Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC
THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,667,260 to it, the largest being ANN B & THOMAS L FRIEDMAN FAMILY FOUND ($36,921,164). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.2M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $56M
- Net assets
- $55M
What The Museum of Language Arts Inc does
Mission
Planet word is a museum that inspires and renews a love of words, language, and reading through unique, immersive learning experiences. It provides a space to explore words and language that is grounded in a solid understanding of language arts and science.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
On october 22, 2020, the museum officially opened its doors to the public. The museum serves more than 150,000 visitors annually on-site in the newly preserved and rehabilitated franklin school, a 50,000-square-foot, 5-story national historic landmark. The museum currently features 10 immersive, interactive exhibit galleries that engage visitors in experiencing words and language from a wide range of perspectives - from the science of how language skills develop early in life to how words are used creatively and persuasively in music, poetry, humor, advertising, oratory, and literature. In addition, the museum provides dynamic and robust ongoing arts, culture, and education programming in its auditorium and classroom spaces, as well as online, for children, adults, families, students, and teachers. Other features of the museum include a gift shop, office space for the administration of the museum, a restaurant operated by a third party, and an interactive game gallery that opened in march 2022 featuring word puzzles, mysteries, and riddles to solve throughout the room.
$6,272,512 spent$564,017 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $6,272,512.
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 $22M to $56M (+152%).
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: 2021 5% · 2022 0% · 2023 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
72% of THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Ann B Friedman
Chair and CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $1.0M → $3.3M.
22 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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 MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 80%; 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 50% · 2018 50% · 2019 62% · 2020 41% · 2021 58% · 2022 96% · 2023 23% — 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
20% of THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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 MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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 MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC is better cushioned than half of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2k on record.
- INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES$2k
- STUDENT BODY ACTIVITY$210
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 MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
54%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Franklin School Development LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS 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 MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC?
- THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $55,667,260 to it, the largest being ANN B & THOMAS L FRIEDMAN FAMILY FOUND ($36,921,164). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $55,667,260 in grants to THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC?
- ANN B & THOMAS L FRIEDMAN FAMILY FOUND is the largest funder on record, with $36,921,164 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Museum of Language Arts →
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 55 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