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New York · Nonprofit

THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC

THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC (New York) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $158,851 to it, the largest being NEW YORK COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES ($52,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$675k
Funders on record
12
Grants received
$159k
Net assets
$3.6M
5/12 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 6%
01What it does

What The Whaling Museum Society Inc does

Mission

The Museum engages the community in exploring the diversity of our whaling heritage and its impacts to enrich and inform our lives.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The services provided include tours and educational programs. Visitors to the museum receive insight into the whaling industry as well as the life cycles and biological attributes of whales, including the need to preserve the whale population.

    $516,888 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $516,888.

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 ($530k) Expenses 100 ($571k) Net assets 100 ($3.2M)2018 Revenue 109 ($576k) Expenses 102 ($581k) Net assets 89 ($2.9M)2019 Revenue 94 ($497k) Expenses 104 ($592k) Net assets 96 ($3.1M)2020 Revenue 122 ($649k) Expenses 86 ($493k) Net assets 107 ($3.5M)2021 Revenue 119 ($629k) Expenses 89 ($506k) Net assets 114 ($3.7M)2022 Revenue 85 ($450k) Expenses 101 ($577k) Net assets 91 ($3.0M)2023 Revenue 128 ($681k) Expenses 106 ($606k) Net assets 101 ($3.3M)2024 Revenue 105 ($558k) Expenses 119 ($680k) Net assets 103 ($3.4M)2025 Revenue 127 ($675k) Expenses 118 ($674k) Net assets 112 ($3.6M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (127)Expenses (118)Net assets (112)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 2021 to 2022, from $3.7M to $3.0M (−20%).

$3.2M
$2.9M
$3.1M
$3.5M
$3.7M
$3.0M
$3.3M
$3.4M
$3.6M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 10% · 2018 13% · 2019 11% · 2020 24% · 2021 30% · 2022 9% · 2023 33% · 2024 28% · 2025 35%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

46% of THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,618 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$40k
’17
−$6k
’18
−$95k
’19
$157k
’20
$123k
’21
−$126k
’22
$75k
’23
−$122k
’24
$962
’25
4.0
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed121214111010101110
Joined·+0+3+0+0+0+1+3+4
No longer listed·01310125
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income fell $20k → $10k.

2 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY 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 WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 80%; 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 WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC.

33%
largest funder
80%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 51% · 2020 51% · 2021 99% · 2022 86% · 2023 97% — 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

56% of THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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

71% of THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC's grant income comes from New York funders.

NY
NC
DC

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

’17
’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
New York out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5k 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 WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC's revenue grew 27% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin0% · below the median
Months of reserve4.0mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Government funding THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $299k on record.

Federal$299k
grants $299kcontracts $0
19
20
21
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • Institute of Museum and Library Services$194k
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$85k
  • National Endowment for the Arts$20k

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 WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY 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 New York

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

77% of spending goes to programs.

Program 77%Management 17%Fundraising 6%

Governance

12
board members
92%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

69%

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 WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY 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.

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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 WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC?
THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC (New York) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $158,851 to it, the largest being NEW YORK COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES ($52,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC have?
IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $158,851 in grants to THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC?
NEW YORK COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES is the largest funder on record, with $52,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like THE WHALING MUSEUM SOCIETY INC 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.

Play a game about who funds Whaling Museum 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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing