Skip to content

North Carolina · Nonprofit

Sullenberger Aviation Museum

Sullenberger Aviation Museum (North Carolina) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,742,795 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($1,162,265). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$4.9M
Funders on record
25
Grants received
$6.7M
Net assets
$24M
15/25 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 37%
01What it does

What Sullenberger Aviation Museum does

Mission

- Inspire present and future generations of aerospace and STEM innovators;- Educate on the impact of aviation and aerospace in our lives, culture, and economy;- Elevate diversity in STEM and aerospace to catalyze economic mobility

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Museum has developed a new and now operating facility that celebrates innovation and American ingenuity that led to the emergence of today's aviation and aerospace industry. And in doing so, it is providing community programming to excite the next generation through its mission to INSPIRE, EDUCATE and ELEVATE future generations of innovators with diverse and equitable access to STEM career pathways to address economic mobility. Through the development of the new facility, the Museum has expanded its mission for greater community impact, is completing a capital campaign, and concluding a capital development project in partnership with CLT Airport. The vision of the new Museum facility connects the history of aviation and aerospace to the advancement trends in innovation and aviation/aerospace technologies that inspire people, educate the next generation, and connect students to the ever-increasing career opportunities in STEM. With state-of-the-art interactive exhibits and STEM programs, the new facility is a high-profile cultural tourism attraction and statewide STEM education resource. It promotes aviation's impactful stories highlighting the innovations that shaped our NC…

    $1,546,757 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,546,757.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($662k) Net assets 100 ($656k)2018 Revenue 80 ($891k) Expenses 147 ($976k) Net assets 89 ($586k)2019 Revenue 98 ($1.1M) Expenses 171 ($1.1M) Net assets 84 ($554k)2020 Revenue 34 ($384k) Expenses 89 ($589k) Net assets 53 ($348k)2021 Revenue 186 ($2.1M) Expenses 76 ($506k) Net assets 293 ($1.9M)2022 Revenue 489 ($5.5M) Expenses 115 ($760k) Net assets 1010 ($6.6M)2023 Revenue 1567 ($18M) Expenses 443 ($2.9M) Net assets 3233 ($21M)2024 Revenue 276 ($3.1M) Expenses 403 ($2.7M) Net assets 3296 ($22M)2025 Revenue 436 ($4.9M) Expenses 437 ($2.9M) Net assets 3598 ($24M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (436)Expenses (437)Net assets (3598)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $6.7M to $25M (+279%).

$735k
$671k
$630k
$501k
$2.2M
$6.7M
$25M
$25M
$28M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2023 57%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

60% of Sullenberger Aviation Museum’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,377 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$455k
’17
−$86k
’18
−$37k
’19
−$205k
’20
$1.6M
’21
$4.7M
’22
$15M
’23
$418k
’24
$2.0M
’25
2.0
months of
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.

Board chair

Tim Miller

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed171411121111111516
Joined·+1+3+6+0+0+0+7+7
No longer listed·46510036
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $28k → $2.0M.

8 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 Sullenberger Aviation Museum’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

Sullenberger Aviation Museum has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 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 Sullenberger Aviation Museum.

17%
largest funder
43%
top three
~11
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 97% · 2019 85% · 2020 64% · 2021 70% · 2022 33% · 2023 17% — 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

100% of Sullenberger Aviation Museum's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

61% of Sullenberger Aviation Museum's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.

VA
DE
NC
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
North Carolina out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Sullenberger Aviation Museum runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin41% · top quartile
Months of reserve2.0mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)20% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Sullenberger Aviation 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 North Carolina

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

53% of spending goes to programs.

Program 53%Management 28%Fundraising 19%

Governance

15
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

99%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 2 states

NC
SC

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Sullenberger Aviation 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Sullenberger Aviation Museum?
Sullenberger Aviation Museum (North Carolina) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,742,795 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($1,162,265). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Sullenberger Aviation Museum have?
IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $6,742,795 in grants to Sullenberger Aviation Museum, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Sullenberger Aviation Museum?
FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $1,162,265 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Sullenberger Aviation Museum find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Sullenberger Aviation 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 25 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