Maine · Nonprofit
NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Maine) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,140,333 to it, the largest being THE WYSS MEDICAL FOUNDATION INC ($922,151). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $13M
What New England Electric Railway Historical Society does
Mission
See description of mission statement within schedule 0.New England Electric Railway Historical Society collects, restores, exhibits and operates significant public transit vehicles and artifacts to preserve knowledge and resources for the education and enjoyment of future generations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2025, as in past years, the New England Electric Railway Historical Society, operators of the seashore trolley museum and the national streetcar museum in lowell [massachusetts] have continued to carry out its primary mission of collecting, restoring, preserving, interpreting and operating transit vehicles, including city streetcars, interurban cars and rapid transit cars, buses and trackless trolleys.both museum campuses were open in 2025; the lowell museum continues to be open year-round on weekends, and seashore trolley museum was open on tuesdays for group tours in the fall, and operated for the general public from wednesday-sunday from may through october, and the first two weeks of december for kennebunkport's christmas prelude celebration. Every electric streetcar or interurban car in the operating fleet is a retired transit vehicle, many of which are over 100 years old, and are subject to servicing and careful inspection before being released for public service on the1.7-mile-long demonstration railway. As the fleet of cars operated for the public comprises historical artifacts, the cost to maintain it is a significant part of the overall budget.auxiliary…
$1,049,006 spent$414,700 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,049,006.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $6.3M to $8.6M (+38%).
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 0% · 2020 12% · 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 1% · 2024 2% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Board chair
Robert Drye
Trustee/chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 5 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $32k → $45k.
5 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 81% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 91% · 2019 90% · 2020 48% · 2021 81% · 2022 99% · 2023 55% — 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
10% of NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 33% 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
NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY draws 95% of its grant income from funders outside Maine, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $126k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.
Organizations like NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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 Maine
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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 NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Maine) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,140,333 to it, the largest being THE WYSS MEDICAL FOUNDATION INC ($922,151). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $1,140,333 in grants to NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- THE WYSS MEDICAL FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $922,151 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NEW ENGLAND ELECTRIC RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maine. 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 New England Electric Railway Historical Society →
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 18 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