Virginia · Nonprofit
THE COLD WAR MUSEUM
THE COLD WAR MUSEUM (Virginia) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $196,180 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($133,568). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $71k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $196k
- Net assets
- $22k
What The Cold War Museum does
Mission
The Cold War Museum is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to education, preservation,and research on the global, ideological, and political confrontations between east and west from the end of world war ii to the dissolution of the soviet union.the three main goals of the museum are to:1). Develop permanent cold war museums to preserve local and regional cold war history, including a national museum facility located in the washington, dc / northern virginia area.2). Erect cold war memorials, including a national cold war memorial located near arlington national cemetery to honor men and women killed as part of the cold war.3). Establish a reference library and research center to help maintain the historical accuracy of the cold war.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Interim museum facility:we are developing our permanent location at vint hill, a former army communication base used by the nsa, cia, and army inteligence during the cold war. Features in the permanent museum building will include a central hall with exhibits, a small theater, the main gallery, a picture gallery, library and study areas and gift store. The central hall will include items from the berlin airflift, usmlm, uss pueblo, uss liberty, the u-2 incident, the bay of pigs, and the cuban missile crissis.
$0 spent
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2022 to 2023, from $35k to $26k (−24%).
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.
100% of THE COLD WAR MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $13k → $25k.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 THE COLD WAR 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
THE COLD WAR MUSEUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% 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 THE COLD WAR MUSEUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 71% · 2019 100% · 2020 83% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
THE COLD WAR MUSEUM draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $61k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
THE COLD WAR MUSEUM has grown faster than half of the 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like THE COLD WAR 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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 THE COLD WAR 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.
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 COLD WAR MUSEUM?
- THE COLD WAR MUSEUM (Virginia) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $196,180 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($133,568). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE COLD WAR MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $196,180 in grants to THE COLD WAR MUSEUM, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE COLD WAR MUSEUM?
- MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $133,568 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE COLD WAR MUSEUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Cold War Museum →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 7 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