Texas · Nonprofit
The History Center
The History Center (Texas) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $515,260 to it, the largest being TLL TEMPLE FOUNDATION ($504,260). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $561k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $515k
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What The History Center does
Mission
The History Center collects, preserves, and makes available the history of our region and its people for the educational use and benefit of present and future generations. Geographically, this area includes but is not limited to angelina and the immediate surrounding east texas counties. This regional designation includes an interest in the natural and social history of the area, the east texas lumber industry, and the records of regional families, organizations, businesses, and governments. The History Center is free to the public and invites researchers as well as the generally curious to enjoy our educational offerings both onsite and online.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Providing Access to Collections and Public Programming:This is the majority of services, but they are dependent upon our first two services. During 2025 we created and featured two major exhibits containing more than 100 photographs and small artifacts each. One exhibit featured the history of a local 19,000 acre forest conservation area and the other featured Angelina County during World War II. Both exhibits drew from our curated and preserved collections of photographs, maps, papers, archives, records, and artifacts from around the world. Many guided tours were given as well as offsite programs presented. We continued to digitize our photographs and manuscripts and offer them for free through our website, which averages about 20,000 page views per month and nearly four million pages of PDF files downloaded annually. Staff made offsite presentations and gave programs (including oral history workshops) and prepared and installed offsite exhibits, serving organizations such as Sarahs Hope, Big Thicket Association, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Daughters of the American Revolution, Lufkin Study Club, several garden clubs, civic organizations in Groveton, Trinity, Lacy, and…
$354,154 spent64% of program spendingCollections Management and Development: In addition to curating a growing collection of more than 5,000 cubic feet of manuscripts, archives, and papers; more than one million photographs; 100,000 maps; 600 oral history interviews; some 5,000 books; an outdoor steam logging train display; and three acres of landscaped historical native plants, we appraised, assessed, and accessioned 38 new collections of papers and photographs, working closely with the individual and organizational donors. Highlights include a collection of some 6,000 vintage photographs of East Texas logging railroads from the late 19th century through the middle 20th century, another photograph collection of some 7,000 images pertaining to the Southeast Texas rice and East Texas lignite coal mining industries,land management records for cutover pine lands in Trinity County during the 1920s and 1930s as a federal government social experiment, photographic collections of area families, records of community celebrations, and World War II artifacts, including two captured Japanese flags from New Guinea. We also collected oral histories from persons pertaining to the City of Lufkin government, East Texas banking and…
$100,000 spent18% of program spendingPreservation of Collections: We preserved the collections for continued public use now and into the future. We also gave onsite tours and offsite programs concerning proper preservation, care and handling of historical documents, family papers, and photographs, assisting area service clubs, schools, churches, historical and genealogical organizations. Our native landscaping and gardens were also preserved and further developed for the benefit of everyone.
$100,000 spent18% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $554,154.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2024 to 2025, from $1.7M to $1.7M (−3%).
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.
96% of The History Center’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 2 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
Owen Temple
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income held at $1k.
From the IRS filings of The History Center’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 History Center leans on a few funders — its largest provides 98% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 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
100% of The History Center's grant income comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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 History Center holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like The History Center
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The History Center: 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 History Center?
- The History Center (Texas) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $515,260 to it, the largest being TLL TEMPLE FOUNDATION ($504,260). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The History Center have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $515,260 in grants to The History Center, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The History Center?
- TLL TEMPLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $504,260 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The History Center find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 History Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2024–2025), and the filings of 2 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