Florida · Nonprofit
MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC
MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC (Florida) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,259 to it, the largest being FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC ($25,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $25k
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Inc does
Mission
The maintenance of permanent exhibits of artifacts relating to the spanish new world history and archaeology for display to the general public. The development, presentation and distribution of educational program materials and publications connected with spanish new world artifacts and techniques of recovering them.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Museum exhibit - the maintenance of permanent exhibits of artifacts relating to the spanish new world history and archaeology for display to the general public.
$1,405,801 spent92% of program spendingEducation - the development, presentation and distribution of educational program material and publications connected with spanish new world artifacts and techniques of recovering them.
$63,471 spent4% of program spendingArchaeology - the preservation, cataloging and maintenance of artifacts associated with spanish new world history.
$52,337 spent3% of program spendingTraveling exhibits - the maintenance of exhibits of artifacts relating to spanish new world history that are being displayed by other museums. Musuem store
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,521,609.
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.
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 $5.0M to $5.7M (+14%).
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 14% · 2018 25% · 2019 9% · 2020 21% · 2021 26% · 2022 38% · 2023 35% · 2024 42%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $58 → $50.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC’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
MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 99% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC's grant income comes from Florida funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $259 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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.
Government funding MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $355k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$305k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$50k
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 MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY 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 Florida
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY 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 MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC?
- MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC (Florida) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,259 to it, the largest being FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC ($25,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $25,259 in grants to MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC?
- FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC is the largest funder on record, with $25,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MEL FISHER MARITIME HERITAGE SOCIETY INC 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 Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society →
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 2 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