Ohio · Nonprofit
NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC
NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC (Ohio) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,309,068 to it, the largest being JOHN J & MARY R SCHIFF FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.9M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $6.3M
- Net assets
- $29M
What National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Inc does
Mission
To reveal stories about freedom's heroes, from the era of the underground railroad to contemporary times, challenging and inspiring everyone to take courageous steps for freedom today.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Museum operation: to provide a positive conduit for the public dissemination on the impact of slavery and human trafficking within the united states. This is accomplished through the effective use of high-tech interactive permanent exhibitions, rotating traveling exhibitions, and a collection of owned and borrowed artifacts, including an authentic 19th century slave pen from mason county, kentucky. The museum also features a full service genealogical library, a gift shop offering fair-trade international and domestic goods, a teacher resource and education center, and multi-purpose classroom space.
$2,935,332 spentof which $37,000 as grants$907,006 earned by the program63% of program spendingEducation: to educate school age children (k-12), institutions of higher learning, and the general public of the national significance of the underground railroad and lessons learned from the underground railroad through guided tours, teacher workshops, educational outreach programs, scholarly lectures, public forums, first-person re-enactments, and digital/distance learning initiatives, including producing and distributing digital content nationwide.
$1,490,962 spent$156,877 earned by the program32% of program spendingCommunity: to form partnerships within the community with like purpose entities and to host community forums and partner programs that will benefit our constituents and further the mission of the freedom center. Partnerships with for-profit and non-profit entities enable the freedom center to expand the resources and the reach of its purpose, including the awareness of the six contemporary unfreedoms: racism, illiteracy, genocide, hunger, tyranny, and slavery.
$232,962 spent5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,659,256.
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 $30M to $34M (+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 8% · 2021 14% · 2022 11% · 2023 4% · 2024 0% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
83% of NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Elizabeth Pierce
CEO, ex officio
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $327k → $1.2M.
7 of 50 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.
Left out of every figure on this page: $10M from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Greater Cincinnati Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC raised.
From the IRS filings of NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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 UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 41% · 2019 35% · 2020 47% · 2021 58% · 2022 38% · 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
25% of NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
53% of NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $434k 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
NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.0M on record.
- Department of the Interior$500k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$500k
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 NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER 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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 6 related entities
- Cincinnati Museum Center · exempt
- Cincinnati Museums Foundation · exempt
- End Slavery Now · exempt
- Union Terminal LLC · partnership
- Union Terminal Corporation · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER 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 NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC?
- NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC (Ohio) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,309,068 to it, the largest being JOHN J & MARY R SCHIFF FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $6,309,068 in grants to NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC?
- JOHN J & MARY R SCHIFF FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 50 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