Minnesota · Nonprofit
SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA
SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 145 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,935,767 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($4,554,168). 100 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $40M
- Funders on record
- 145
- Grants received
- $29M
- Net assets
- $100M
What Science Museum of Minnesota does
Mission
The museum's mission statement is "turn on the science: inspire learning. Inform policy. Improve lives."
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Museum experiences:the Science Museum of Minnesota is an essential cultural institution in downtown st. Paul, engaging hundreds of thousands of visitors annually in the joy of science, technology, engineering, and math (stem). Most known for its expansive campus full of artifacts, interactive exhibits, and state-of-the-art digital omnitheater, the science museum is internationally respected for its stem education programming, groundbreaking scientific research, and public policy advocacy. (continued on schedule o)in fy25, we experienced millions of engagements through onsite, offsite, and outreach programming.-414,333 people made a visit to the museum, of which 64,463 were made possible through the museum cultural and income-based access rates.-11,831 people attended celebration days, our annual event series highlighting the impacts and careers of african americans, asian americans and pacific islanders, native americans, latin americans, and women and girls in stem.-nearly 20,000 museum fans engaged the museum through membership, aligning themselves with our forward thinking mission.-nearly 1 million people learned more about the museum's mission, vision, and values through our…
$11,316,604 spent$7,870,461 earned by the program30% of program spendingThe work of the science museum's center for research and collections (crc) makes a profound impact on minnesota's understanding and science. Science museum scientists in the field and in our labs collect and analyze samples and objects that drive decisions to improve water quality, teach us about our changing planet, contribute to global knowledge, and develop our stem workforce. Crc scientists and specialists answer questions about the world around us, bringing together our scientific disciplines (anthropology, biology, collections stewardship, hydrology, and paleontology) to synergistically amplify the impacts of our research, partnering with departments across the museum to share their findings with a diverse array of audiences.our staff care for a collection of more than two million objects. Through their continued research and understanding about these objects, we can make informed decisions about our cultures, our climate, and our wildlife moving forward. Continuing to make these collections digitally accessible to broad audiences was a focus of fy25.key projects:-digitizing the museum's collections is an institutional strategic priority. In fy25, our scientists digitized…
$8,231,955 spent$5,831,311 earned by the program22% of program spendingStem equity & education:the science museum facilitates a host of onsite programs and offsite outreach to address opportunity gaps in k-12 stem education, fostering a childhood interest in subjects that eventually translate to lifelong stem careers. Fy25 continued to build on this mission through in-person programming, with engagements increasing most notably among school outreach and off-site programming. K-12 programming highlights:-stem education instructors traveled statewide to deliver programming through more than 50,000 engagements, reaching students in 52 minnesota counties. The willingness and capability to travel remains a unique part of the museum's educational programming that directly supports equity and access to science across the state.-the museum supported more than 81,000 field trip engagements in fy25 and implemented new educator guides to assist with onsite learning, including an updated learning tool to accompany the museum's indigenous history exhibit we move and we stay.-the museum's education opportunity awards financially supported almost 4,300 students in fy25. Awards connect students with Science Museum of Minnesota programming by providing financial…
$2,551,810 spent$1,605,024 earned by the program7% of program spendingOther program services include unallocated costs including communications and marketing, volunteers, and evaluation and other activities to support museum members and visitors.
$15,216,518 spent$407,964 earned by the program41% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $37,316,887.
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.
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 $138M to $121M (−12%).
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 19% · 2018 24% · 2019 37% · 2020 29% · 2021 47% · 2022 38% · 2023 18% · 2024 39% · 2025 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
51% of SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Alison Brown
President and CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 37 funders to 75 funders, grant income rose $3.0M → $4.8M.
21 of 145 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 145 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
SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
53% 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 SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 35% · 2019 27% · 2020 20% · 2021 20% · 2022 18% · 2023 29% — broadly stable.
“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
58% of SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
67% of SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA's funding base is broadening — from 37 funders to 75 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20.1M on record — $20.1M federal, $25 state.
- National Science Foundation$12.8M
- Department of Education$2.5M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$2.1M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.8M
- Department of the Interior$918k
- Department of Health and Human Services$21k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $25
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 SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 40 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA: 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 SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA?
- SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 145 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,935,767 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($4,554,168). 100 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA have?
- IRS filings report 145 organizations giving $28,935,767 in grants to SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA, 100 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA?
- SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,554,168 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 145 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