Museum of Science
Boston, MA · EIN 04-2103916. Reported 50 grants totalling $1,147,549 to 38 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 Museum of Science, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A570) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 38 distinct organizations, with 14% 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. 24% 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 $15,072. Half of what it reported fell between $8,478 and $22,927; the smallest was $5,879 and the largest $163,345. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clubhouse Network Inc | Roxbury, MA | $163,345 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| North Carolina Museum of Life & Science | Durham, NC | $152,391 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Arizona State University Ofc Research & Sponsored Proj | Tempe, AZ | $145,887 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Edtogether | Boston, MA | $97,593 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Oregon Museum of Science and Industry | Portland, OR | $48,454 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Trustees of Boston University | Boston, MA | $34,894 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Northeastern University | Boston, MA | $32,535 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Eden Youth Center Inc | Hayward, CA | $30,629 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Family Service Association | San Antonio, TX | $24,990 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Aurora Consulting | Minneapolis, MN | $24,349 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Listoamerica Inc | Tustin, CA | $23,888 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Northwest Activities Center | Detroit, MI | $23,782 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| COMPUTERS4KIDS | Charlottesvle, VA | $22,927 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Gold Crown Foundation Inc | Denver, CO | $22,574 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Howard Area Community Center | Chicago, IL | $21,790 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Friends of Expo Center | Los Angeles, CA | $21,169 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Archdiocese of Boston Department of Education | Brighton, MA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston a Corporation Sole | Braintree, MA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Friends of the Hennepin County Library | Minneapolis, MN | $19,984 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| University of Rochester | Rochester, NY | $17,544 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Childrens Museum of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, PA | $15,194 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Horizons for Homeless Children Inc | Roxbury, MA | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rockman Et Al Inc | Berkeley, CA | $12,865 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Science Museum of Minnesota | Saint Paul, MN | $12,686 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Boston Education Development Foundation Inc | Roxbury, MA | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Inc | Bentonville, AR | $11,215 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts | Minneapolis, MN | $10,677 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Sciencenter Discovery Museum | Ithaca, NY | $9,750 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hueneme Elementary School District | Port Hueneme, CA | $8,750 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Da Vinci Discovery Center of Science and Technology | Allentown, PA | $8,250 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Bisbee Science Exploration & Research Center Inc | Bisbee, AZ | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Explora Science Center & Childrens Museum of Albuquerque | Albuquerque, NM | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Great Lakes Museum of Science Environment and Technology | Cleveland, OH | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mcwane Science Center | Birmingham, AL | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Memphis Museums Inc | Memphis, TN | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Orlando Science Center Inc | Orlando, FL | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Works Ohio Center of History Art & Technology | Newark, OH | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Education Development Center Inc | Waltham, MA | $7,937 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
7 of 38 (18%) 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.
- The Clubhouse Network
Fed'l subaward: DOJ IMPACTS 2.0 - Arizona State University
Fed'l subawards: ChemAttitudes,Building Capacity for Co-Created Public Engagement w/Sci. - Museum of Life & Science
FED'L SUBAWARDS: BUILDING CAPACITY FOR CO-CREATED PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT W/SCI., CITIZEN SCI, CIVICS, AND RESILIENT COMMUNITIES - Edtogether Inc
Fed'l subawards: Productive Struggle, Exhibit Appraisal and Diverse Populations - Arizona State University Ofc Research & Sponsored Proj
Federal subawards: ChemAttitudes,Building Capacity for Co-Created Public Engagement w/Sci. - Edtogether Inc Attn Gabrielle Schlichtmann
Federal subawards: Appraisal in Diverse Populations: Pilot Research About Intersectional Identity in Science Exhibits
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 26 of 38 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 21 | $706,493 | $22,574 |
| 2021 | 11 | $188,691 | $15,016 |
| 2022 | 16 | $163,577 | $8,000 |
| 2023 | 2 | $88,788 | $44,394 |
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
35% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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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 $15,072 -- 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 Massachusetts.
- 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.
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Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Museum of Science's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 2 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: 1 Science Park, Boston, MA, 02114.
EIN 04-2103916 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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