MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

As filed

Subsection

03

NTEE code

A800

Classification

2000

Street

345 KELLOGG BLVD W

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2024

• Historic Sites and Museums: MNHS operates 26 historic sites and museums throughout the state that allow people to access history through programs, exhibits, and tours. More than 826,600 visitors explored MNHS sites in FY25. Mill City Museum, Minnesota History Center, and Split Rock Lighthouse were the most-visited sites. The Minnesota History Center welcomed Girlhood (It's complicated), a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution, which showed how girls have spoken up, challenged expectations, and been on the front lines of social change. In addition to the traveling exhibit, the MNHS exhibits department developed a local component focused on girls' basketball called Minnesota (where girls shoot hoops). Split Rock Lighthouse initiated a restoration project to improve accessibility and provide visitors with an enhanced experience at the historic site. The project, which began in April, includes improvements to existing pathways and restoring historic circulation patterns within the historic core.

  Expenses $19,761,661 · Revenue $6,821,759

• Education, Outreach, and Content Development: MNHS develops Minnesota history curriculum, provides teacher education, and coordinates the Minnesota History Day Program. Approximately 19,000 students from around Minnesota participated in History Day, with 59 students representing Minnesota in the national competition. Those students were awarded 4 medals, 5 finalists, and 7 honorable mentions. MNHS is making significant progress in the revising of Northern Lights, a print and digital curriculum used by more than 90% of sixth grade students in the state, and expects to publish the third edition of Northern Lights in 2026. MNHS Press published 13 new titles and sold more than 100,000 units in FY25. The Digital Products and Production team received an Upper Midwest Emmy in the Historical/Cultural/Nostalgia - Long Form Content category for the documentary: Music Making History: How a Song Saved a Theater. Fifteen episodes of The Minnesota Unraveled podcast were released and downloaded 38,000 times. MNopedia, the online resource for Minnesota history, topped more than 1 million views for the first time in FY25.

  Expenses $14,641,110 · Revenue $1,839,372

• Library and Collections: Our library and collections departments maintain and make available to the public the MNHS's collection of books, newspapers, maps, objects, photographs, works of art, oral history recordings, private manuscripts, and periodicals on Minnesota History. MNHS catalogs, restores, and digitizes documents and records to make them available for public use. MNHS gained 608 new acquisitions in FY25 across manuscripts, fine art, 3D, sound/visual, and maps/rare books. New Acquisitions include the Military Intelligence Service Language School graph collection - a unique set of images documenting the service and activities of numerous Japanese-Americans serving in the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage and Fort Snelling in Minnesota. More than 1.5 million pages of current and historic newspapers were added to the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub in FY25; more than 8.1 million pages are now available.

  Expenses $13,944,188 · Revenue $2,288,609

• Heritage Preservation: The MNHS Heritage Preservation department provides technical assistance and grants for historic preservation, administers grant programs supporting projects in preservation and interpretation of Minnesota history. In FY25, more than $6.8 million was provided by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund for 185 Legacy Grants across Minnesota. Demand for these grants outweighs resources 2.6 to 1, and more than 76 counties have received $100,00 or more in Legacy history funds since 2009.

  Expenses $9,273,666 · Grants $7,620,941

As filed on the 2024 return.

Officers and directors · 2024

As listed in Part VII of the 2024 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

The first 25 listed. Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

• 2024

  Revenue

  $85,392,186

  Expenses

  $74,224,936

  Contributions

  $56,751,467

  Grants paid

  $7,620,941

• 2023

  Revenue

  $96,755,531

  Expenses

  $71,067,324

  Contributions

  $62,142,192

  Grants paid

  $6,621,098

• 2022

  Revenue

  $91,494,356

  Expenses

  $65,750,419

  Contributions

  $77,323,366

  Grants paid

  $7,571,044

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Other returns filed

• 2024 · 990-T

  Revenue

  — not reported

  Expenses

  — not reported

  Assets (EOY)

  — not reported

• 2023 · 990-T

  Revenue

  — not reported

  Expenses

  — not reported

  Assets (EOY)

  — not reported

• 2022 · 990-T

  Revenue

  — not reported

  Expenses

  — not reported

  Assets (EOY)

  — not reported

• 2021 · 990

  Revenue

  $63,620,828

  Expenses

  $55,381,723

  Assets (EOY)

  $275,417,631

• 2021 · 990-T

  Revenue

  — not reported

  Expenses

  — not reported

  Assets (EOY)

  — not reported

• 2020 · 990

  Revenue

  $62,868,869

  Expenses

  $48,824,377

  Assets (EOY)

  $299,649,325

• 2020 · 990-T

  Revenue

  — not reported

  Expenses

  — not reported

  Assets (EOY)

  — not reported

• 2019 · 990

  Revenue

  $58,257,393

  Expenses

  $56,385,651

  Assets (EOY)

  $261,681,031

• 2018 · 990

  Revenue

  $59,540,312

  Expenses

  $58,025,895

  Assets (EOY)

  $260,194,526

• 2017 · 990

  Revenue

  $94,047,659

  Expenses

  $58,975,026

  Assets (EOY)

  $255,000,197

Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all. Showing the 10 most recent; the API carries the rest.

Grants made

• UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

  $386,316

  2023 · Legacy Grant for Various projects focused on historical research, cultural preservation, community collaboration, and ecological studies in Minnesota, such as oral histories, historical databases, preservation efforts, and conservation initiatives.

• REGENTS UNIVERSITY OF MN

  $339,226

  2022 · Legacy Grant for Stories of the Opioid Crisis in Northeastern Minnesota

• SACRED HEART AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

  $297,703

  2022 · Legacy Grant for Hotel Sacred Heart Phase 2 Construction

• TODD COUNTY

  $276,500

  2023 · Legacy Grant for Construction of Courthouse Rock Wall Phase 1

• OTTER TAIL COUNTY

  $275,500

  2022 · Capital Grant for Phelps Mill Preservation (Phase 1)

• FRIENDS OF LINDEN HILL INC

  $272,500

  2024 · Legacy Grant for Rehabilitation of Exterior Barn, Carriage House and Greenhouse

• CITY OF HACKENSACK

  $244,761

  2024 · Legacy Grant for conservation building phase 1 preservation stabilization

• CITY OF SANDSTONE

  $238,813

  2023 · Legacy Grant for Sandstone Public School Roof Stabilization Project

• CITY OF GAYLORD

  $236,498

  2022 · Legacy Grant for Oaks Lakeside Pavilion

• ARMORY ARTS & MUSIC CENTER

  $225,000

  2022 · Legacy Grant for Duluth Armory - Partial Reroofing

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Where these grants went next →

Grants received

• FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND

  $571,147

  2023 · For grant recipient's exempt purposes

• FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND

  $523,956

  2022 · For grant recipient's exempt purposes

• SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION

  $360,066

  2023 · MULTIPLE GRANTS FOR PROGRAMS, OPERATIONS, OR OTHER PURPOSES

• MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION

  $211,165

  2022 · DONOR-RECOMMENDED, ARTS & CULTURE

• SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION

  $205,567

  2022 · MULTIPLE GRANTS FOR MULTIPLE PURPOSES

• DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING

  $203,952

  2022 · ARTS, CULTURE & HUMANITIES

• MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION

  $118,422

  2023 · ARTS- CULTURE- HUMANITIES, DONOR-ADVISED, ARTS- CULTURE- HUMANITIES

• MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION

  $112,026

  2024 · DONOR ADVISED, ARTS, CULTURE, HUMANITIES

• CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA

  $102,143

  2022 · CHARITABLE DONATION

• NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TR

  $88,050

  2022 · CULTURE & ARTS

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Related organizations

From Schedule R Part II, where a filer lists the tax-exempt organizations it is related to by control. It does not record shared board members or money.

Other IRS files