California · Nonprofit
THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC
THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,853,187 to it, the largest being GLORYA KAUFMAN FOUNDATION ($2,995,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.6M
- Funders on record
- 43
- Grants received
- $9.9M
- Net assets
- $86M
What The Wende Museum of the Cold War Inc does
Mission
The wende is an art museum, cultural center, and archive that preserves history and brings it to life through exhibitions, scholarship, education, and community engagement.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Collections and exhibitions:collections: the wende maintains multiple storage locations in the los angeles area and in germany, which together house its collection of more than 200,000 cold war cultural artifacts from eastern europe and the soviet union, as well as archives and artwork from renowned persons.fiscal year 2025 brought with it hundreds of important acquisitions. Some highlights include:- collections of photographs from dmitri baltermants and erich lessing- materials related to the 1980 moscow olympics- posters related to revolutionary movements and nuclear disarmament in africa, the middle east, southeast asia, latin america, and eastern europe- handmade demobilization albums created by soviet soldiers shortly before the end of their military service; these albums contain photographs, drawings, official documents, letters, and other items from their period of service- hungarian artwork and ceramics- a large collection of ukrainian paintingsdonations also contributed to the following special collections: the soviet jewry archive and the polish underground archive.exhibitions: the wende presented three exhibitions: intersections: the architecture of victor adegbite and…
$2,155,853 spent$2,825 earned by the program61% of program spendingCommunity programs:public access: the wende museum offers free public access to its galleries and gardens on fridays, saturdays, and sundays from 10 a.m. To 5 p.m., and mondays through thursdays by appointment. The museum welcomes approximately 19,000 visitors per year. The wende also provides free global access to art and artifacts through its online collections, and hosts an array of online events attended by people around the world.education programs offered in fiscal year 2025:- voices of defiance: soviet jewry and the refuseniks (symposium, archives open house, film screening)- polish archives open house- critical media literacy workshops- intergenerational writing workshops- bumdog school of film workshops- camp gesher program - soviet jewish archives- zine fest / personal artifact zine program- otis college true stories interviews and presentations- eisner intergenerational big band performance- summer camp at the stevie (watercolor, plant weaving, natural dye)- a professional development fellowship program for underserved youth- school field trips- arts workshops- family day activities- the wende teen council- development of curriculum based on the russian-speaking jewry…
$912,206 spent$3,241 earned by the program26% of program spendingAuxiliary activities: along with visitor engagement activities, the wende operates a gift shop to sell program-related merchandise.
$455,193 spent$15,213 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,523,252.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2023 to 2024, from $42M to $84M (+102%).
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: 2021 10% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
71% of THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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
Jonathan Victor
Chairman & treasurer
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $177k → $4.1M.
12 of 43 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 43 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 WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 36% · 2019 47% · 2020 28% · 2021 26% · 2022 19% · 2023 73% — 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 WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
58% of THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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 WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$7k
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 WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
51%
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 WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR 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 WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC?
- THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC (California) receives grants from 43 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,853,187 to it, the largest being GLORYA KAUFMAN FOUNDATION ($2,995,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC have?
- IRS filings report 43 organizations giving $9,853,187 in grants to THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC?
- GLORYA KAUFMAN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,995,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WENDE MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Wende Museum of the Cold War →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 43 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