Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Public charity

Cabelas Outdoor Fund

Promotion of conservation and of hunting, fishing, camping, boating, and other sporting and recreational activities.

$2.0M
Granted FY2019
27
Grants FY2019
20
States reached
$300k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2019.

Recreation & Sports$2.6MAnimals$1.3MEnvironment$880kCrime & Legal$500kYouth Development$363kHealth$177kFood & Nutrition$75kPublic Safety & Disaster$50kOther$0
02FY2019 · 27 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 27 grants below total $1,884,107 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $2,043,238 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $159,131 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2019

  • Under $10k3 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k9 grants · $160k
  • $50k–250k14 grants · $1.4M
  • $250k+1 grant · $300k
$50,000
Median grant
20
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
USA CLAY TARGET FOUNDATION$300,000
CONGRESSIONAL SPORTMEN'S FNDN$200,000
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK FOUNDATION$150,000
NATIONAL WILD TURKEY FEDERATI$150,000
DUCKS UNLIMITED$150,000
PHEASANTS FOREVER$125,000
US SPORTSMEN'S ALLIANCE FNDN$100,000
NATIONAL ARCHERY IN SCHOOL PROGRAM$100,000
WILD SALMON CENTER$100,000
CASTING FOR RECOVERY INC$80,000
BOONE AND CROCKETT$50,000
NATIONAL ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION$50,000
THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION$50,000
RECREATIONAL BOATING & FISHIING$50,000
SCHOLASTIC ARCHERY ASSOCIATION$50,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY18–18, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%YOUTH OUTDOORS UNLIMITED: $5k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

ME
VT
WA
ID
MT
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
OR
OH
PA
CT
UT
CO
NE
KY
VA
MD
AZ
AR
TN
SC
DC
LA
TX

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

76%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$4.5M · 15 repeat orgs$1.4M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +55% since the first grant, against +55% for the ones you funded once.

15 repeat relationships — 14 still active in FY2019, 1 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
25

Total granted

$4.5M
$943k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+55%
+55%

Still filing today

80%
76%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2019, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $499k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19
AnimalsEnvironmentRecreation & SportsPublic Safety & DisasterHealthEducationOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • CS
    CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION
    3× · 2017–2019 · $1.1M · revenue +20%
  • UC
    USA CLAY TARGET LEAGUE
    2× · 2018–2019 · $550k · revenue +167%
  • TU
    THE UNITED STATES SPORTSMEN'S ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC
    3× · 2017–2019 · $450k · revenue +125%

Funded once

  • NF
    NRA FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2017 · $500k · revenue -7%
  • MU
    MICHIGAN UNITED CONSERVATION CLUBS
    one grant, 2017 · $71k · revenue +9%
  • PC
    PROJECT CHILDSAFE INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $50k · revenue +263% · 93% of their budget

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Pa Federation of Sportsmens & Conservationists Inc

The mission of the pfsc is to protect and promote hunting, fishing, trapping and realted sportsmen's rights and privileges, to secure and defend our 2nd amendment rights as guaranteed by the constitution of the united states of america; to…

—
2
Arizona Wildlife Federation

Arizona Wildlife Federation's purpose is to promote and encourage the conservation, propagation, development and management of fish, game and other wildlife; to promote and encourage the wise use, conservation and restoration of waters,…

Animals
3
Montana Wildlife Federation

The montana wildlife federation is a statewide conservation organization dedicated to protecting wildlife, wildlife habitat, and public access for outdoor recreation.

Animals
4
Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation

The mission of the organization is to educate the public and outdoorsmen about wildlife and wildlife conservation and to raise funds for conservation grants.

Animals
5
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Backcountry hunters & anglers seeks to ensure north america's outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands and waters.

Environment
6
Idaho Wildlife Federation

The Idaho Wildlife Federation (IWF) promotes the conservation of Idaho's wildlife heritage and legacy of sporting opportunities for the current and future generations.

Animals
7
Wildlife Conservation Foundation

1. To preserve land and wildlife for the use and education of future generations.2. To assist in wildlife management programs that protect and preserve land and wildlife.3. To provide education regardign the importance of hunting and its…

Animals
8
Penn Dutch Sportsmen Inc

The purpose of penn-dutch sportsmen, inc. shall be to protect and propagate game and fish, to assist in the conservation of forests and streams, to assist in making fish and game laws, and to foster and perpetuate a feeling of goodwill…

—
9
Tennessee Wildlife Federation Inc

Leading the conservation, sound management, and wise use of tennessee's wildlife and great outdoors, tennessee wildlife federation advocates sound natural resource policies and provides various educational programs that promote the…

Environment
10
Midwest Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

To protect right of jurisdiction of the midwestern states over their wildlife resources on public and private lands

Environment
11
Ruffed Grouse Society Group Return

Established in 1961, the ruffed grouse society unites conservationists to improve wildlife habitat and forest health and promote a conservation ethic, all grounded in the tenets of science-based management practices.

Environment
12
Dallas Safari Club

The organization's mission is to conserve wildlife and wilderness lands; to educate the youth and the general public and to promote and protect the rights and interests of hunters worldwide.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The United States Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Wildland Awareness and Educational Institute. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 28 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%5%5–10yr19%22%10–20yr16%29%20–35yr13%34%35–55yr16%10%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%1%5–10yr19%20%10–20yr16%20%20–35yr13%53%35–55yr16%6%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/53
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,512

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

42 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 42 of the 53 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
41/42
Grantees still filing
34/42
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION — $1,050,000 · OtherCONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATIONNATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION USA INC — $500,000 · OtherNATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION USA INCPHEASANTS FOREVER — $450,000 · OtherPHEASANTS FOREVERNATIONAL WILD TURKEY FEDERATI — $300,000 · OtherNATIONAL WILD TURKEY FEDERATI+17 more — $224,175 · Other+17 moreTHE UNITED STATES SPORTSMEN'S ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC — $450,000 · AnimalsTHE UNITED STATES S…ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK FOUNDATION INC — $175,000 · AnimalsROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK …WILD SALMON CENTER — $100,000 · AnimalsWILD SALMON CENTERTHEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP INC — $50,000 · AnimalsNEBRASKA SPORTMEN'S FOUNDATION — $50,000 · AnimalsDelta Waterfowl Foundation — $50,000 · AnimalsBOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB — $50,000 · AnimalsMULE DEER FOUNDATION — $40,000 · Animals+3 more — $29,421 · AnimalsUSA CLAY TARGET LEAGUE — $550,000 · Recreation & SportsUSA CLAY TARGET LE…NATIONAL ARCHERY IN SCHOOLS PROGRAMS INC — $200,000 · Recreation & SportsNATIONAL ARCHERY I…SCHOLASTIC ARCHERY ASSOCIATION CORPORATION — $150,000 · Recreation & SportsSCHOLASTIC ARCHERY…+3 more — $46,000 · Recreation & SportsDALLAS ECOLOGICAL FOUNDATION — $175,000 · EnvironmentDALLAS ECOLO…NATIONAL ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION — $150,000 · EnvironmentNATIONAL ARB…Ducks Unlimited Inc — $150,000 · EnvironmentDucks Unlimi…MICHIGAN UNITED CONSERVATION CLUBS — $71,250 · EnvironmentMICHIGAN UNI…NEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS FOUNDATION — $50,000 · EnvironmentNEBRASKA GAM…CENTER FOR SPORTFISHING POLICY — $25,000 · Environment+4 more — $42,790 · Environment+4 moreNRA FOUNDATION INC — $500,000 · Crime & LegalNRA FOUND…CASTING FOR RECOVERY — $163,335 · HealthPROJECT HEALING WATERS FLY FISHING INC — $8,335 · HealthPROJECT CHILDSAFE INC — $50,000 · Public Safety & DisasterRECREATIONAL BOATING AND FISHING FOUNDATION — $50,000 · Public Safety & Disaster
Other$2,524,175Animals$994,421Recreation & Sports$946,000Environment$664,040Crime & Legal$500,000Health$171,670Public Safety & Disaster$100,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION — $1,050,000 over 3y, 10% of budgetUSA CLAY TARGET LEAGUE — $550,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetNRA FOUNDATION INC — $500,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetTHE UNITED STATES SPORTSMEN'S ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC — $450,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetNATIONAL ARCHERY IN SCHOOLS PROGRAMS INC — $200,000 over 2y, 3.1% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK FOUNDATION INC — $175,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetDALLAS ECOLOGICAL FOUNDATION — $175,000 over 2y, 22% of budgetCASTING FOR RECOVERY — $163,335 over 2y, 5.0% of budgetSCHOLASTIC ARCHERY ASSOCIATION CORPORATION — $150,000 over 2y, 20% of budgetNATIONAL ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION — $150,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetDucks Unlimited Inc — $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWILD SALMON CENTER — $100,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetMICHIGAN UNITED CONSERVATION CLUBS — $71,250 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetPROJECT CHILDSAFE INC — $50,000 over 1y, 93% of budgetTHEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP INC — $50,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetDelta Waterfowl Foundation — $50,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNEBRASKA GAME AND PARKS FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetRECREATIONAL BOATING AND FISHING FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB — $50,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetCENTER FOR SPORTFISHING POLICY — $25,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetCAST (CATCH A SPECIAL THRILL) FOR KIDS FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetWILDLAND AWARENESS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE — $20,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetARCHERS USA FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 5.6% of budgetSOUTH CAROLINA WATERFOWL ASSOCIATION — $15,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetArizona Elk Society — $12,921 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetRUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY — $12,184 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCouncil to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports — $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetSAFARI CLUB INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budget100 CLUB OF ARIZONA — $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetGalveston Bay Foundation Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPROJECT HEALING WATERS FLY FISHING INC — $8,335 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetOutdoors For Our Heroes — $5,784 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetSOUTHWEST IDAHO RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT INC — $5,606 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetPINE TREE STATE 4-H FOUNDATION — $5,300 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetYOUTH OUTDOORS UNLIMITED — $5,227 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetPHEASANTS FOREVER INC — $5,015 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Bass Pro Shops & Cabe…Rocky Mountain Elk Fo…NRA Foundation IncWhitetails Unlimited …National Fish and Wil…Weatherby Foundation …Dsc Foundation IncNational Forest Found…Midway USA Foundation…Greater Houston Commu…Servant FoundationShell USA Company Fou…
Bass Pro Shops & Cabelas Outdoor FundMO48.6× affinity21 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Bass Pro Shops & Cabelas Outdoor Fund · Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Inc · NRA Foundation Inc · Whitetails Unlimited Inc · National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · Weatherby Foundation International Inc · Dsc Foundation Inc · National Forest Foundation · Midway USA Foundation Inc · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Servant Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Cabelas Outdoor Fund funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 49%
  • Wild Salmon Center — 49% of income from government
  • Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing Inc — 46% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
10report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Cabelas Outdoor Fund?

Find your warmest path to Cabelas Outdoor Fund through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 53 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2019, released 2019. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home