Rhode Island · Nonprofit
RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES
RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES (Rhode Island) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $919,508 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($389,747). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $989k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $920k
- Net assets
- $442k
What Rhode Island Council for the Humanities does
Mission
Rhode Island Council for the Humanities seeds, supports, and strengthens public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement by and for all rhode islanders.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (ri humanities) marked several significant accomplishments during the 2025 fiscal year, continuing to fulfill its mission to seed, support, and strengthen public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement by and for all rhode islanders. Ri humanities was supported through federal and state funds, foundation grants, individual gifts, and corporate sponsorships. Ri humanities' grantmaking programs awarded $125,665 through 22 state-funded thrive general operating grants for cultural heritage organizations and local historical and preservation societies, as well as eight federally-funded mini grants. In april 2025, we hosted a thrive award announcement event at the rhode island state house library, celebrating current and past grantees. Staff members also activated the 50+ year old grants catalogue by adding searchable thematic labels to individual projects, informing the newly launched "humanities in action" monthly feature of past grantees.through a partnership with the rhode island historical society, ri humanities continued to produce rhode tour, a website and smartphone app for stories about rhode island…
$659,187 spentof which $124,360 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $659,187.
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 2022 to 2023, from $360k to $554k (+54%).
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 71% · 2018 70% · 2019 80% · 2020 75% · 2021 83% · 2022 81% · 2023 83% · 2024 87% · 2025 55%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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 Francis
Executive director
Board chair
Renee Soto
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 6 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $67k → $24k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 48% 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 RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 15 of 16 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
RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
94% 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 RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 82% · 2019 61% · 2020 54% · 2021 98% · 2022 99% · 2023 58% — 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
55% of RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES draws 86% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $445k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Government funding RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.9M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$7.9M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES
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 Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
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 RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES: 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 RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES?
- RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES (Rhode Island) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $919,508 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($389,747). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $919,508 in grants to RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES?
- THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $389,747 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RHODE ISLAND COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 16 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