California · Nonprofit
SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM
SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,640,856 to it, the largest being WWW FOUNDATION ($831,350). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $9.5M
What Santa Barbara Historical Museum does
Mission
To inspire meaningful connections to santa barbara history.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Historic structures: the museum preserves two historical structures on their downtown santa barbara campus: the covarrubias adobe (1817) and the historic adobe (ca. 1836). The covarrubias adobe is one of the oldest buildings in santa barbara. Additionally, the museum preserves three historic homes at 414 east montecito street: the trussell-winchester adobe (1854), charles fernald mansion (1862) and adjacent carriage house. The covarrubias adobe and trussell-winchester adobe are california state landmarks. The historical museum facility (1964), a 25,000 square foot building, was designated a structure of merit in 2020 and is visited by over 35,000 people annually.
$582,557 spent$107 earned by the program36% of program spendingPublic programs: guests explored the museum to visit the galleries and historic adobe courtyards, attend public programming and utilize the gledhill research library. Virtual and in-person public programming included nearly thirty educational events - history lectures, performances, film screenings, exhibitions, and walking tours. Topics included life in early california, conservation, architecture, art, film, agriculture, and other local history topics. The museum provided free after-hours receptions and family friendly activities for the public during "first thursdays", a collaborative art and business promotion, along with playing host to numerous like-minded non-profit organizations. The museum offers four custom onsite programs that fit into the state of california standards for kindergarten through fourth grade. Additionally, many more visited the museum's satellite exhibits at the hill-carrillo adobe, santa barbara airport and cottage hospital.
$425,747 spent$16,366 earned by the program26% of program spendingCollections and library: held in the public trust, the museum's extensive collection includes over 100,000 objects - artwork, furniture, saddles, decorative arts and costumes that represent over 500 years of chumash, mexican, spanish and american history. The gledhill library, located on the museum's downtown campus, provides public access to over 500,000 archival documents, maps, photographs and books for historic research, an invaluable resource to historians and genealogists alike. In addition to the museum's vibrant schedule of events and programming, the museum published scholarly journal noticias, and online publication, "pequenas noticias." in addition to the museum's signature exhibitions, the organization hosted five major educational exhibitions: 1925! Santa barbara earthquake, the chair: storied seats from our collection, don louis perceval: his vision of the west, pop-up history: images of santa barbara c.1900, and project fiesta! Centennial of old spanish days.
$608,200 spent$7,620 earned by the program38% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,616,504.
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. 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 2023 to 2024, from $11M to $9.8M (−14%).
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: 2021 0% · 2022 8% · 2023 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Dacia Harwood
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 19 funders to 16 funders, grant income fell $399k → $279k.
8 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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
SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% 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
32% 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 SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 66% · 2019 40% · 2020 46% · 2021 26% · 2022 24% · 2023 35% — 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
48% of SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM'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
82% of SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $672k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM's revenue fell 41% between 2021 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM
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 California
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
53%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM: 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 SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM?
- SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,640,856 to it, the largest being WWW FOUNDATION ($831,350). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $2,640,856 in grants to SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM?
- WWW FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $831,350 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Santa Barbara Historical Museum →
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 43 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