate the public on the operations of a railroad and its equipment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Historical presentation and preservation of railroad equipment and display of the equipment for the benefit of the general public. The organization stives to collect, preserve, and house data, objects, articles specimens and equipment illustraing or demonstraint the history of industrial transportaion in the lake superior region. Special emphasis is place on equipment and other artifacts related to the history of reairoading in mionnesota.
$1,169,472 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,169,472.
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 $688k to $1.4M (+108%).
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: 2022 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
37% of LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM’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. 2 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 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $82k → $104k.
5 of 19 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.
From the IRS filings of LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM’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
LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 67% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 69% · 2018 100% · 2019 95% · 2020 42% · 2021 77% · 2022 63% · 2023 48% — 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
33% of LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
93% of LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $105k 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
LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM is better cushioned than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM: 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 LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM?
- LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM (Minnesota) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $677,964 to it, the largest being THE DEPOT FOUNDATION ($457,090). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $677,964 in grants to LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM?
- THE DEPOT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $457,090 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD MUSUEM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Lake Superior Railroad Musuem →
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 19 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