Wisconsin · Nonprofit
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,036,193 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.8M
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $7.0M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Madison Children's Museum Inc does
Mission
Madison children's museum connects children with their families, their communities, and the world beyond through discovery learning and creative play. Madison children's museum strives to be a welcoming, imaginative, joyful learning environment that supports families in nurturing children's creativity and curiosity. We foster the healthy development of all children so that they will fulfill their potential and become engaged community members and global citizens. Our core values reflect what we believe is in the best interest of children-always. We believe in: play, integrity, creativity, collaboration, risk, inclusiveness, learning, and sustainability.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibit environments create the core educational areas and play spaces within the museum setting, providing interactive, engaging play opportunities for children of all ages, along with their adult caregivers. Exhibits are interdisciplinary and weave together themes from our core educational initiatives: art, history, culture, science, physical, and innovation.the nice age trail opened in june 2024, creating an immersive new play space for mcm visitors. The nice age trail is a rich interactive and hands on exhibit for children and families that explores the science behind life's natural rhythms. The nice age trail connects children to nature in profound ways, when they learn that they have natural sleep and waking cycles, or that animals adapt to the seasons and times of day, just like them. The goal of the nice age trail is to inspire wonder and create empathic connections between children and other living beings, through exploring the similarities we have with other species, while learning about the universe and the science behind our shared connections. Through hands-on experiences in a rich and immersive world that guide our daily lives, routines, rituals, and expressions.…
$1,388,749 spent37% of program spendingEducation programming enriches the visitor experience through classes, drop-in activities, residencies, special events, and facilitation of the visitor experience in the museum's exhibit galleries. Programs provide deeper engagement for visitors in the museum's core initiatives of arts, science and innovation, culture and history, health, sustainability, early learning, and accessibility. The museum uses its programs to express its values, including play, integrity, creativity, collaboration, risk, inclusiveness, learning, and sustainability. During fy24/25, mcm served 195,000 children and families on site, and produced over 1000 programs.the mcm roadshow provided mobile outreach exhibits and programs throughout the region. Eighty-four events, at fifty-six locations in diverse, multi-lingual neighborhoods were served in fy24/25. We served 2,932 people directly with overall attendance of all combined events and potential exposure to approximately 10,000 people.the museum strives to serve every child, regardless of ability, culture, or economic background. The museum's access for everyone programs provide access for nearly 1/3 of all visitors through free and low-cost admissions,…
$761,393 spent20% of program spendingMarketing and communications programs help the museum meet its mission by developing and delivering information about exhibits, programs, and special events to constituents throughout south central wisconsin and further out. The museum uses a variety of communication methods to spread the word about museum activities, including its website, social media, email, media relations, advertising, and printed collateral materials . Exhibit signage and many museum publications include both english and spanish versions.the centerpiece of the year's advertising promoted the nice age trail, the museum's newest exhibit. An integrated marketing plan reached well over 100,000 people and resulted in visitation at a rate of 16% over the previous summer. Adding free thursday evening open hours also contributed to the increased attendance. The museum collaborates with organizations representing diverse communities and stakeholders in order to expand its reach through strategic partnerships. These organizations include the downtown business improvement district; greater madison chamber of commerce; greater madison convention & visitors bureau; and the black, latino, and lgbtq chambers of…
$1,615,307 spent43% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,765,449.
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 2023 to 2024, from $14M to $19M (+30%).
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.
95% of MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Tom Linfield
President & CEO
Board chair
Matt Premo
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $127k → $642k.
10 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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: $40M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Madison Children's Museum Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC raised.
From the IRS filings of MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 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
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 37% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 64% · 2019 27% · 2020 49% · 2021 25% · 2022 17% · 2023 23% — 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
42% of MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside Wisconsin, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $806k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC's funding base is broadening — from 17 funders to 20 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.4M on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.1M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$268k
- National Endowment for the Arts$30k
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 MADISON CHILDREN'S 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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
64% 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
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Madison Children's Museum Foundation Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MADISON CHILDREN'S 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 MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC?
- MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,036,193 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $7,036,193 in grants to MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC?
- 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 MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Madison Children's 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 60 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