Missouri · Nonprofit
THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION
THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION (Missouri) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,751,866 to it, the largest being HALL FAMILY FOUNDATION ($10,366,716). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $56M
- Funders on record
- 83
- Grants received
- $46M
- Net assets
- $502M
What The Nelson Gallery Foundation does
Mission
Encouragement of public interest in art.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The nelson-atkins museum of art's collection of over 44,100 objects spans 5,000 years. It is celebrated for its holdings of chinese art, considered among the best in the world, with important collections of japanese and south and southeast asian works of art. Its celebrated european paintings collection-including the second painting by vincent van gogh purchased by a us museum-contain one of the few caravaggio paintings in north america, as well as masterpieces of impressionist art. The photography collection is one of the finest in the country, spanning the entire history of the medium. The acclaimed native american collections are among the oldest in the us. There are also important collections of eighteenth century european decorative arts, american paint and sculpture, and african art, complemented by the 22 acre donald j. Hall sculpture park, which acts as one of the city's front lawns and is the site of free, popular festivals celebrating juneteenth, south and southeast asian heritage, and lunar new year, among other communities. In recent years, the museum has dramatically increased its contemporary collections with a deliberate campaign of inclusivity, acquiring important…
$35,941,707 spent$5,373,919 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $35,941,707.
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 2020 to 2021, from $572M to $635M (+11%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 2% · 2020 1% · 2021 10% · 2022 25% · 2023 3% · 2024 3% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
44% of THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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.
Chief executive
Julian Zugazagoitia
Director/CEO
Board chair
Evelyn Craft Belger
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $3.3M → $4.3M.
13 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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: $28M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The William Rockhill Nelson Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 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 NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 72% · 2018 56% · 2019 75% · 2020 58% · 2021 39% · 2022 76% · 2023 59% — 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
46% of THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
51% of THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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 NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION has grown faster than half of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.7M on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$844k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$695k
- National Endowment for the Arts$120k
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 NELSON GALLERY 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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- The William Rockhill Nelson Trust · exempt
- Mercury Fund II · partnership
- Charitable Remainder Trust (1) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE NELSON GALLERY 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 NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION?
- THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION (Missouri) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,751,866 to it, the largest being HALL FAMILY FOUNDATION ($10,366,716). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $45,751,866 in grants to THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION?
- HALL FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10,366,716 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE NELSON GALLERY FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 Nelson Gallery →
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 83 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