Virginia · Nonprofit
VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC
VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC (Virginia) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,920,747 to it, the largest being PETTERS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($900,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.5M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $2.9M
- Net assets
- $20M
What Virginia Living Museum Inc does
Mission
The museum connects people to nature by delivering educational classes, programs, exhibits, events and demonstrations. Staff and volunteers engage learners of all ages on a 23 acre campus setting. Indoor and outdoor learning opportunities include aquariums, nature preserve, native animal habitats, gardens, observatory, planetarium, and both formal and informal classrooms.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
We connect people to nature through educational programs, in classrooms, on the museum floor, outside, or offsite and virtually. Learning is multigenerational through individual encounters, small group or large audiences. Programs incorporate natural science based education in the environmental and life sciences. Seasonal exhibits, signage, animal encounters, presentations, tours, discovery carts and interactive demonstrations educate in fun and engaging ways. Over 950 annual programs are delivered by professional museum educators and over 815 museum trained volunteers. Over 35,000 students were educated through sol correlated interdisciplinary programs.
$2,251,945 spent$628,703 earned by the program41% of program spendingThe museum is one of 14 institutions in the u.s. That are accredited by both the association of zoos and aquariums (aza) and the american alliance of museums (aam). Over 230 species to include 8 endangered and over 1,000 animals are cared for with the highest standards. Animal care provides husbandry, veterinary care, nutrition, enrichment, welfare and training to each animal 365 days. Over 15 field conservation programs to include federal species survival plans help provide education through conservation action. Native plant propagation and themed native gardens support learning throughout the 23 acre campus while sustainable landscapting practices are exhibited through drought tolerant species, host or food plants for native wildlife, and ecologically beneficial species. Living green house and roof, monarch way station, butterfly gardens and haven are a few examples.
$2,332,124 spent42% of program spendingThe museum provides fun education through active discovery centers such as tidal pool, wild & well, conservation command center and many living exhibits indoors and outside on an elevated boardwalk trail, dinosaur discovery center and through biofacts or natural history collections. The museum store provides related mission based educational items that support environmental sustainability. The musteum has eliminated all possible single use plastic from operations to provide conservation based educational guest experience. Memberships, group events provide learning opportunities year round.
$933,844 spent$1,710,026 earned by the program17% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,517,913.
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 $19M to $20M (+9%).
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 14% · 2018 17% · 2019 16% · 2020 28% · 2021 30% · 2022 17% · 2023 12% · 2024 10% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
58% of VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Rebecca Kleinhample
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $202k → $434k.
8 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
28% 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 VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 22% · 2019 22% · 2020 37% · 2021 42% · 2022 28% · 2023 58% — 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 VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
88% of VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC's grant income comes from Virginia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $665k 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
VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC's funding base is broadening — from 11 funders to 17 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $174k on record.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$174k
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 VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM 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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM 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 VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC?
- VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC (Virginia) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,920,747 to it, the largest being PETTERS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($900,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $2,920,747 in grants to VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC?
- PETTERS FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $900,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 Virginia Living Museum →
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 35 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