Washington · Nonprofit
NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM
NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM (Washington) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $508,467 to it, the largest being THE NYSETHER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($165,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $508k
- Net assets
- $11M
What Northwest Railway Museum does
Mission
The mission of the Northwest Railway Museum is to develop and operate an outstanding railway museum that provides the public a place to experience the excitement of a working railroad and to see and understand the significance of railroads in the development and settlement of washington state and envrons.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Interpretive railway - the museum offers experiential living history programs that allow visitors to travel by train on a 19th century railway between two communities in western washington. These programs interpret the impact railway had on the region and allow visitors to experience the excitement of a working railway in an era before interstate highways. Interpretive railway programs including school train, regular trains, steam trains, and themed events for young children reached a combined total of more than 61,000 visitors
$549,352 spent$1,557,202 earned by the program30% of program spendingCollection care - the conservation and restoration workshop is a facility used to perform collection care on large artifacts including locomotives, coaches, and freight cars. It incorporates 8,200 sq. Ft., features two tracks, and a diversity of specialty tools including planers, lathes, milling machines, saws, tenoners, drills, and jacks. The principle projects in 2024 were continuing rehabilitation of an 84-year-old alco diesel electric locomotive, restoration of a 1901 pullman-built parlor car, and improvements to steam locomotive 924.
$514,098 spent28% of program spendingTrain shed exhibit hall - the semi-conditioned space incorporates more than 24,000 sq. Ft. And offers a stable environment for the museum's most vulnerable and representative artifacts including chapel car 5 messenger of peace, white river lumber caboose 001, northern pacific railway steam locomotive 924, weyerhaeuser timber locomotive 1, and great northern caboose x-101. The train shed was open all year with seasonally-adjusted hours. In 2024 several new exhibits were installed including the asa whitney transcontinental exhibit and the dan cookrailway art exhibit.
$157,596 spent$11,015 earned by the program9% of program spendingOther program services offered by the Northwest Railway Museum include operation of the snoqualmie depot, an 1890-built train station listed on the national register of historic places an interpretive signage program along the centennial trail in historic downtown snoqualmie railroad history outreach into k-12 public school classrooms operation of an annual rail themed town festival called snoqualmie days and operation of web sites including trainmuseum.org, messengerofpeace.org, wellingtonremembered.org, and snoqualmiedays.com. The museum also offered railroad history books, reproductions, and other northwest rail-history related materials through its depot bookstore.
$603,581 spent33% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,824,627.
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 2020 to 2021, from $12M to $12M (+5%).
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 26% · 2018 5% · 2019 7% · 2020 38% · 2021 28% · 2022 21% · 2023 5% · 2024 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
33% of NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 0 of the last 8 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
Richard Anderson
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $10k → $172k.
5 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 NORTHWEST 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
NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% 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
46% 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 NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 99% · 2019 75% · 2020 75% · 2021 29% · 2022 45% · 2023 87% — 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
17% of NORTHWEST RAILWAY 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
76% of NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $166k 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.
Against its field
NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like NORTHWEST 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 Washington
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
94%
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 NORTHWEST 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 NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM?
- NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM (Washington) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $508,467 to it, the largest being THE NYSETHER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($165,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $508,467 in grants to NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM?
- THE NYSETHER FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $165,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTHWEST RAILWAY MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Northwest Railway Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 14 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