Skip to content
Plinth

· Public charity

Spruce Root Inc

See schedule oto assist southeast alaskas people, businesses, and communities in reaching long-term economic, social, and environmental resilience, and improve economic conditions in southeast alaska communities through innovation, sustainability and collaboration.

$908k
Granted FY2024still arriving
12
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$134k
Largest
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 FY20202024.

Environment$1.9MCommunity Improvement$218kHuman Services$171kCivil Rights$110kFood & Nutrition$82kPublic Benefit$77kReligion$61kHousing & Shelter$47kOther$0
02FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 12 grants below total $658,529 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $907,991 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $249,462 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 · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $6k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $234k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $419k
$47,347
Median grant
2
States reached
$39M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETY$134,000
ECOTRUST$89,080
HOONAH INDIAN ASSOCIATION$87,000
CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT & HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF ALASKA (TLINGIT & HAIDA$55,000
KLAWOCK COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION (KCA)$53,468
AWARE$47,347
RENEWABLE ENERGY ALASKA PROJECT$42,000
KOOTZNOOWOO INCORPORATED$42,000
SKAGWAY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION$42,000
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ALASKA CHAPTER$41,933
SHAAN SEET$18,701
SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE$6,000
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 (FY20–21, $93k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, 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%YAKUTAT TLINGIT TRIBE: $53k → 12%YAKUTAT TLINGIT TRIBE: $40k → 12%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.

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.3M · 14 repeat orgs$241k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +56% since the first grant, against +40% for the ones you funded once.

14 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
7

Total granted

$2.3M
$182k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+56%
+40%

Still filing today

43%
14%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $59k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentHuman ServicesArts & CultureOther

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

  • SC
    SITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETY
    5× · 2020–2024 · $518k · revenue +47%
  • ECOTRUST
    3× · 2022–2024 · $177k · revenue +63%
  • RE
    RENEWABLE ENERGY ALASKA PROJECT
    4× · 2021–2024 · $144k · revenue +56%

Funded once

  • OV
    ORGANIZED VILLAGE OF KASAAN
    one grant, 2020 · $50k
  • JK
    Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Centergraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $42k · revenue +40%
  • CC
    CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT & HAIDA
    one grant, 2021 · $30k

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
Alaska Rural Electric Cooperative Association Educational Foundation Inc
Environment
2
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council Inc-Seacc

SEACC's mission is to protect the special places of the world's largest temperate rainforest, promote conservation, and advocate for sustainability in human use of natural resources. Inspired by the land, wildlife, cultures, and…

Environment
3
Alaska Wildlife Alliance

Support ecosystem-based wildlife management by increasing public awareness of wildlife issues, responding to information requests, advocating for science-based wildlife habitat management through proposal and comment submissions, and…

Environment
4
Northern Alaska Environmental Center

Since 1971, the northern alaska environmental center has promoted environmental conservation and sustainable resource stewardship in interior and arctic alaska through education and advocacy.

Environment
5
Katmai Conservancy

Katmai Conservancy supports the preservation of Katmai National Park and Preserve its unique ecosystems scenic character and associated natural and cultural resources by promoting greater public interest appreciation and support through…

Environment
6
Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission

The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (Commission), based in Utqiagvik, Alaska, is a nonprofit corporation organized for the purpose of preserving and enhancing the marine resources of Bowhead whales including protection of habitat, Eskimo…

7
Alaska Historical Publication Association
Education
8
Southeast Alaska Wilderness Exploration Analysis and Discovery

Our organization supports community-based approaches to social, economic and environmental sustainability in Southeast Alaska.

Environment
9
Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission

The core purpose of AITRC is "traditional resource stewardship." The core values are "survival; protect and enhance subsistence resources; and partnerships." The vision statement is "our way of life and cultural tradition is unified and…

Environment
10
Southeast Alaska Indiginous Transboundary Commissi

Protecting tribal land and waterways for future generations

Animals
11
Alaska Sustainability Initiative

To advance solutions that build the resilience and sustainability of Alaska, for its current and future residents and the natural systems upon which they depend.

Animals
12
Bering Sea Fishermens Association

Western alaska fisheries support and restoration.

Community Improvement

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition and the most unlike its peers is The Nature Conservancy. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

10 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 25 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
8/10
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

HOONAH INDIAN ASSOCIATION — $594,000 · OtherHOONAH INDIAN ASSOCIATIONECOTRUST — $177,080 · OtherECOTRUSTCENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT & HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF ALASKA (TLINGIT & HAIDA — $132,224 · OtherCENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT & HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF ALASKA (TLINGIT & HAID…KLAWOCK COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION — $131,500 · OtherKLAWOCK COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY ALASKA CHAPTER — $102,933 · OtherTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY ALASKA CHAPTERAWARE Inc — $95,347 · OtherAWARE IncKOOTZNOOWOO INCORPORATED — $84,000 · OtherBARNACLE FOODS — $82,000 · OtherORGANIZED VILLAGE OF KAKE — $76,540 · OtherSHAAN SEET — $60,701 · Other+9 more — $249,468 · Other+9 moreSITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETY — $517,753 · EnvironmentSITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETYRENEWABLE ENERGY ALASKA PROJECT — $144,000 · EnvironmentRENEWABLE ENERGY ALASKA PROJE…SOUTHEAST ALASKA WATERSHED COALITION — $45,000 · EnvironmentSOUTHEAST ALASKA WATERSHED CO…THE YAKUTAT TLINGIT TRIBE NONPROFIT — $93,250 · Human ServicesSKAGWAY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION — $76,070 · Community ImprovementJilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center — $42,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$1,785,793Environment$706,753Human Services$93,250Community Improvement$76,070Arts & Culture$42,000

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 budgetSITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETY — $517,753 over 5y, 7.6% of budgetECOTRUST — $177,080 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetRENEWABLE ENERGY ALASKA PROJECT — $144,000 over 4y, 3.6% of budgetAWARE Inc — $95,347 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetTHE YAKUTAT TLINGIT TRIBE NONPROFIT — $93,250 over 2y, 82% of budgetSKAGWAY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION — $76,070 over 3y, 10% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHEAST ALASKA WATERSHED COALITION — $45,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetJilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center — $42,000 over 1y, 24% of budgetThe Southeast Conference — $6,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

  • Who funds SITKA CONSERVATION SOCIETY
  • Who funds ECOTRUST
  • Who funds RENEWABLE ENERGY ALASKA PROJECT
  • Who funds AWARE Inc
  • Who funds THE YAKUTAT TLINGIT TRIBE NONPROFIT
  • Who funds SKAGWAY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
  • Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
  • Who funds SOUTHEAST ALASKA WATERSHED COALITION
  • Who funds Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center
  • Who funds The Southeast Conference

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.

Rasmuson FoundationAK19.6× affinity7 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Rasmuson Foundation · Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples Inc · The Alaska Community Foundation · Alaska Conservation Foundation · The Nature Conservancy · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile 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 Spruce Root Inc 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 14%
  • Ecotrust14% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
1report 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, FY2025

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 Spruce Root Inc?

Find your warmest path to Spruce Root Inc 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 25 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph