Washington · Nonprofit
Southwest Seattle Historical Society
Southwest Seattle Historical Society (Washington) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $84,356 to it, the largest being THE HUGH AND JANE FERGUSON FOUNDATION ($47,500). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $129k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $84k
- Net assets
- $935k
What Southwest Seattle Historical Society does
Mission
The mission of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society is to promote inclusive local history through education, preservation, and advocacy. The Southwest Seattle area includes all of the West Seattle Peninsula form Puget Sound on the west to the Duwamish River on the east, South to Southwest 128th Street.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Museum Admission and Exhibits: SWSHS provides free admission to the Log House Museum. It hosted two exhibits in 2024: Creek of Hope, in partnership with Duwamish Alive Coalition and Delridge Neighborhoods development Association and Seattle's Forest: The West Duwamish Greenbelt in partnership with the West Duwamish Greenbelt Trails Group and Ridge 2 River Coalition/Duwamish Tribe. SWSHS welcomed 2,659 visitors in 2024.
$41,759 spent$1,719 earned by the program33% of program spendingHistory Walking Tours and Educational Tour Program: SWSHS hosted ten free/pay-what-you-can public history walking tours of Alki Beach for 199 participants and welcomed 331 students to tour the Log House Museum and Alki Beach in 2024.
$41,759 spent$1,719 earned by the program33% of program spendingWords, Writers, Southwest Stories: WWSWS is a free monthly virtual speaker series that highlights local authors, historians, and voices to foster a deeper understanding of our community and its people.In 2024, SWSHS hosted 11 speakers with 642 individual registrations.
$41,759 spent$1,719 earned by the program33% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $125,277.
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 2017 to 2018, from $1.0M to $1.1M (+7%).
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: 2020 4% · 2021 12% · 2022 13% · 2023 20% · 2024 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of Southwest Seattle Historical Society’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 8 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022, and between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $3k → $16k.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 Southwest Seattle Historical Society’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Southwest Seattle Historical Society leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
44% 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 Southwest Seattle Historical Society.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 99% · 2022 99% · 2023 62% — 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.
Where its funders are
100% of Southwest Seattle Historical Society's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $31k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Southwest Seattle Historical Society is better cushioned than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Southwest Seattle Historical Society
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
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 Southwest Seattle Historical Society: 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 Southwest Seattle Historical Society?
- Southwest Seattle Historical Society (Washington) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $84,356 to it, the largest being THE HUGH AND JANE FERGUSON FOUNDATION ($47,500). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Southwest Seattle Historical Society have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $84,356 in grants to Southwest Seattle Historical Society, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Southwest Seattle Historical Society?
- THE HUGH AND JANE FERGUSON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $47,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Southwest Seattle Historical Society find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Southwest Seattle Historical Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 5 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