Louisiana · Nonprofit
The Louisiana Museum Foundation
The Louisiana Museum Foundation (Louisiana) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,976,775 to it, the largest being THE HERB ALPERT FOUNDATION ($1,670,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $4.9M
What The Louisiana Museum Foundation does
Mission
To provide community, grants, programming, and marketing support for the chronically underfunded state-owned and operated louisiana state museum (lsm) system, including the cabildo, presbytere, new orleans jazz museum at the old u.s. Mint, six other museum properties, and six major collections of nearly 500,000 artifacts, primarily for the system's three core service areas: exhibitions, collections, and education / public outreach. In providing financial support for the museums and collections of the lsm system, the lmf seeks, accepts, and provides managment, financial, grants, contracts, and other program support services. Lmf also provides exhibition concepts and guest curators and produces educational and public outreach programming in connection with the musuems and collections.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Educational and public outreach support: funding and services provided by the lmf helped make possible the following educational and public outreach programing: for the cabildo: the lmf continues a creative aging series featuring senior adult beading and drumming workshops. For the new orleans jazz museum at the old u.s. Mint: (1) through grants and community donations, the lmf supported almost all of the museum's musical and public outreach programming, including the museum's balcony and courtyard concerts, annual jazz improvisations, gala, and nola riverfest. (2) the lmf helped administer funding support for the jazz international fund, which funded the new orleans jazz museum's mission to paris as part of their jazz international initiative promoting new orleans culture internationally through a broad range of global partnerships and cultural exchanges. (3) the lmf helped administer funding support for the mexican consulate program, which funded the new orleans jazz museum program celebration and discovery of the history of the mexican consulate and its profound impact on the cultural landscape of new orleans.
$1,457,188 spentof which $1,202,045 as grants$69,243 earned by the program62% of program spendingExhibitions support: funding and services provided by the lmf helped make possible the following major exhibitions: at the cabildo (jackson square, new orleans): (1) rodrigue: before the blue dog : this exhibition explored the early career and artistic development of louisiana artist george rodrigue prior to the international success of his iconic blue dog series. Presented at the cabildo, the exhibition featured more than fifty paintings alongside louisiana state museum artifacts related to cajun culture, examining rodrigues depictions of louisiana landscapes, communities, music, foodways, and the cajun revival movement. The exhibition was presented with support from The Louisiana Museum Foundation and was on view from november 23, 2024 through september 28, 2025. (2) lafayette exhibition : The Louisiana Museum Foundation supported an exhibition focused on the history and cultural impact of lafayette and south louisiana, exploring the regions artistic, musical, and community traditions through objects, photographs, and interpretive materials.
$846,307 spentof which $698,125 as grants$48,491 earned by the program36% of program spendingCollections support: funding and services provided by the lmf helped make possible the following collections projects: for general collections: the lmf continues to facilitate the louisiana state museum de-accessioning project.
$57,199 spentof which $47,184 as grants$3,139 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,360,694.
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 2023 to 2024, from $4.7M to $5.6M (+20%).
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 0% · 2018 4% · 2019 3% · 2020 6% · 2021 5% · 2022 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $35k → $1.4M.
9 of 58 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 Louisiana Museum Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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 Louisiana Museum Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 50%; half comes from just 3 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 28% · 2019 41% · 2020 37% · 2021 17% · 2022 57% · 2023 78% — 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
54% of The Louisiana Museum Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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 Louisiana Museum Foundation draws 68% of its grant income from funders outside Louisiana, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $462k 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 Louisiana Museum Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Department of Commerce$900k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$433k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$143k
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 Louisiana Museum Foundation
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 Louisiana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Louisiana Museum Foundation: 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 Louisiana Museum Foundation?
- The Louisiana Museum Foundation (Louisiana) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,976,775 to it, the largest being THE HERB ALPERT FOUNDATION ($1,670,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Louisiana Museum Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $3,976,775 in grants to The Louisiana Museum Foundation, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Louisiana Museum Foundation?
- THE HERB ALPERT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,670,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Louisiana Museum Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Louisiana. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 58 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