Massachusetts · Nonprofit
THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC
THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,146 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($17,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $145k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $50k
- Net assets
- $90k
What The Pursuit of History Inc does
Mission
The pursuit of history is a non-profit organization than engages people in conversation about history and connects them with historic sites in their communities and across the country. The organization believes that more people gaining a broader understanding of history has never been more important.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
The pursuit of history is the national non-profit organization that engages adults in conversation about history and connects them with historic sites in their communities and across the country through innovative in-person and online programming. Our in-person events include history camp, which we started in 2014, and pursuit of history weekends, which we started in 2023. Our online programs include weekly in-depth history camp author discussions. And throughout we have made as much of this as widely available as possible, including through our video archive of hundreds of full-length author discussions and history camp presentations. The video below brings this to life, and below the video we have more about how we started and why. Today history camp is the largest event of its kind in the nation. Last year we had 400 people from all walks of life come from 27 states for more than 50 sessions on a wide variety of topics. Our series, the pursuit of history for america's 250th, travels to two cities every year now through 2033 for a deep dive into history where it happened 250 years ago.
$163,613 spent$176,505 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $163,613.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $15k to $59k (+301%).
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.
37% of THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $237 → $13k.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 65% 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 PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC’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 PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
65% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 84% · 2022 98% · 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.
Where its funders are
65% of THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $17k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 2 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $33k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$10k
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 PURSUIT OF HISTORY 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
84%
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 PURSUIT OF HISTORY 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 PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC?
- THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,146 to it, the largest being Donors Trust Inc ($17,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $50,146 in grants to THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC?
- Donors Trust Inc is the largest funder on record, with $17,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Pursuit of History →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 5 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