Georgia · Nonprofit
TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC
TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC (Georgia) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,384,074 to it, the largest being THE SAVANNAH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,314,299). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $9.8M
- Funders on record
- 62
- Grants received
- $5.4M
- Net assets
- $61M
What Telfair Museum of Art Inc does
Mission
To achieve our mission of offering compelling expressions of visual culture, we concentrate on four areas: 1) collections - architectural landmarks and focused art collections that reflect a history of embracing contemporary visual culture; 2) education - programs and activities for adults and children that serve as catalysts for creativity and learning; 3) exhibitions - presentations of regional, national, and international significance that provide access to art of diverse eras and cultures; & 4) community engagement - partnerships and initiatives that strengthen ties to diverse audiences and encourage active engagement in community life.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibitions - in 2023, telfair museums presented 30 exhibitions, 27 of which were organized by telfair staff. Highlights include the continuation of our anything goes, which highlights our ever-growing permanent collection; age of armor: treasures from the higgins armory collection at the worcester art museum, an exploration of the ways in which armor was used and transformed due to technological innovations and evolving styles of warfare; and richmond barthe: harlem renaissance sculptor, a study presenting a survey of barthe's career, who was one of the foremost african american sculptors of the 20th century, through two dozen of his finest creations.
$2,794,586 spent$1,221,498 earned by the program44% of program spendingEducation programs - 8,515 pre-k through college students participated in in-person field trips to telfair museums in 2023. These included the museum's in person tours of the exhibition created beasts: sculpture by ulysses davis for 2,700 4th grade students of the savannah chatham county schools and a new program for 600 pre-k students from local public schools and head start. 2,320 individuals of all ages and abilities participated in outreach via 148 classes for seniors at local senior centers, youth at community centers and individuals at health and social services partner locations throughout the community. 800 participants participated in 71 adult and 21 youth studio art classes and summer camps. 13 free lectures organized by the museum were attended by nearly 600 people. 6 free family days offered on saturdays were attended by a total of 9,765 visitors of all ages in 2023. 6 education exhibitions were held in the museum's community gallery, including an annual exhibition of work by veterans and participants from local health and social service organizations. The latter exhibition also included art produced in outreach workshops for incarcerated individuals. Drop-in studio…
$1,144,223 spent$97,564 earned by the program18% of program spendingCollections - currently, the telfair holds over 7,000 works of art, including paintings, works on paper, sculpture, furniture, decorative arts and two historic homes. These works are primarily from europe and america, ranging in date from the eighteenth century through the present. In 2023, the telfair acquired 57 works for the collection, largely through gifts. These acquisitions include paintings, works on paper, photographs, mixed media and decorative art objects. These works have helped to augment and diversify the telfair's permanent collection.
$2,431,510 spent$1,221,913 earned by the program38% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,370,319.
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 $66M to $60M (−9%).
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 4% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 8% · 2021 8% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Board chair
Josh Keller
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2020 and FY2021, and between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $214k → $842k.
15 of 62 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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: $1.5M from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC raised.
From the IRS filings of TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 62 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
TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
62% 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 TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 51% · 2019 59% · 2020 50% · 2021 31% · 2022 49% · 2023 31% — 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
47% of TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
59% of TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC'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 $2.2M that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from Georgia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $265k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$250k
- National Endowment for the Arts$15k
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 TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC
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 Georgia
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
78%
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 TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC: 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 TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC?
- TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC (Georgia) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,384,074 to it, the largest being THE SAVANNAH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,314,299). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC have?
- IRS filings report 62 organizations giving $5,384,074 in grants to TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC?
- THE SAVANNAH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,314,299 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TELFAIR MUSEUM OF ART INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Georgia. 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 Telfair Museum of Art →
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 62 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