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Indiana · Nonprofit

The Ruthmere Foundation

The Ruthmere Foundation (Indiana) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,448,449 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ELKHART COUNTY INC ($2,283,819). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2024
$1.2M
Funders on record
11
Grants received
$2.4M
Net assets
$12M
5/11 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 34%
01What it does

What The Ruthmere Foundation does

Program

  1. Ruthmere Museum and Havilah Beardsley House

    $1,057,352 spent

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($264k) Expenses 100 ($468k) Net assets 100 ($1.9M)2018 Revenue 141 ($372k) Expenses 111 ($521k) Net assets 89 ($1.7M)2019 Revenue 146 ($386k) Expenses 90 ($420k) Net assets 97 ($1.8M)2020 Revenue 2411 ($6.4M) Expenses 138 ($648k) Net assets 472 ($8.8M)2021 Revenue 1108 ($2.9M) Expenses 213 ($995k) Net assets 581 ($11M)2022 Revenue 639 ($1.7M) Expenses 219 ($1.0M) Net assets 537 ($10M)2023 Revenue 582 ($1.5M) Expenses 199 ($931k) Net assets 614 ($12M)2024 Revenue 449 ($1.2M) Expenses 255 ($1.2M) Net assets 633 ($12M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (449)Expenses (255)Net assets (633)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $1.8M to $8.8M (+387%).

$1.9M
$1.7M
$1.8M
$8.8M
$11M
$10M
$12M
$12M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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

William Firstenberger

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed1515182020191818
Joined·+0+4+2+1+1+2+2
No longer listed·0101232
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $69k → $358k.

3 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 94% 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 Ruthmere Foundation’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 Ruthmere Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 93% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

95% 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 Ruthmere Foundation.

93%
largest funder
96%
top three
~1
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2018 89% · 2019 86% · 2020 68% · 2021 91% · 2022 94% · 2023 92% — 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

43% of The Ruthmere Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

94% of The Ruthmere Foundation'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 $145k that is directly attributable, 87% of it comes from Indiana funders.

IN
OH
AZ
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Indiana out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

The Ruthmere Foundation has grown faster than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Months of reserve2.0mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)24% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like The Ruthmere 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 Indiana

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Ruthmere 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.

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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 Ruthmere Foundation?
The Ruthmere Foundation (Indiana) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,448,449 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ELKHART COUNTY INC ($2,283,819). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does The Ruthmere Foundation have?
IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $2,448,449 in grants to The Ruthmere Foundation, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of The Ruthmere Foundation?
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ELKHART COUNTY INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,283,819 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like The Ruthmere Foundation find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Indiana. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 11 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