New York · Nonprofit
THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 54 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,579,893 to it, the largest being ROBERT DAVID LION GARDINER FOUNDATION INC ($1,200,001). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2023
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 54
- Grants received
- $3.6M
- Net assets
- $0
What The Brooklyn Historical Society does
Mission
Housed in a magnificent landmark building in brooklyn heights designed by george post in 1878 and completed in 1881, brooklyn historical society (bhs) maintains an important collection of archival documents, photographs, maps, books, artifacts and paintings relating to national and local history we draw from these holdings to create interpretive exhibitions that prompt visitors to reconsider the fundamental facts of history in light of primary source documents and artifacts.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990.
Program
Collections: brooklyn historical society houses a world-renowned archives and special collections library on the second floor of its landmark building. The othmer library's magnificent reading room, with its stained-glass windows and carved wooden columns, transports the visitor to an earlier era. Brooklyn historical society is the only cultural institution in brooklyn that maintains a permanent oral history program. Begun in 1973, brooklyn historical society's oral history collections now include over 1,200 interviews. Through an integrated description program with the library & archives, these oral histories bring the voices of history to broad audiences. The collections provide a wealth of historical evidence about the lives of twentieth and twenty-first-century brooklyn residents and reveal how diverse individuals and communities have sought to preserve vital social, political, religious, and cultural traditions as brooklynites, new yorkers, and americans. The collections contain interviews conducted in english, spanish, cantonese, and mandarin, with narrators born as early as 1880.
$939,470 spentof which $692,006 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2022 Form 990. Program spending in total: $939,470.
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.
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 $16M to $0 (−100%).
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 26% · 2018 28% · 2019 24% · 2020 14% · 2021 22% · 2022 54% · 2023 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 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
Miriam Katowitz - Until 61323
Chair
As listed on its FY2023 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 23 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $1.0M → $32.
11 of 54 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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: $26k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Green-Wood Cemetery). These are real filings, and they are not money THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY raised.
From the IRS filings of THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 54 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
THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 32% · 2019 45% · 2020 21% · 2021 74% · 2022 98% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.
“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
21% of THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% 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
84% of THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $560k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.
Government funding THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $860k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$850k
- National Endowment for the Arts$10k
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 THE BROOKLYN 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 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
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
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Brooklyn Public Library · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BROOKLYN 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 THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 54 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,579,893 to it, the largest being ROBERT DAVID LION GARDINER FOUNDATION INC ($1,200,001). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 54 organizations giving $3,579,893 in grants to THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- ROBERT DAVID LION GARDINER FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,200,001 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2017–2023), and the filings of 54 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