The Pursuit of History Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 841964120
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2025–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Marlborough, MA, USA
- Phone
- 4692337712
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Historical Societies, Related Historical Activities
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $286,904
- Expenses
- $173,182
- Assets
- $203,238
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LEE WRIGHT (PRESIDENT)
People named in this filing
- JOHN BELL (DIRECTOR)
- ROSE DOHERTY (DIRECTOR)
- SAM FORMAN (DIRECTOR)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The pursuit of history is a non-profit organization than engages people in conversation about history and connects them with historic sites in their communities and across the country. The organization believes that more people gaining a broader understanding of history has never been more important.
What it reported doing in 2025
The pursuit of history is the national non-profit organization that engages adults in conversation about history and connects them with historic sites in their communities and across the country through innovative in-person and online programming. Our in-person events include history camp, which we started in 2014, and pursuit of history weekends, which we started in 2023. Our online programs include weekly in-depth history camp author discussions. And throughout we have made as much of this as widely available as possible, including through our video archive of hundreds of full-length author discussions and history camp presentations. The video below brings this to life, and below the video we have more about how we started and why. Today history camp is the largest event of its kind in the nation. Last year we had 400 people from all walks of life come from 27 states for more than 50 sessions on a wide variety of topics. Our series, the pursuit of history for america's 250th, travels to two cities every year now through 2033 for a deep dive into history where it happened 250 years ago.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 63% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- 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 - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. 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: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 71
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 56.5%; rating input score 57
- Program expense ratio: 94.5%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: $97.25 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 39.6%; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.17; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: 37% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 37.2% per year; rating input score 100; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 56.5% of revenue deployed · 94.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $164K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.