The History Museum
Legal name: Northern Indiana Historical Society Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 351124156
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- South Bend, IN, US
- Phone
- (574) 235-9664
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Historical Societies & Historic Preservation
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,361,246
- Expenses
- $1,876,164
- Assets
- $2,517,124
- Liabilities
- $65,788
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
27 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JIM TUESLEY (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- BRIAN D HARDING (EXECUTIVE DI): $84,990 total reported compensation
- JUDI MILLER (DIRECTOR FIN): $61,865 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The mission of The History Museum is to preserve and share the history of the region through engaging exhibits, educational programs, and historic properties.
What it reported doing in 2025
The history museum preserves our region's heritage and educates the public through our collections, exhibits, and programs to develop an informed understanding of the past. In 2025: - there were 50,847 admissions, 12,155 school children, 42 rental events, 59 bus tuour groups, and 744 members. - exhibits incuded 3 new exhibits in changing galleries, 3 carry-over exhibits from the previous year, and 1 permanent exhibit. - education and programming - 27 public programs and lectures, 5 teacher events, 5 performances of a play, 3 musical events. 2,384 children participated in cabin days programming, plus 2,972 people participated in out touch-a-truck and trunk-or-treat family events, and our 40 podcast episodes received over 6,000 downloads. - facilities - over 25 facility improvements: upgrades to building mechanicals, life saftey, and grounds/gardens. - the museum achieved reaccreditation from the american alliance of museums and was inducted into the south bend community hall of fame for significant contributions to education. Expenses reported in this schedule do not include 361,167 of the value of donated facilities included in the organization's audited financial statements but not reportable under tax law.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 60
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 60
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 54%; rating input score 54
- Program expense ratio: 66%; rating input score 66
- Fundraising efficiency: $35.43 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 20.5%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.34; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.8%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.1% per year; rating input score 100; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 54% of revenue deployed · 66% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 25 of 25 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.2M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $85K · 27 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 54/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 44/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 41/100.