Washington · Nonprofit
RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,665 to it, the largest being Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc ($10,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $158k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $23k
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What Rainier Valley Historical Society does
Mission
Rainier Valley Historical Society's mission is to collect, preserve, exhibit, and interpret the history and heritage of rainier valley and its people, and to promote public involvement in and appreciation of its history and culture.its geographic boundaries are from dearborn street on the north to the city limits on the south along rainier ave s, and from the I-5 freeway to lake washington.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Collections care:Rainier Valley Historical Society maintains a collection of over 20,000 items, including photographs, artifacts, newspapers, and documents that preserve the diverse heritage of southeast seattle. In fiscal year 2025, rvhs focused on digitizing collection materials to improve public access and long-term preservation, and processed several new acquisitions. The organization continued ongoing cataloging and care of its holdings in accordance with established archival standards.
$20,754 spent15% of program spendingOutreach:rvhs engaged more than 3,000 community members through public programs, events, and publications highlighting rainier valley's local history. Events included the annual meeting on stomp & shout: the untold story of nw rock and roll, participation in various rainier valley summer festivals from mount baker to hillman city, and a series of history happy hours. Additional programming featured open houses at the columbia city night market and regular friday office hours, providing public access to archives and exhibits. Rvhs also produced newsletters, distributed walking tour maps, and various brochures that shared research and stories about the valley's people and places.
$31,252 spent23% of program spending3806 building renovation projectrvhs acquired the historic columbia motor co. Building at 3806 s. Ferdinand street in seattle's columbia city neighborhood, establishing the organization's first permanent home. Following the acquisition, rvhs completed initial site preparation, including interior cleanout and demolition, and began the process of hiring an architect for the full rehabilitation. When complete, the 6,000-square-foot space will house a publicly accessible museum, archive, and community event space.
$84,826 spent62% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $136,832.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2023 to 2024, from $405k to $1.1M (+183%).
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: 2024 2% · 2025 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $13 → $311.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY’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
RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
44% 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 RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 97% · 2022 89% · 2023 96% — 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.
Where its funders are
RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY draws 75% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10k 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 RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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
88%
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 RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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 RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,665 to it, the largest being Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc ($10,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $22,665 in grants to RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $10,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RAINIER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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 Rainier Valley Historical Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 6 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