Kentucky · Nonprofit
THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,944,099 to it, the largest being ALBERT A BRENNAN FOUNDATION TW ($3,544,763). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.9M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $7.9M
- Net assets
- $48M
What The Filson Historical Society Inc does
Mission
To collect, preserve, and share the significant history and culture of kentucky and the ohio valley.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The filson hosts more than 100 programs and events annually. Lectures are presented in-person and virtually to registered members and the general public. These include the prestigious gertrude polk brown lecture series and other programs that focus on mission fulfillment. Membership, annual fund contributions, and grant funding are also vital components of sustaining the filson's operations. The filson stewards collections (library, manuscripts, prints & photographs, and museum objects) with significant connection to kentucky and the ohio river valley to preserve and share the history of our region. Material dating from pre-columbian indigenous history through the 21st century is preserved, cataloged, and made available to in-person and remote researchers. New materials are considered for acceptance into the collection monthly. Researchers visit the filson from across the united states and abroad to use collections for books, articles, novels, plays, school papers, family histories and more. Citations and acknowledgements to filson collections regularly appear in resulting works. The filson produces two publications, the filson newsmagazine and ohio valley history and is a…
$3,116,810 spent$166,607 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,116,810.
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 $48M to $42M (−13%).
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 11% · 2021 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
59% of THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Richard Hc Clay
President & CEO (ended 12/31/24)
Board chair
Ann Wells
Chair - director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 35 funders, grant income fell $1.1M → $878k.
9 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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: $2.6M from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC raised.
From the IRS filings of THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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 FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 60%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 78% · 2019 67% · 2020 60% · 2021 36% · 2022 43% · 2023 47% — 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
57% of THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC draws 64% of its grant income from funders outside Kentucky, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $172k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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 FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $7.9M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,732 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $285k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$155k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$130k
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 FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
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 FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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 THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
- THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,944,099 to it, the largest being ALBERT A BRENNAN FOUNDATION TW ($3,544,763). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $7,944,099 in grants to THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC?
- ALBERT A BRENNAN FOUNDATION TW is the largest funder on record, with $3,544,763 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 Filson 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 66 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