Ohio · Nonprofit
NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM
NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM (Ohio) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $235,741 to it, the largest being 20TH CENTURY ELECTRIC RAILWAY FOUNDATION ($231,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $270k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $236k
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Northern Ohio Railway Museum does
Mission
To collect, preserve, restore, display and operate streetcars and other electric railway equipment to educate the public about the mode of transportation that helped to build the major cities and villages of the northern Ohio region. The Museum maintains a collection of over 50 electric rail cars and an archive library. It publishes a bimonthly newsletter for its members and visitors. The Museum is open to the public spring through fall.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Operate railway museum. The Museum is open for public tours every Saturday, spring through fall. Tours on other days can be scheduled. Every Saturday, visitors are offered tours of the Museum's buildings and exhibits. Donations are requested. On the second and fourth Saturday of each month, trolley rides are offered on our demonstration railroad. Tickets are required.
$56,897 spent$4,350 earned by the program96% of program spendingEducation and Archive. The Museum maintains a library of artifacts (paper and physical items). It also provides speakers for local school and civic organizations about subjects related to streetcars and electric railways. The Museum participates in the Boy Scout Merit Badge program and Operation Life Saver.
$2,470 spent4% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $59,367.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2024 to 2025, from $1.2M to $1.4M (+15%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income fell $16k → $2k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM’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
NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 98% of grant income and the top three 100%; 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 94% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 97% — 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.
Where its funders are
NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Ohio, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY 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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY 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 NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM?
- NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM (Ohio) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $235,741 to it, the largest being 20TH CENTURY ELECTRIC RAILWAY FOUNDATION ($231,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $235,741 in grants to NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM?
- 20TH CENTURY ELECTRIC RAILWAY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $231,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTHERN OHIO RAILWAY MUSEUM 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.
Play a game about who funds Northern Ohio Railway Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 5 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