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Funding

Washington · Nonprofit

WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION

WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION (Washington) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $402,981 to it, the largest being Whatcom Community Foundation ($282,071). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$3.1M
Revenue FY2024
10
Funders on record
$403k
Grants received
$6.3M
Net assets
4/10 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 6%

Against its field

WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin40% · top quartile
Months of reserve3.1mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)14% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,123 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The 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 ($1.2M) Expenses 100 ($906k) Net assets 100 ($4.5M)2018 Revenue 102 ($1.2M) Expenses 112 ($1.0M) Net assets 98 ($4.4M)2019 Revenue 93 ($1.1M) Expenses 122 ($1.1M) Net assets 107 ($4.9M)2020 Revenue 108 ($1.3M) Expenses 120 ($1.1M) Net assets 119 ($5.4M)2021 Revenue 104 ($1.3M) Expenses 128 ($1.2M) Net assets 128 ($5.8M)2022 Revenue 108 ($1.3M) Expenses 158 ($1.4M) Net assets 108 ($4.9M)2023 Revenue 133 ($1.6M) Expenses 191 ($1.7M) Net assets 113 ($5.1M)2024 Revenue 257 ($3.1M) Expenses 205 ($1.9M) Net assets 140 ($6.3M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (257)Expenses (205)Net assets (140)Peer revenue range

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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

58% of WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,374 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$304k
17
$215k
18
$20k
19
$226k
20
$100k
21
$129k
22
$125k
23
$1.3M
24
3.1
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $23k → $41k.

4 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)74% 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 WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION’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

WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 70% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

86% 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 WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION.

70%
largest funder
88%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 47% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 48% · 2022 100% · 2023 71%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 WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

74% of WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION'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 $103k that is directly attributable, 76% of it comes from Washington funders.

WA
OR
WY

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

18
21
23
Washington out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $300k 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 10 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $268k on record.

Federal$268k
grants $268kcontracts $0
17
20
21
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$158k
  • National Endowment for the Arts$110k

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 WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Washington

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

64% of spending goes to programs.

Program 64%Management 13%Fundraising 23%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

78%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

WA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION?
WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION (Washington) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $402,981 to it, the largest being Whatcom Community Foundation ($282,071). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $402,981 in grants to WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION?
Whatcom Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $282,071 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like WHATCOM MUSEUM FOUNDATION find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 10funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing