New York · Nonprofit
SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM
SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,110,255 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES INC ($1,210,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.1M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $3.1M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Sciencenter Discovery Museum does
Mission
Cultivate an engaged community of curious, collaborative, critical thinkers.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibits:the Sciencenter Discovery Museum is a hands-on museum, offering over 250 interactive science exhibits that invite families to explore topics like engineering, physics, live animals, and phenomena like weather. Exhibits are offered throughout the sciencenter's 36,000 square-foot museum, its 20,000 square-foot outdoor space and a science-themed mini-golf course. The sciencenter also designs, fabricates, and manages rentals of science-themed interactive exhibitions to cultural institutions in north america.
$696,880 spent$768,150 earned by the program33% of program spendingEducational programs:the sciencenter offers robust educational programs for families, camps for children, field trips for elementary schools throughout central ny and northern pa, and professional development for educators in the region. The sciencenter also develops collaborative informal education programs for a national audience.
$301,823 spent$126,790 earned by the program14% of program spendingMuseum admissions and membership:the sciencenter welcomes over 100,000 visitors to explore exhibits and education programs at the museum. More than 2,600 families have an annual membership to the sciencenter. The sciencenter welcomes over 20,000 individuals through access programs that provide freeor deeply discounted admission for low-income families.
$687,799 spent$678,756 earned by the program32% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$434,135 spent$131,697 earned by the program20% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,120,637.
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 2023 to 2024, from $10M to $12M (+18%).
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 25% · 2020 28% · 2021 48% · 2022 35% · 2023 34% · 2024 21% · 2025 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
50% of SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY 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. 2 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
Michelle Kortenaar
Executive director
Board chair
Eric Rosario
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 12 funders, grant income fell $342k → $169k.
9 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 66% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $13k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest United Way of Tompkins County Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM raised.
From the IRS filings of SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
84% 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 SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 50% · 2019 26% · 2020 22% · 2021 33% · 2022 25% · 2023 28% — 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
65% of SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
66% of SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.1M that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.2M on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$2.2M
- National Science Foundation$1.1M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$1.0M
- Department of Health and Human Services$805k
- Environmental Protection Agency$80k
- Department of Defense$50k
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 SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY 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 SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM?
- SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM (New York) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,110,255 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES INC ($1,210,000). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $3,110,255 in grants to SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM?
- FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,210,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SCIENCENTER DISCOVERY MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Sciencenter Discovery Museum →
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 31 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