Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM
NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,269,528 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $12M
- Funders on record
- 70
- Grants received
- $8.3M
- Net assets
- $12M
What National Building Museum does
Mission
The National Building Museum inspires curiosity about the world we design and build.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibitions:in fiscal year 2025, the National Building Museum presented eight exhibitions that examined and interpreted the built environment.house and home is a long-term exhibition presentation that takes visitors on a tour of houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present, challenging our ideas about what it means to live at home in america.brick city celebrates iconic architecture from cities around the world through carefully recreated constructions made from lego bricks by u.k.-based artist warren elsmore. Visitors will take a world tour discovering new destinations across all seven continents that include: lively streetscapes from cartagena, colombia; mardi gras celebrations in new orleans; intricate temples from india to mexico; and imaginative castles from medieval japan to modern las vegas.mini memories presents selections from a one-of-a-kind collection of souvenir buildings, on display to the public for the first time. Generously donated to the National Building Museum by architects david weingarten and lucia howard, along with margaret majua in 2019, the collection of more than 3,000 miniature mementos, the most extensive of its type, represents a…
$3,286,561 spent$634,465 earned by the program45% of program spendingSchool programming:we offered 558 formal programs for a total of 11673 students. We also launched homeschool days in fy25 with 141 attendees for two dates. We also had a specialty workshop with 156 high school dcps students. Out-of-school youth (summer camp):the museum did not offer any out-of-school youth (teens) programs in fy25.out-of-school youth (summer camp):we ran the nbm summer camp for the second consecutive year in fy25 and increased the number of sessions offered and for a larger range of ages (204 attendees) community engagement: families, early learners, & all ages programming:we hosted two free community festival, the big build festival (4,077 attendees) and the big draw festival (3,082). We hosted the annual gingerbread workshop (268 attendees). We increased our girl scout programming (240 attendees). We continued monthly free steam saturday (666 attendees) and continued weekly free storytime (2,197 attendees). We hosted child workshops around the summer installation parkour (76 attendees). We launched three new drop in series, just drop in (276 attendees), winter drop ins (1,392 attendees), and canstruction drop ins (530 attendees). We launched a new family…
$1,321,531 spent$284,429 earned by the program18% of program spendingMarketing and communications:tells the story of the National Building Museum - exhibitions, programs, collections, activities, the museum shop, and more - through website and online community engagement, advertising, print collateral and digital marketing, email marketing, public relations, and social media.
$835,205 spent12% of program spendingOther programs include the great hall, museum shop, and collections.
$1,812,093 spent$3,248,481 earned by the program25% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,255,390.
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 2024 to 2025, from $10M to $13M (+30%).
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 7% · 2018 3% · 2019 12% · 2020 19% · 2021 14% · 2022 29% · 2023 6% · 2024 17% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM’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. 1 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
Aileen Fuchs
President & executive director
Board chair
Camilo Garcia
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $303k → $852k.
13 of 70 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 70 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
NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
43% 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 NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 33% · 2019 40% · 2020 28% · 2021 45% · 2022 23% · 2023 26% — 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
33% of NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM draws 62% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $559k 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
NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 550 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like NATIONAL BUILDING 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 32 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIONAL BUILDING 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 NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM?
- NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,269,528 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 70 organizations giving $8,269,528 in grants to NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM?
- LILLY ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 National Building Museum →
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 70 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