New York · Nonprofit
LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM
LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 172 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,727,147 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 98 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 172
- Grants received
- $16M
- Net assets
- $41M
What Lower East Side Tenement Museum does
Mission
The tenement museum welcomes you into the homes of immigrants, migrants, and refugees, and shares their stories to inspire connections between the past and present, and to build a more inclusive and expansive american society.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Tours and presentations to impart knowledge to the general public concerning the history of the immigration movement in america. Such knowledge is directly related to the purpose of the exempt activity - the operation of a historical museum. During the fiscal year ended june 2025, 206,586 visitors toured the museum for in person or virtual programs. This was an increase from 2024 as the museum continues to grow visitation year over year.
$8,517,607 spent$5,782,121 earned by the program95% of program spendingMuseum shop:the gift shop offers books, multimedia, museum products, gifts and toys that document and/ or commemorate the immigrant experiences and the stories of life and historical perspectives of the lower east side.
$451,957 spent$696,717 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,969,564.
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 2024 to 2025, from $45M to $51M (+13%).
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 35% · 2018 9% · 2019 9% · 2020 9% · 2021 27% · 2022 46% · 2023 27% · 2024 23% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than 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 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 35 funders to 63 funders, grant income rose $528k → $1.7M.
21 of 172 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 172 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
LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
31% 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 LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 20% · 2019 17% · 2020 23% · 2021 28% · 2022 21% · 2023 13% — 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
40% of LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM draws 54% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.6M on record.
- Department of the Interior$3.1M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$1.5M
- Department of State$2k
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 LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT 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 LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM?
- LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 172 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,727,147 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 98 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 172 organizations giving $15,727,147 in grants to LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM, 98 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LOWER EAST SIDE TENEMENT MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Lower East Side Tenement 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 172 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