Ohio · Nonprofit
TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER
TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER (Ohio) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,346,322 to it, the largest being TOLEDO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,675,137). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.6M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What Toledo Science Center does
Mission
Empower everyone to explore the sciences through interactive exhibits and educational programming.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Imagination station is a science center in toledo, ohio that features hundreds of hands-on exhibits throughout multiple learning worlds. It features premier attractions, a traveling exhibition space, and various live science demonstrations. The science center explores the topics of engineering, energy, water, perception, agriculture, pre-k development and health. This fiscal year, the science center welcomed over 175,000 visitors. As a service to the community, imagination station offers free lucas county kids every saturday, free veterans on veterans day, free moms on mother's day, free dads on father's day and free teachers every day. We also offer discounts to active military personnel and lucas county residents and schools.
$2,677,891 spent$1,348,664 earned by the program64% of program spendingImagination station conducts hands-on workshops throughout the year, both in the science center and through outreach programming at schools and other organizations. Through educational programming including: science festivals, workshops on wheels, summer camps, on-site think tank workshops, and scout programs, imagination station brings interactive science to over 25,000 people.
$1,530,803 spent$305,425 earned by the program36% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,208,694.
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 $5.6M to $7.3M (+30%).
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 42% · 2018 33% · 2019 26% · 2020 41% · 2021 70% · 2022 45% · 2023 29% · 2024 33% · 2025 39%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER’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. 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
Lori Hauser
CEO
Board chair
David F Waterman
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $179k → $261k.
8 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 86% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $285k from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Promedica Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER raised.
From the IRS filings of TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER’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
TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 71% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
88% 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 TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 99% · 2018 99% · 2019 98% · 2020 83% · 2021 49% · 2022 45% · 2023 34% — 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
50% of TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
86% of TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER'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 $340k that is directly attributable, 97% of it comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters 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 TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $250k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$250k
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 TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER: 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 TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER?
- TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER (Ohio) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,346,322 to it, the largest being TOLEDO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,675,137). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $2,346,322 in grants to TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER?
- TOLEDO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,675,137 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TOLEDO SCIENCE CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Toledo Science Center →
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 19 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