Missouri · Nonprofit
WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC
WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC (Missouri) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,745 to it, the largest being REGIONAL CULTURAL AND PERFORMING ARTS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ($64,714). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $65k
- Net assets
- $2.0M
What World Chess Museum Inc does
Mission
The mission and principal activities of the world chess hall of fame and galleries is to educate visitors, fans, players, and scholars by collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting the game of chess and its continuing cultural and artistic significance.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
See schedule o.the world chess hall of fame and galleries (wchofg) creates engaging exhibitions celebrating the game of chess, its history, and its impact on art and culture. Through these exhibitions and innovative educational programming, the wchofg hopes to popularize chess among a new and diverse audience. The wchofg also seeks to serve as a repository for artifacts related to the rich history of the game of chess. Sound moves: where music meets chessmay 17, 2023 - january 28, 2024with extraordinarily rich histories in common, it is no wonder that there are innumerable points of intersection between the respective stories of chess and music. From master chess players who are deeply passionate about writing, playing, and experiencing music to world-renowned musicians with insatiable appetites for both the competitive and collaborative aspects of chess, the art of music and the sport of chess have enjoyed an enormously productive and mutually influential partnership over the centuries. But the players of chess and the performers and producers of music who share an interest in each other's discipline are only one facet of the many dimensions that comprise the larger picture of…
$1,861,711 spent$7,057 earned by the program60% of program spendingEducation and adult programming: in keeping with its mission of interpreting the game of chess and its continuing cultural and artistic significance, the world chess hall of fame and galleries offers low-cost educational and musical programming. In the evening, the organization held programming events with visiting artists, composers, musicians, scholars, curators, and chess professionals.
$787,122 spentof which $51,000 as grants$28,724 earned by the program26% of program spendingRetail store:supports the mission of the world chess hall of fame and galleries by offering chess and chess related merchandise and merchandise related to or supporting the items on display in the hall of fame and in the exhibition halls as well as merchandise intended to attract visitors to the world chess hall of fame and galleries.
$430,020 spent$84,433 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,078,853.
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 2021 to 2022, from $2.0M to $5.1M (+150%).
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: 2020 0% · 2021 17% · 2022 0% · 2023 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 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
Andrew Walker
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $11k → $45k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 WORLD CHESS MUSEUM 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
WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 100% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC's grant income comes from Missouri funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $31 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 2 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like WORLD CHESS 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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WORLD CHESS 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 WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC?
- WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC (Missouri) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,745 to it, the largest being REGIONAL CULTURAL AND PERFORMING ARTS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ($64,714). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $64,745 in grants to WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC?
- REGIONAL CULTURAL AND PERFORMING ARTS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION is the largest funder on record, with $64,714 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WORLD CHESS MUSEUM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 2 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