Massachusetts · Nonprofit
LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Massachusetts) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,312,328 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($839,896). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Against its field
LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Bushrod H Campbell & Adah F Hall Charity Fundshared funders
- Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Maportfolio match
- Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities & Public Policy Incportfolio match
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.
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 1% · 2021 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $27k → $93k.
8 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 80% 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 LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY’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
LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 75%; 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 LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 68% · 2019 75% · 2020 47% · 2021 82% · 2022 56% · 2023 82% — 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
40% of LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
80% of LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY'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 $259k that is directly attributable, 78% of it comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 24 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Bushrod H Campbell & Adah F Hall Charity Fundshared fundersMA · backs 61 organizations that share your funders
- Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Maportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities & Public Policy Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Greater Hudson Heritage Networkportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- New Hampshire Humanities Councilportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- New Hampshire Preservation Allianceportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- American Historical Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- General Society of Colonial Warsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The William G Pomeroy Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Upper Housatonic Valley National Heportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in Americaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $180k on record.
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$180k
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 LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
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 LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Massachusetts) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,312,328 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($839,896). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $1,312,328 in grants to LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $839,896 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEXINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 24funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing