Wisconsin · Nonprofit
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,702,693 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
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· 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
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.
- Community Shares of Wisconsin Incshared funderslocal
- Association of Science-Technology Centers Incportfolio match
- The Leads Foundationportfolio 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.
95% of MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $127k → $642k.
10 of 57 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 57 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 39% 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 21% · 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
45% 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 53% of its grant income from funders outside Wisconsin, across 13 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 statesis 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 57 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Community Shares of Wisconsin Incshared funderslocalWI · backs 32 organizations that share your funders · funds 65 organizations near you
- Association of Science-Technology Centers Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Leads Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Ellsworth Kelly Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Souls Grown Deep Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Eleanor and Henry Hitchcock Charitable Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Hognander Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Sieff Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Coby Foundation Ltdportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Theresa a & Vincent J Baker Foundation Joseph S Micallefportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Netherland-America Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Madison Rotary Foundationshared funderslocalWI · backs 38 organizations that share your funders · funds 46 organizations near you
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 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
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 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. 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 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,702,693 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC have?
- IRS filings report 57 organizations giving $6,702,693 in grants to MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC, 30 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.
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 57funders 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