New York · Nonprofit
THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD
THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD (New York) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $454,221 to it, the largest being AVALON NATURE PRESERVE INC ($181,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $581k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $454k
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What The Ward Melville Heritage Organization Ltd does
Mission
To foster community enrichment through educational and cultural experiences. This is accomplished by enhancing and interpreting its historic and environmentally sensitive properties and by utilizing state-of-the-art technology for educational programs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
By utilizing its historic and natural properties The WMHO provides people of all ages with diverse ways to engage in their surroundings. Three national and state register historic properties with ties to George Washingtons Culper Spy Rings are owned and interpreted by The WMHO. These properties include the Brewster House (c. 1655), The Thompson House (c. 1709), and The Stony Brook Grist Mill (c. 1751). The WMHOs educational and interpretive staff utilize these properties for school tours, lectures, and other educational programs throughout the year. The addition of distance learning equipment at the Brewster House and the Thompson House allows The WMHO to engage classes that cannot physically visit the site with the stories of the families that lived in these properties. Students from as far away as South Dakota have taken advantage of the distance learning technology that allows The WMHO to bring history to life. The WMHO environmental properties include an 88-acre wetland preserve and the Ernst Marine Conservation Center. Access to the 88-acre wetland preserve is led by naturalists on a 27-passenger pontoon boat. Naturalists point out the diverse species that call the wetlands…
$2,149,558 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,149,558.
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 $12M to $2.9M (−76%).
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 4% · 2018 4% · 2019 4% · 2020 16% · 2021 3% · 2022 2% · 2023 7% · 2024 24% · 2025 50%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 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.
Board chair
Dr Richard Rugen
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $24k → $48k.
3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD’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 WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
37% 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 WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 98% · 2018 100% · 2019 92% · 2020 78% · 2021 52% · 2022 69% · 2023 64% — 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
75% of THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
79% of THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $157k 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 WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
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
- Eagle Realty Holdings Inc · exempt
- Hamlet Fund Inc · exempt
- Stony Brook Hamlet Management Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD: 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 WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD?
- THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD (New York) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $454,221 to it, the largest being AVALON NATURE PRESERVE INC ($181,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $454,221 in grants to THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD?
- AVALON NATURE PRESERVE INC is the largest funder on record, with $181,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WARD MELVILLE HERITAGE ORGANIZATION LTD find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 12 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