Museum of Science

Overview

Mission

The mission of the Museum of Science is to inspire a lifelong love of science in everyone. The Museum Advisors of the Museum of Science are a group of community leaders and friends with a special interest in science, technology, and education who support the mission of the Museum. Chair, Board of Museum Advisors Peter Jaffe. Now Bloomberg — a renowned philanthropist, engineer, and 108th mayor of New York City — has ensured that visitors can have the same eye-opening, life-changing experiences he did as a boy. The $50 million gift provides an endowment for the support of the Museum’s Education Division to be named the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center in honor of his parents. It also provides funds to research, design, develop, pilot-test, and disseminate computational thinking/computer science curriculum and activities, as well as funds to develop and produce...

What it reported doing in 2024

Theaters include the charles hayden planetarium, offering presentations, events, and demonstrations of astronomy and space science topics, current discoveries, and other science/technology-inspired programming. The mugar omni theater, the largest domed imax theater in new england, offers digital documentary and science-fiction inspired films and presentations, while a smaller 4-d theater offers short 3-d films on a range of science and nature topics augmented by sensory effects such as wind, mist, and smell. Planetarium shows this year included: big bird's adventure: one world, one sky; destination mars: the new frontier; from dream to discovery: inside nasa; explore our changing earth; explore the universe; moons: worlds of mystery; undiscovered worlds: the search beyond our sun; the beyonce experience; the fleetwood mac experience; pink floyd: the wall; the prince experience; the radiohead experience imax films included: ancient caves; back from the brink: saved from extinction; rocky mountain express; superpower dogs. Omni sci-fi films: dune; matrix: resurrections 4d theater films included: sharks: a 4-d experience; ice worlds: 4d; penguins: 4d; polar express: 4d; splash & bubbles: 4d; thomas: 4d (465,900 theater visitors served)

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The nonprofit carried out 98% of its reported program work directly.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
042103916
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Website reviewed
Jun 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Headquarters
Boston, MA, USA
Rating
72
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Arts, Culture, and Humanities

Official website

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The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 54
  • Accountability: 91
  • Sustainability: 39
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 73.7%; rating input score 74
  • Fundraising efficiency: $2.79 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.5%; rating input score 90; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 9.4%; rating input score 9; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited
  • Public monitoring controls: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
  • Public policy transparency: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
  • Public financial transparency: 0 of 5 controls in place; rating input score 0
  • Impact reporting controls: 0 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 0
  • Public relationship transparency: No; rating input score 0

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 98%; rating input score 98; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Public governance controls: 1 of 4 controls in place; rating input score 25
  • Zakat policy transparency: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -25.8%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Operating reserve ratio: 7.32; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.7%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -0.2% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site
  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 73.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 48 of 49 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 5 filed program accomplishments · $52.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $530K · 66 people listed · 6 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 44 of 46 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 annual filings from 2009 to 2024
  • Money network: 17 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links