Florida · Nonprofit
Matheson History Museum
Matheson History Museum (Florida) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,422,150 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA ($2,020,550). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $325k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $2.4M
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Matheson History Museum does
Mission
The Matheson History Museums mission is to preserve and interpret the history of Gainesville and Alachua County, Florida, and surrounding regions.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Matheson History Museum is comprised of four buildings: the Museum, The Matheson Historic House (Florida Historic Landmark), the Library/Archives and a Tool Barn. It is the repository for family histories including the papers of the Matheson family, for whom the museum is named, early records of Gainesville area civic and social clubs, and documentation pertaining to local streets, early area businesses and residents. Collections include the Elmer Bone photograph collection, featuring local subjects from the 1920s to 1950s, an extensive map collection, historic tools and a variety of personal artifacts. The museum offers changing exhibits, lectures and programs related to our mission and serves as an important research facility for writers, scholars and historians.
$304,273 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $304,273.
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 2017 to 2018, from $1.5M to $1.4M (−8%).
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 23% · 2018 10% · 2020 17% · 2021 4% · 2022 40% · 2023 51% · 2024 56%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Matheson History Museum’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. 6 of the last 8 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $52k → $1.3M.
4 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 86% 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 Matheson History Museum’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
Matheson History Museum leans on a few funders — its largest provides 83% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
87% 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 Matheson History Museum.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 96% · 2018 55% · 2019 51% · 2020 100% · 2021 88% · 2022 53% · 2023 92% — 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
60% of Matheson History Museum's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% 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
86% of Matheson History Museum'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 $351k that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from funders outside Florida, across 2 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M 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
Matheson History Museum's revenue grew 32% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding Matheson History Museum receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $33k on record — $31k federal, $2k state.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$31k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $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 Matheson History 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 Florida
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Matheson History 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 Matheson History Museum?
- Matheson History Museum (Florida) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,422,150 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA ($2,020,550). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Matheson History Museum have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $2,422,150 in grants to Matheson History Museum, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Matheson History Museum?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA is the largest funder on record, with $2,020,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Matheson History Museum find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Florida. 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 Matheson History Museum →
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 8 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