Not-for-Profit Humanities Museum Organizations and Their Revenues
- In 2012, 2,579 not-for-profit humanities museum organizations had gross receipts of at least $50,000. Median revenues for organizations in this category were $239,323 (Indicator IV-22a).
- The number of humanities museum organizations doubled from 1989 to 2004 before flattening out at approximately 2,500 organizations from 2004 to 2012.
- Revenues for museum organizations increased substantially from 1994 to 1999, plateaued at approximately $5.8 billion in 1999 and 2004, and then dropped 24% by 2009 (to $4.4 billion). By 2012 revenues had returned to near prerecession levels ($5.7 billion).
- The median age for museum organizations (as measured by the number of years since an organization obtained federal tax-exempt status) was 25 years in 2012鈥攃onsistent with the median for types considered together.
* Organizations whose gross receipts were $50,000 or more. Years are 鈥渃irca鈥 years, a concept developed by the collector of these data to compensate for the often substantial lag between the end of organizations鈥 fiscal year and their filing of IRS Form 990, the annual financial report required of all public charities鈥攁nd the source of the data presented in this indicator. For more on circa years and the rationale for excluding organizations with gross receipts of less than $50,000, see 鈥淎bout the Data.鈥
Source: Original analysis by the Humanities Indicators of data culled from the Internal Revenue Service Form 990 Return Transaction Files by the Urban Institute鈥檚 National Center for Charitable Statistics. Revenues were adjusted for inflation using the Gross Domestic Product Implicit Price Deflators produced by the U.S. Department of Commerce鈥檚 Bureau of Economic Analysis (annual deflators, vintage 3/27/2015; , accessed 4/6/2015).
The not-for-profit organizations that are the focus of this indicator are all IRS-designated 501(c)(3) public charities. As the IRS explains: 鈥淎 private foundation is any domestic or foreign organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code except for an organization referred to in section 509(a)(1), (2), (3), or (4). In effect, the definition divides section 501(c)(3) organizations into two classes: private foundations and public charities. Generally, organizations that are classified as public charities are those that . . .
- Have an active program of fundraising and receive contributions from many sources, including the general public, governmental agencies, corporations, private foundations or other public charities,
- Receive income from the conduct of activities in furtherance of the organization鈥檚 exempt purposes, or
- Actively function in a supporting relationship to one or more existing public charities.
Private foundations, in contrast, typically have a single major source of funding (usually gifts from one family or corporation rather than funding from many sources) and most have as their primary activity the making of grants to other charitable organizations and to individuals, rather than the direct operation of charitable programs鈥 (, accessed 5/29/2015).
The data that are the basis of the analysis presented here were culled by the Urban Institute鈥檚 National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) from the IRS Form 990 Return Transaction Files. In the earlier years for which data are presented here鈥1989, 1994, 1999, and 2004鈥攖he IRS required that every tax-exempt public charity with typical gross receipts of $25,000 or more complete the Form 990 annually. Using the form, charities described their financial condition, activities, and key personnel. The IRS has since changed its rules with regard to which organizations must file and how much financial information they must provide. To ensure the comparability of data for earlier years with data for 2009 and 2012, the Humanities Indicators (HI) limited the updated analysis to organizations whose gross receipts were typically $50,000 or more.
In analyzing the information supplied by organizations on their Form 990s, the NCCS employs the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE), a widely used categorization scheme developed by NCCS to distinguish among the various kinds of organizations on the basis of their primary mission. While the NTEE includes a category for the humanities, other types of organizations that the HI consider to fall within this category, such as humanities-focused museums and libraries, are classified separately within the NTEE. In 2005, at the request of the HI鈥檚 data analysis team, the NCCS assembled information on all tax-exempt humanities organizations that fall within the HI鈥檚 purview* at five-year intervals going back as many years as the NCCS database permitted. This yielded data for a 15-year period extending from 1989 to 2004. The recent update of this indicator involved adding two data points (2009 and 2012) and also data for certain organizations that were not captured as part of the first analysis, including adult literacy organizations and heritage language schools.
The data presented here are for 鈥渃irca鈥 years, a concept developed by NCCS to compensate for the often substantial lag between the end of organizations鈥 fiscal year and their filing of IRS Form 990. The range of the circa year period includes fiscal periods starting in the most recent calendar year, plus the prior two calendar years.
* For an inventory of the kinds of institutions and groups considered 鈥渉umanities organizations鈥 for the purpose of this indicator, as well as examples of the types of organizations included in each of the broad categories of humanities organizations, see 鈥淲hat is a 鈥楬umanities Organization鈥?鈥 The humanities not-for-profit sector as defined here does not include private not-for-profit general educational programs or institutions.
