Nebraska · Nonprofit
OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST
OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST (Nebraska) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $65,621,669 to it, the largest being Peter Kiewit Foundation ($21,151,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.1M
- Funders on record
- 45
- Grants received
- $66M
- Net assets
- $86M
What Omaha Discovery Trust does
Mission
The luminarium opened in april 2023 with more than 125 interactive exhibits and a kaleidoscope of engaging programs focused on science, art, and human perception. The luminarium is an innovative community space and learning environment that is part workshop, part museum where people of all ages, identities, and backgrounds can explore.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2025 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
During summer 2025, wild creativity was a traveling exhibition focusing on biomimicry, what we learn and apply from the world around us. Outside of the traveling exhibit, the team built engineered exhibits for specific programs such as the human circuit, beam bender, theremin, and the mouse trap.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
The luminarium opened in april 2023 with more than 125 interactive exhibits and a kaleidoscope of engaging programs focused on science, art, and human perception. The luminarium is an innovative community space and learning environment that is part workshop, part museum where people of all ages, identities, and backgrounds can explore.
$7,538,151 spent$2,180,096 earned by the program99% of program spendingKiewit luminarium's museum programs allow for guests to engage in science from different forms. During summer 2025, wild creativity was a traveling exhibition focusing on biomimicry, what we learn and apply from the world around us. Outside of the traveling exhibit, the team built engineered exhibits for specific programs such as the human circuit, beam bender, theremin, and the mouse trap.
$75,000 spent1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,613,151.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $63M to $107M (+70%).
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.
48% of OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Mathew Sinclair
CEO (since 2/18/2025)
Board chair
Trent Demulling
Chairman & director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $11M → $14M.
9 of 45 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 45 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
OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 90% · 2021 40% · 2022 36% · 2023 40% — 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
50% of OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 49% 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
96% of OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST's grant income comes from Nebraska funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST is better cushioned than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST
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 Nebraska
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
65%
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 OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST: 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 OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST?
- OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST (Nebraska) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $65,621,669 to it, the largest being Peter Kiewit Foundation ($21,151,000). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST have?
- IRS filings report 45 organizations giving $65,621,669 in grants to OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST?
- Peter Kiewit Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $21,151,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nebraska. 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 Omaha Discovery →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 45 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