Maryland Historical Society Inc
Baltimore, MD · EIN 52-0403670. Reported 78 grants totalling $742,250 to 48 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, 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 Maryland Historical Society Inc, 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. 48 distinct organizations, with 4% 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. 52% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $10,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $20,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accokeek Foundation Inc | Accokeek, MD | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Montgomery County Historical Society Inc | Rockville, MD | $30,000 | 3 | 2 | 2023 |
| Sandy Spring Museum Inc | Sandy Spring, MD | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Adkins Arboretum Ltd | Ridgely, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Baltimore County Historical Society Inc | Cockeysville, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Bethesda Historical Society Inc | Bethesda, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation Inc | Annapolis, MD | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Catoctin Furnace Historical Society Inc | Thurmont, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Friends of Historical Cherry Hill a U M P Inc | Randallstown, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Historic Sotterley Inc | Hollywood, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Historic Takoma Inc | Takoma Park, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Historical Society of Harford County Inc | Bel Air, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Hosanna Community House Inc | Darlington, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lost Towns Project | Annapolis, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Maryland Lynching Memorial Project Inc | Towson, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Menare Foundation Inc | Germantown, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture Inc | Baltimore, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd | Rockville, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Prince Georges County Historical Society Inc | Uppr Marlboro, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Riversdale Historical Society Inc | Riverdale, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point Inc | Baltimore, MD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Pride of Baltimore Inc | Baltimore, MD | $18,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Lenox Theatre Projects Inc | Baltimore, MD | $16,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Historic Hampton Incorporated | Towson, MD | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Berlin Heritage Foundation Inc | Berlin, MD | $13,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Southwest Partnership Inc | Baltimore, MD | $13,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Delmarva Discovery Center & Museum Inc | Pocomoke City, MD | $12,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Howard County Conservancy Inc | Woodstock, MD | $12,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| African American Fire Fighters Historical Society Inc | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Afro Charities Inc | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| C&o Canal Trust Inc | Williamsport, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Field of Firsts Foundation Inc | College Park, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Friends of Greenbelt Theatre | Greenbelt, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Friends of Hancocks Resolution Inc | Pasadena, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Gaithersburg Parks Arts and Recreation Corporation | Gaithersburg, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Havre De Grace Maritime Museum Inc | Hvre De Grace, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Historical Society of Carroll County Maryland Inc | Westminster, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lakeland Community Heritage Project | College Park, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Market Center Community Development Corporation | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| National Electronics Museum Inc | Hunt Valley, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Natural History Society of Maryland Inc | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District Inc | Baltimore, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Richardson Maritime Museum Incorporated | Cambridge, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Washington County Historical Society Inc | Hagerstown, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Baltimore Architecture Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | $7,750 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Chevy Chase Historical Society Ltd | Chevy Chase, MD | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Germantown Historical Society Inc | Germantown, MD | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
27 of 48 (56%) 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 the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation Inc
PRESERVING A LOCAL LEGACY COLLECTION - Adkins Arboretum
FY 2021 MILLER FUND GRANT - African American Fire Fighters
FY 2023 MILLER HISTORY FUND GRANT - Sandy Spring Museum
FY 2024 MILLER HISTORY FUND GRANT - C&o Canal Trust Inc
IMPROVING TECHNOLOGY AND BUILDING CAPACITY TO LEVERAGE THE C&O CANALS 50TH ANNIVERSARY - Friends of Hancock's Resolution (fohr)
HANCOCK'S RESOLUTION INTERPRETATION PROJECT
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 31 of 48 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 19 | $182,250 | $10,000 |
| 2021 | 21 | $190,000 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 21 | $200,000 | $10,000 |
| 2023 | 17 | $170,000 | $10,000 |
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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $10,000 -- 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 Maryland.
- 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 Maryland Historical Society Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: 610 Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21201.
EIN 52-0403670 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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