Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM
NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,859,876 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.7M
- Funders on record
- 72
- Grants received
- $7.9M
- Net assets
- $4.1M
What National Women's History Museum does
Mission
The National Women's History Museum is a nonpartisan organization that preserves, educates and amplifies the diverse contributions and voices of women and is a leading educational institution dedicated to celebrating women's contributions to our nation's social, cultural and economic life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
America 250: in june 2024, the National Women's History Museum was selected as the national resource partner for women's history for our country's upcoming semi-quincentennial. As a national resource partner, the museum will help amplify and share the history that women have contributed to over the last 250 years of our nation's history. The museum launched a unifying campaign in march 2025 called "she is not a footnote" to bring together organizations that support women and girls ahead of the july 2026 commemoration. The museum will also sponsor its own individual projects for this commemoration, including activating a new youth council on college campuses to play women's history trivia games with the new game published in nov 2025 by the nwhm called "women's history plunge".
$656,827 spent42% of program spendingEducational programming: the museum continued its commitment to free, accessible women's history education through a robust virtual programming schedule that included online exhibitions, a compendium of biographies, classroom-ready lesson plans, research resources, virtual field trips, a virtual book club, panel discussions, author talks and virtual workshops for educators' professional development. The museum's open resource, educational website averaged over 6 million visitors from around the globe in 2025. In 2025, we concluded our work with the us mint as the final quarters featuring women were launched. In 2025, the museum developed, co-hosted and/or spearheaded several key collaborative projects and events with new stakeholders and leading voices in women's advocacy and empowerment spaces. This concludes our multi-year partnership with the u.s. Mint and the smithsonian institution american women's history initiative to highlight the american women's quarters program.
$500,732 spent32% of program spendingExhibitions: in 2024, the museum received a planning grant from the lilly foundation to develop an exhibit called "faith and freedom," to illuminate the profound influence of faith and religion on american women. This exhibit concept received full funding from the lilly foundation in december 2024 and was fully developed in 2025. The museum anticipates opening the new exhibition, officially called: "until we are all free: women, faith, and social justice" in january 2026 in dallas, tx.
$411,970 spent$24,013 earned by the program26% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,569,529.
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 2023 to 2024, from $874k to $3.8M (+334%).
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: 2020 2% · 2021 14% · 2023 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
104% of NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM’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. 4 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
Frederique Irwin
President & CEO
Board chair
Susan D Whiting
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $257k → $769k.
15 of 72 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 72 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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
25% 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 82% · 2018 46% · 2019 79% · 2020 42% · 2021 27% · 2022 27% · 2023 53% — 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
33% of NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM draws 94% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 18 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $15k on record.
- Smithsonian Institution$15k
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 WOMEN'S HISTORY 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
55% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 47 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM?
- NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,859,876 to it, the largest being LILLY ENDOWMENT INC ($2,600,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 72 organizations giving $7,859,876 in grants to NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MUSEUM, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL WOMEN'S HISTORY 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 WOMEN'S HISTORY 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 Women's History 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 72 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