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Oklahoma · Nonprofit

OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME

OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME (Oklahoma) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,987,970 to it, the largest being THE T BOONE PICKENS FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$2.9M
Funders on record
56
Grants received
$5.0M
Net assets
$15M
36/56 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 58%
01What it does

What Oklahoma Hall of Fame does

Mission

The Oklahoma Hall of Fame preserves oklahomas unique history while promoting pride in our great state through each of its programs and the gaylord-pickens museum. The association honors our states rich tradition by telling oklahomas story through its people.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Museum: home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the museums high-tech, interactive exhibits provide visitors the opportunity to experience oklahomas history through its people. Visitors meet both famous and everyday oklahomans whose lives have impacted our state, country and world. The candid nature of the exhibitory allows visitors a unique look into the lives of oklahomans like reba mcentire, wiley post, and mat hoffman. The faces, voices and spirit of oklahoma from every walk of life that inhabit the museum create an experience unlike any other in the nation.

    $1,384,842 spent$115,156 earned by the program
    64% of program spending
  2. Hall of fame: being inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame is the highest honor an oklahoman can receive from the state. Oklahoma Hall of Fame was created to honor oklahomans who had given outstanding service to the state during their lifetimes. Since its inception in 1926, 698 accomplished individuals have received this commendation. The names of the hall of fame members, as well as busts and portraits of these individuals can be seen at the gaylord-pickens museum. Information on each member also is available on the interactive computers in the hall of fame gallery and on the organizations website at www.oklahomahof.com. In addition, the annual ceremony is held each year in the statehood month. The event is held in oklahoma city two years and in tulsa the third year. In 2010, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame began sponsoring a $5,000 scholarship to students continuing their education in oklahoma. Currently, that same scholarship amount has risen to $6,000

    $628,109 spentof which $21,000 as grants
    29% of program spending
  3. Publishing: the Oklahoma Hall of Fame has been publishing books celebrating and promoting oklahomas rich history since 1975. The organization is preserving in a permanent form the efforts and achievements of those who have played a role in oklahomas story through releases like the judge: the life of robert a hefner, through its various non-fiction series including the trackmaker series of biographies, voices series of autobiographies, and horizons series of histories on institutions, organizations, and movements. With more than 180 titles to date, the organization is recognized as the leader in publishing oklahomas history. Services provided by the organization include research and writing, editing layout and design, and printing as a wholesaler. Titles published are carried in local, state and national bookstores and are available online through its library distribution program. Many titles are placed in high school and public liabraries statewide at no cost to the school district or library.

    $142,764 spent
    7% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,155,715.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($3.0M) Expenses 100 ($2.9M) Net assets 100 ($17M)2018 Revenue 88 ($2.6M) Expenses 106 ($3.1M) Net assets 94 ($16M)2019 Revenue 71 ($2.1M) Expenses 115 ($3.4M) Net assets 91 ($16M)2020 Revenue 58 ($1.7M) Expenses 101 ($3.0M) Net assets 87 ($15M)2021 Revenue 82 ($2.5M) Expenses 87 ($2.6M) Net assets 89 ($15M)2022 Revenue 50 ($1.5M) Expenses 92 ($2.7M) Net assets 77 ($13M)2023 Revenue 133 ($4.0M) Expenses 90 ($2.6M) Net assets 87 ($15M)2024 Revenue 96 ($2.9M) Expenses 95 ($2.8M) Net assets 90 ($15M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (96)Expenses (95)Net assets (90)Peer revenue range

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 $16M to $14M (−12%).

$17M
$16M
$16M
$15M
$16M
$14M
$15M
$16M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 22% · 2022 38%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

92% of OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,395 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$46k
’17
−$505k
’18
−$1.3M
’19
−$1.2M
’20
−$101k
’21
−$1.2M
’22
$1.3M
’23
$63k
’24
1.9
months of
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

Shannon L Rich

President / CEO

Board chair

Frank Merrick

Chair

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed6659556463586466
Joined·+0+11+15+16+21+19+10
No longer listed·71561726138
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $55k → $2.3M.

8 of 56 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $531k from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Oklahoma City Community Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME raised.

From the IRS filings of OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 56 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

OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

40%
largest funder
62%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 71% · 2019 55% · 2020 23% · 2021 21% · 2022 25% · 2023 87% — 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.

How long its funders stay

40% of OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME draws 53% of its grant income from funders outside Oklahoma, across 8 states in all.

NY
CT
KY
VA
DE
AR
OK
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Oklahoma out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $87k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME's funding base is broadening — from 7 funders to 24 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin2% · below the median
Months of reserve1.9mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME

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 Oklahoma

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

77% of spending goes to programs.

Program 77%Management 16%Fundraising 7%

Governance

63
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

69%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

OK

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • McLi LLC · disregarded

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME: 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.

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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 OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME?
OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME (Oklahoma) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,987,970 to it, the largest being THE T BOONE PICKENS FOUNDATION ($2,000,000). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME have?
IRS filings report 56 organizations giving $4,987,970 in grants to OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME?
THE T BOONE PICKENS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oklahoma. 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 Oklahoma Hall of Fame →

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 56 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing