Financial support comes from members and from grants by organizations such as the BankGiro Loterij [nl] (a Dutch lottery).
[1][3] Their website provides access to a database which documents some 1400 mills in the Netherlands; "Het Nederlands Molenbestand" is authoritative on the topic.
[4] The organization is often given credit for organizing a powerful and effective lobby aimed at procuring money from Dutch government institutions to fund restoration projects.
[5] Its former president Frederik Stokhuyzen was one of the foremost scholars on Dutch windmills; a recently revised edition of his 1961 book Molens is still the standard book on the topic.
[6] In 1981, Prince Claus of the Netherlands became the organization's patron, and attended ten ceremonies at which windmills were reopened;[7] at his death in 2002 the 12 windmills owned and operated by the organization had their sails set in the "mourning position,"[8][9] with the lowest sail fixed and set slightly to the right.