Connecticut · Nonprofit
MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC
MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 199 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,929,132 to it, the largest being CONNECTICUT HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC ($3,827,317). 125 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $25M
- Funders on record
- 199
- Grants received
- $23M
- Net assets
- $103M
What Mystic Seaport Museum Inc does
Mission
Mystic seaport museum strives to inspire an enduring connection to the american maritime experience.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Visitor experience - mystic seaport museum welcomes 250,000 visitors annually. Departments including visitor services, exhibitions, interpretation, and public programs welcome visitors; research, design, produce, and care for exhibits; offer educational and illustrative experiences about america and the sea; and offer a variety of seasonal and themed programs, activities, and special events.
$4,993,775 spent$7,055,001 earned by the program35% of program spendingEducational programs - mystic seaport museum serves 25,000 students and teachers annually with a variety of educational opportunities, including summer camps; sailing programs; school field trips; and afterschool, in-school, homeschool, virtual, and overnight programs.
$2,495,815 spentof which $372,899 as grants$50,648 earned by the program18% of program spendingCollections & research - mystic seaport museum's collection contains more than 2 million items spanning the eighteenth through twenty-first centuries, including watercraft, historic buildings, photographs and film, art, tools, and artifacts. The watercraft collection is the largest in the world with more than 560 vessels, including four national historic landmarks. The henry b. Dupont preservation shipyard cares for these vessels, while the curatorial department acquires, researches, documents, restores, and conserves items for the collection. The museum's collection are housed in a state of the art facility, the collections research center, which serves students, members, staff, and outside scholars.the museum's collection includes 560 watercraft (including 5 major vessels), 24 historic houses and buildings, 2000 ship models, 1100 scrimshaw pieces, 5000 video tapes, 1,500,000 feet of historic film and a collection of more than 1,000,000 photographs, as well as significant collections of prints, navigational instruments, tools, marine paintings and other maritime memorabilia. In addition, the collection contains large quantities of nonnautical furnishings for the historic…
$6,599,625 spent47% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,089,215.
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 $122M to $108M (−12%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 31% · 2022 5% · 2023 13% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
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.
Chief executive
Peter Armstrong
President/CEO & trustee
Board chair
Michael S Hudner
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 36 funders to 96 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $4.0M.
32 of 199 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 199 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
MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
44% 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 MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 75% · 2018 29% · 2019 13% · 2020 23% · 2021 27% · 2022 18% · 2023 41% — 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
55% of MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside Connecticut, across 25 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC's funding base is broadening — from 36 funders to 96 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.2M on record — $3.5M federal, $1.7M state.
- Department of the Interior$854k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$843k
- Department of Transportation$594k
- Department of Education$570k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$554k
- Department of Defense$32k
- Pass thru Grant Non-State$1.7M
- sponsorship$5k
- Land-Bridge Appr/Rights Of Way$2k
- General Honoraria$250
- Visual Media Services$225
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 MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM 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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MYSTIC SEAPORT 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC?
- MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 199 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,929,132 to it, the largest being CONNECTICUT HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC ($3,827,317). 125 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC have?
- IRS filings report 199 organizations giving $22,929,132 in grants to MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC, 125 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC?
- CONNECTICUT HUMANITIES COUNCIL INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,827,317 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 199 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