Minnesota · Nonprofit
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Minnesota) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $44,419,213 to it, the largest being WEM FOUNDATION ($25,935,000). 102 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $85M
- Funders on record
- 139
- Grants received
- $44M
- Net assets
- $335M
What Minnesota Historical Society does
Mission
The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a non-profit educational and cultural institution established in 1849. MNHS collects, preserves, and tells the story of Minnesota's past through museum exhibits, libraries and collections, historic sites, educational programs and print and online publishing.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Historic Sites and Museums: MNHS operates 26 historic sites and museums throughout the state that allow people to access history through programs, exhibits, and tours. More than 826,600 visitors explored MNHS sites in FY25. Mill City Museum, Minnesota History Center, and Split Rock Lighthouse were the most-visited sites. The Minnesota History Center welcomed Girlhood (It's complicated), a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution, which showed how girls have spoken up, challenged expectations, and been on the front lines of social change. In addition to the traveling exhibit, the MNHS exhibits department developed a local component focused on girls' basketball called Minnesota (where girls shoot hoops). Split Rock Lighthouse initiated a restoration project to improve accessibility and provide visitors with an enhanced experience at the historic site. The project, which began in April, includes improvements to existing pathways and restoring historic circulation patterns within the historic core.
$19,761,661 spent$6,821,759 earned by the program34% of program spendingEducation, Outreach, and Content Development: MNHS develops Minnesota history curriculum, provides teacher education, and coordinates the Minnesota History Day Program. Approximately 19,000 students from around Minnesota participated in History Day, with 59 students representing Minnesota in the national competition. Those students were awarded 4 medals, 5 finalists, and 7 honorable mentions. MNHS is making significant progress in the revising of Northern Lights, a print and digital curriculum used by more than 90% of sixth grade students in the state, and expects to publish the third edition of Northern Lights in 2026. MNHS Press published 13 new titles and sold more than 100,000 units in FY25. The Digital Products and Production team received an Upper Midwest Emmy in the Historical/Cultural/Nostalgia - Long Form Content category for the documentary: Music Making History: How a Song Saved a Theater. Fifteen episodes of The Minnesota Unraveled podcast were released and downloaded 38,000 times. MNopedia, the online resource for Minnesota history, topped more than 1 million views for the first time in FY25.
$14,641,110 spent$1,839,372 earned by the program25% of program spendingLibrary and Collections: Our library and collections departments maintain and make available to the public the MNHS's collection of books, newspapers, maps, objects, photographs, works of art, oral history recordings, private manuscripts, and periodicals on Minnesota History. MNHS catalogs, restores, and digitizes documents and records to make them available for public use. MNHS gained 608 new acquisitions in FY25 across manuscripts, fine art, 3D, sound/visual, and maps/rare books. New Acquisitions include the Military Intelligence Service Language School graph collection - a unique set of images documenting the service and activities of numerous Japanese-Americans serving in the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage and Fort Snelling in Minnesota. More than 1.5 million pages of current and historic newspapers were added to the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub in FY25; more than 8.1 million pages are now available.
$13,944,188 spent$2,288,609 earned by the program24% of program spendingHeritage Preservation: The MNHS Heritage Preservation department provides technical assistance and grants for historic preservation, administers grant programs supporting projects in preservation and interpretation of Minnesota history. In FY25, more than $6.8 million was provided by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund for 185 Legacy Grants across Minnesota. Demand for these grants outweighs resources 2.6 to 1, and more than 76 counties have received $100,00 or more in Legacy history funds since 2009.
$9,273,666 spentof which $7,620,941 as grants16% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $57,620,625.
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 2020 to 2021, from $262M to $300M (+15%).
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 61% · 2018 63% · 2019 66% · 2020 66% · 2021 72% · 2022 65% · 2023 55% · 2024 54% · 2025 60%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
66% of MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY’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. 0 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
S Kent Whitworth
Director & Chief Executive Officer, Board Secretary
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 43 funders to 70 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $8.1M.
18 of 139 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 139 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
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 24% · 2019 19% · 2020 19% · 2021 15% · 2022 90% · 2023 63% — 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
60% of MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
91% of MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than half 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 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.0M on record.
- Department of the Interior$964k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$793k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$205k
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 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Minnesota) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $44,419,213 to it, the largest being WEM FOUNDATION ($25,935,000). 102 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 139 organizations giving $44,419,213 in grants to MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 102 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- WEM FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $25,935,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 139 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