Indiana Historical Society
Indianapolis, IN · EIN 35-0876384. Reported 57 grants totalling $1,525,624 to 40 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Indiana Historical Society, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A800) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 40 distinct organizations, with 8% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 25% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $23,400. Half of what it reported fell between $12,150 and $43,200; the smallest was $5,274 and the largest $54,975. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circus Hall of Fame Inc | Peru, IN | $119,871 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Jackson County History Center Inc | Brownstown, IN | $99,983 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Daviess County Historical Society Incorporation | Washington, IN | $90,560 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Goshen Historical Society Inc | Goshen, IN | $71,840 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Friends of the New York Central Railroad Museum Inc | Elkhart, IN | $66,935 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Friends of the Knox County Public Library Incorporated | Vincennes, IN | $59,121 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Ewm Inc | Evansville, IN | $58,199 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Jay County Historical Society Incorporated | Portland, IN | $57,844 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Cedar Lake Historical Association Inc | Cedar Lake, IN | $54,759 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Greentown Historical Society Inc | Greentown, IN | $52,224 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Rome Community Center Inc | Rome, IN | $47,308 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Milan 54 Inc | Milan, IN | $46,750 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Bartholomew County Historical Society | Columbus, IN | $46,332 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Historical Society of Ogden Dunes Indiana Inc | Ogden Dunes, IN | $45,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Marshall County Historical Society Inc | Plymouth, IN | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Russiaville Historical Society | Russiaville, IN | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Union Literary Institute Preservation Society Inc | Lynn, IN | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Indianapolis Black Firefighters Assn Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $43,200 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Hoosier Heartland Trolley Co | Russiaville, IN | $36,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Swiss Heritage Society Inc | Berne, IN | $33,660 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Irvington Historical Society Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $31,631 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Indiana Entertainment Foundation Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $28,052 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Lagrange County Historical Society Inc | Lagrange, IN | $27,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Evansville African American Museum Inc | Evansville, IN | $26,400 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Carmel-Clay Historical Society Inc | Carmel, IN | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Indiana Jewish Historical Society Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Quilters Hall of Fame Inc | Marion, IN | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Steuben County Historical Society | Angola, IN | $22,050 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Powers Church and Cemetery Assn | Angola, IN | $20,700 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| La Porte County Historical Steam Society Inc | La Porte, IN | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Starke County Historical Society | Knox, IN | $15,975 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Monon Civic Preservation Society | Monon, IN | $15,606 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Indiana Genealogical Society Inc | Fort Wayne, IN | $14,400 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society Inc | Fort Wayne, IN | $13,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| New Harmony Workingmens Institute | New Harmony, IN | $13,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Indiana National Road Association Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $12,150 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Friends of T C Steele State Historic Site Inc | Nashville, IN | $10,800 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| North Manchester Historical Society | North Manchester, IN | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Randolph Co Historical Society Inc | Winchester, IN | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jane Ross Reeves Octagon House Foundation Ltd | Shirley, IN | $5,274 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
12 of 40 (30%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 25 of 40 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 16 | $505,235 | $31,152 |
| 2022 | 16 | $458,462 | $29,628 |
| 2023 | 21 | $531,397 | $22,500 |
| 2024 | 4 | $30,530 | $7,553 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $23,400 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Indiana.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Indiana Historical Society's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 4 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, IN, 46202.
EIN 35-0876384 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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