Grant Funding
Grants are the backbone of this museum
Every grant this Foundation has received has gone directly into exhibits, collections care, and programs for Keys children and families. We are deeply grateful for each one — and candid about how much future grant support will shape what this Center becomes.
Thank you
To every foundation, agency, and trust that has invested here
The Florida Keys History & Discovery Center exists because people outside this building believed the story of these islands was worth telling well. Grant funders were among the first of them, and they remain among the most important.
Their awards have paid for exhibits that thousands of visitors walk through each year, for the careful keeping of photographs and artifacts entrusted to us by Keys families, and for the hands-on programs where local children learn how these islands were made and what it will take to keep them. We do not take a single award for granted, and we say so publicly here.
Grants carry the largest share of our budget
In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, contributions and grants accounted for $759,365 of $905,412 in total revenue. Earned revenue from admissions and programs was $80,834. That arithmetic is the plain truth of this museum: without grant support, the doors do not stay open at the level this community deserves.
Grants fund the work no ticket price covers
Admission pays for a visit. Grants pay for the things a visit never shows — archival storage and conservation, exhibit research and fabrication, scholarships for Keys kids, and the equipment that lets a child put a seagrass blade under a microscope.
Grants let a small museum act like a large one
We are a small staff supported by a working volunteer board and a corps of volunteers. A single grant can add an exhibit, a season of lectures, or a full camp session — outcomes that would otherwise take years of general fundraising to reach.
Grants signal confidence to everyone else
When a foundation or agency invests here, individual donors, members, and corporate partners follow. Every award does double duty: the dollars themselves, and the credibility they lend to the next ask.
Revenue figures above are taken from the Foundation's IRS Form 990 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. See our financials & governance page for the full five-year summary and independent verification links.
Where grant dollars go
What a grant actually pays for here
These are the areas where grant support has the clearest, most immediate effect.
Exhibits and interpretation
Research, writing, design, fabrication, and installation — from the Overseas Railroad and the 1935 hurricane to the reef, the flats fishery, and water and power in the Keys. Grant funding is what turns a well-documented story into a room a visitor can walk through.
Collections and archives
Proper housing, cataloging, digitization, and climate-appropriate storage for photographs, documents, and artifacts entrusted to us by Keys families. This is permanent, unglamorous, essential work.
Children and school programs
Kids' Discovery Camp, school group visits, classroom materials, and camp scholarships so that cost never decides which child gets to learn about these islands.
Public programs and lectures
Speakers, authors, historians, and scientists brought to Islamorada, plus Coffee with the Curator — kept free or affordable for the community because grant support underwrites them.
Access and capacity
Accessibility improvements, digital access to the collection, volunteer training, and the operating capacity that keeps a small institution stable enough to plan beyond the current season.
How we steward an award
Funded, tracked, reported, and open to inspection
- Grant funds are tracked by award and spent only on the purposes described in the proposal.
- Reports and financial documentation are delivered on the funder's schedule, in the funder's format.
- Our IRS Form 990 filings from 2014 forward are public, and our five-year financial summary is published on this site.
- Funders are welcome at the Center any time, announced or not, to see the work their award paid for.
- Recognition is offered at the level each funder prefers — including none at all.
Organization details for funders
- Legal name
- Florida Keys History and Discovery Foundation, Inc.
- Federal EIN
- 46-1936911
- Tax status
- 501(c)(3) public charity, recognized January 2014
- Florida charitable registration
- CH38469
- Fiscal year end
- June 30
- Mailing address
- PO Box 1124, Islamorada, FL 33036
Start a conversation
If you make grants, we would like to talk
Grant inquiries are handled jointly by Josh Dickerson, our Director of Development & Fundraising, and Dr. Heather Gonyeau, our Curator, Historian & Archivist. Together they can provide budgets, program descriptions, outcome measures, financial statements, letters of support, and details of the collections and research behind every proposed project — and will gladly host a site visit at Mile Marker 82 so you can see the Center for yourself before you decide.
Josh Dickerson
Director of Development & Fundraising — proposals, budgets, and funder relationships
development@keysdiscovery.comDr. Heather Gonyeau
Curator, Historian & Archivist — program design, collections, and research content
curator@keysdiscovery.comFlorida Keys History and Discovery Foundation, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN 46-1936911.
A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE WITHIN THE STATE, 1-800-HELP-FLA (1-800-435-7352), OR AT WWW.FDACS.GOV. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. REGISTRATION #CH38469.