Rhode Island · Nonprofit
THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,581,376 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($2,945,331). 14 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 FY2025
- $4.0M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $31M
What The Rhode Island Historical Society does
Mission
The Rhode Island Historical Society, through its collections, museums, and educational initiatives, welcomes everyone to engage with rhode island's complex and significant past.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Library program - The Rhode Island Historical Society's robinson research center has over 100,000 volumes relating to the history of rhode island and surrounding new england. This research center also holds more than 1,200 manuscript collections (over 10 million pages), 20,000 architectural drawings, 1,000,000 photographs, and 9 million feet of moving image film. In 2024, much of our work was focused on increasing digital access to materials related to the approaching 250th anniversary of u.s. Independence. To further this work, a dedicated website holding scans of all of our manuscripts related to the revolutionary war entitled "the revolutionary war in rhode island" went live on september 1, 2022. A newly designed, more user-friendly interface for our online catalog (the cabinet, formerly netop) went live on december 9, 2022. Updates to these sites are ongoing.
$739,990 spent$14,763 earned by the program27% of program spendingMuseum program - the rihs operates two museums, the john brown house museum and the museum of work and culture, as well as operating the aldrich house, which serves as its headquarters, event venue, and educational space. The museum of work and culture also serves as an unofficial visitors' center for the blackstone river valley. In addition, the john brown house museum serves as the primary location of our museum artifacts, which number over 20,000. In 2022, a gallery space in the jbh was dedicated to annual displays related to the "road to revolution," culminating in 2026 (the 250th of the declaration of independence). The first display was on the burning of the british customs ship gaspee (2022), the second display was on rhode island and the history of sugar as a commodity (2023/24) and the final display in 2025 was on women's roles in revolutionary rhode island. Concurrently, in 2023 the rihs began reinterpreting the jbh from a house museum into a series of historical galleries situating rhode island in global contexts, using recent works of scholarship as interpretive authorities. The theme "rhode island and the world to 1850" will, by the end of 2026, be realized. Our…
$980,479 spent$114,813 earned by the program36% of program spendingEducation program - the goff center for education and public programs oversees the rihs's outward-facing educational work, developing and delivering educational tools, trainings, and events related to rhode island and american history. This includes opportunities created specifically for a k-12 audience, including teacher professional development, primary document-based lesson plans, student tours and hands-on educational workshops, as well as our freely available digital textbook, encompass. Additionally, the rihs serves as the state affiliate for national history day, running rhode island history day and its associated educational programs. The goff center also serves a broad public audience, presenting programs such as lectures, tours, and concerts at our sites and throughout the state.
$983,153 spent$38,142 earned by the program36% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,703,622.
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 $25M to $31M (+25%).
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 2% · 2018 6% · 2019 4% · 2020 7% · 2021 14% · 2022 14% · 2023 19% · 2024 6% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
50% of THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
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.
Chief executive
C Morgan Grefe Phd
Executive director
Board chair
Roberta E Gosselin
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $12k → $1.2M.
3 of 26 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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY’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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
69% 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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 84% · 2018 52% · 2019 98% · 2020 72% · 2021 80% · 2022 90% · 2023 48% — 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
36% of THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
65% of THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY'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 $1.6M that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from funders outside Rhode Island, across 6 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.0M 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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $289k on record.
- Department of the Interior$99k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$99k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$49k
- National Archives and Records Administration$42k
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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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 Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,581,376 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($2,945,331). 14 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 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $4,581,376 in grants to THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,945,331 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. 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 Rhode Island Historical Society →
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 26 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