Ohio · Nonprofit
OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION
OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION (Ohio) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $721,972 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LORAIN COUNTY ($402,221). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $690k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $722k
- Net assets
- $4.5M
What Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization does
Mission
To preserve and share oberlin's unique heritage and to make our community a better place to live, learn, work and visit.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
History education: the Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization, doing business as the oberlin heritage center, believes that when people better understand history they make more informed decisions in the present and develop an appreciation for different perspectives. The oberlin heritage center offers public tours of its three historic buildings year-round, history walks, public lectures, youth and adult outreach programs, and community events. See schedule o for further information about programs and a sampling of ohc's activities in 2024.
$360,552 spent$12,841 earned by the program100% of program spendingCollections: the oberlin heritage center collects the material and intellectual culture of people in oberlin, ohio, and preserves it for the benefit of present and future generations. Ohc seeks objects, archival materials and photographs, ordinary and extraordinary, whose stories and meanings are rich, that have inherent worth, that both reflect and challenge the conventional wisdom, and that invite us to look deeper or broader. Ohc requires these objects and their documented contexts as evidence to illuminate and interpret the larger themes of oberlin history and environment. The collections form the foundation for research, scholarship, exhibition, public programs, and outreach. Included in the collections are historic buildings: the monroe house, jewett house and barn, and the little red schoolhouse.the oberlin heritage center interprets oberlin's history, in particular its strong activist traditions of abolitionism and women's rights, universal education, racism and civil rights, scientific innovation, the stories of the people associated with our two house museums and the schoolhouse, and the varied lived experiences of the people of oberlin. Research on all of these topics…
Archives, research & publications: the organization's resource center includes holdings on oberlin history, family history, historic preservation and nonprofit organization and museum management. Staff members are available by appointment to assist those interested in researching local and family history, with a particular focus on descendants of families that settled in the oberlin area. Major research projects underway include the westwood cemetery inventory, the oberlin oral history project, and underground railroad research. The organization publishes books and booklets on historical topics from time to time, online resources, as well as its monthly newsletter and the oberlin heritage center annual report.
Preservation & history advocacy: ohc advocates for the preservation and interpretation of buildings, documents, stories, landscapes and more. Ohc collaborates with varied community partners and peer organizations to facilitate history projects and encourages the preservation and sharing of varied voices for a more holistic understanding of the past.
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $360,552.
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 2021 to 2022, from $4.7M to $4.1M (−13%).
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 13% · 2021 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Elizabeth Schultz
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 $44k → $76k.
5 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION’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
OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
80% 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 OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 85% · 2019 46% · 2020 60% · 2021 79% · 2022 51% · 2023 56% — 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
57% of OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
69% of OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $224k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $498k 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 OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION
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
70% 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 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Vineway LLC · disregarded
- Ohc Properties Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION: 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 OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION?
- OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION (Ohio) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $721,972 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LORAIN COUNTY ($402,221). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $721,972 in grants to OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LORAIN COUNTY is the largest funder on record, with $402,221 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OBERLIN HISTORICAL AND IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION 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 Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization →
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 12 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