Illinois · Nonprofit
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS (Illinois) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,055,319 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($509,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $8.8M
What Society of Architectural Historians does
Mission
The mission of the society is to advance the knowledge and understanding of architecture, design, landscape and urbanism worldwide among scholars, professionals in allied fields (including architecture, historic preservation and planning) and the interested general public. This mission is achieved by: sponsoring the pursuit and presentation of scholarly research; sponsoring forums for the presentation of scholarly research and exchange of ideas; providing publications that disseminate scholarly work, professional information and general information related to the field and of interest to the public; acknowledging outstanding scholarly accomplishments in the field; fostering scholarship, research and education about the history of the built environment at all levels; organizing study tours of significant buildings and sites both in the united states and abroad; and supporting the preservation of historic places and cultural heritage.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Interpretation:tours and conference - sah hosts an annual conference which allows architectural historians, art historians, architects, museum professionals, and preservationists from around the world a venue to share new research on the history of the built environment.study tours are organized in different geographical locations so participant may learn about different types and styles of world architecture.buildings of the united states -an award-winning series of books on american architecture compiled and written on a state-by-state basis. The primary objective of the series is to identify and celebrate the rich cultural, economic, and geographical diversity of the united states as it is reflected in the architecture of each state. The series is commissioned by the Society of Architectural Historians and published by university of virginia press.publications and journals -published since 1941, journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (jsah) is widely recognized as a leading english-language journal on history of the built environment. Published four times per year, each issue offers four to five scholarly articles on topics from all periods of history and all parts…
$420,007 spentof which $750 as grants$21,750 earned by the program66% of program spendingStudy:grants and fellowships - each year the society awards a number of fellowships to scholars who present papers at the annual conference and participate in the domestic study tours.
$219,547 spentof which $207,847 as grants$198,981 earned by the program34% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $639,554.
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 $8.7M to $6.5M (−25%).
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 0% · 2018 4% · 2019 1% · 2020 4% · 2021 0% · 2022 19% · 2023 0% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
64% of SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Ben Thomas
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 8 funders to 7 funders, grant income fell $71k → $37k.
5 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS’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
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 85% · 2019 73% · 2020 86% · 2021 62% · 2022 54% · 2023 40% — 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
30% of SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% 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
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS draws 84% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 13 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $134k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
48% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Charnley-Persky House Museum Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS: 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 SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS?
- SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS (Illinois) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,055,319 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($509,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $1,055,319 in grants to SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $509,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing