Wisconsin · Nonprofit
MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC
MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,973,521 to it, the largest being MELITTA S AND JOAN M PICK CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,308,333). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $5.0M
- Net assets
- $8.1M
What Museum of Wisconsin Art Inc does
Mission
The museum of wisconsin art celebrates the value, diversity, and uniqueness of the visual arts and artists of wisconsin. This is achieved by collecting, conserving, documenting, exhibiting, and promoting aesthetic understanding of the visual arts of wisconsin.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The museum's permanent collection represents more than three hundred artists, spans two hundred years of history, and includes over five thousand works of art in every imaginable medium. Informed by the region's cultural heritage and diverse population, mowa is a vibrant hub for contemporary artists, socially relevant exhibitions, and pioneering member initiatives. The museum's primary venue rests along the milwaukee river in downtown west bend, wisconsin. Mowa's main campus has been drawing visitors and tourists from the far corners of the state and beyond. The museum's satellite mowa | dtn is in saint kate the arts hotel in downtown milwaukee's cultural district. In addition to its primary venues, mowa partners with community organizations to make its programs and collections accessible and free of charge in neighborhoods throughout the state.
$1,944,522 spent$66,061 earned by the program76% of program spendingEveryone is a member at mowa. The museum's simple and affordable model replaces single-day admission with membership that offers free unlimited access for an entire year for everyone. Visitors come once, then come back again and again to see new exhibitions, enjoy lectures, and dive into educational opportunities for the whole family. A suite of virtual programs including talks, k-12 educational activities, and artist interviews create access and further extend mowa's reach.
$386,697 spent$47,621 earned by the program15% of program spendingMowa is an innovative forum for thoughtful exhibitions, lectures by artists and industry experts, and educational classes and activities for all ages. We believe that where we live is important and we are passionate about wisconsin. Everything we exhibit and talk about has been made by an artist with deep connections to the state.
$232,622 spent$15,091 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,563,841.
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 2021 to 2022, from $11M to $9.6M (−10%).
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 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 1% · 2020 19% · 2021 21% · 2022 7% · 2023 5% · 2024 7% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART 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. 7 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
Laurie Winters
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $172k → $548k.
12 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART 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
MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 26% of grant income and the top three 58%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
46% 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 MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 28% · 2019 35% · 2020 48% · 2021 46% · 2022 61% · 2023 46% — 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
36% of MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
77% of MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC's funding base is broadening — from 12 funders to 23 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $155k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$155k
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 MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART 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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
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 MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART 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 MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC?
- MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,973,521 to it, the largest being MELITTA S AND JOAN M PICK CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,308,333). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $4,973,521 in grants to MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC?
- MELITTA S AND JOAN M PICK CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $1,308,333 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART 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 Museum of Wisconsin Art →
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