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Tahoe Fund at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Tahoe Fund

To use the power of philanthropy to improve the Lake Tahoe environment for all to enjoy.

$1.4M
Granted FY2025still arriving
29
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$150k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Recreation & Sports$2.9MEnvironment$2.3MYouth Development$359kHealth$296kPublic Safety & Disaster$100kCommunity Improvement$70kPublic Benefit$53kAnimals$50kOther$0
02FY2025 · 29 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 29 grants below total $1,338,315, the rows itemized in this filing. The $1,414,241 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $75,926 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $30k
  • $10k–50k14 grants · $334k
  • $50k–250k11 grants · $974k
$25,907
Median grant
2
States reached
$15M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Tahoe City PUD$150,000
Tahoe Rim Trail Association$137,489
Tahoe Area Mt Biking Assoc$116,510
Nevada Tahoe Conservaton Dist$100,000
Lake Tahoe Com College Fndtn$90,653
Tahoe Backcountry Alliance$80,000
Tahoe Regional Planning Agenc$77,783
SOS Outreach$60,000
Lake Valley Fire Protect Dis$56,007
Nevada State Parks$54,690
Achieve Tahoe$50,461
Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue$38,521
CA Dept of Parks & Recreation$35,000
No Tahoe Public Utility Distr$35,000
University of NV Reno$25,907
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

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

show:

Its human-services grants (FY23–23, $50k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Travel North Tahoe Nevada: $50k → 10%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 10% of Tahoe Fund’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 49% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 39%.

Tahoe Fundlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 13% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$4.7M · 31 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +93% since the first grant, against +41% for those funded once.

31 repeat relationships: 20 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

31
29

Total granted

$4.7M
$1.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+93%
+41%

Still filing today

65%
59%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $408k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentRecreation & SportsHealthYouth DevelopmentEducationCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • TA
    Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association
    6× · 2020–2025 · $595k · revenue +265%
  • TR
    Tahoe Rim Trail Association
    6× · 2020–2025 · $503k · revenue +261%
  • LT
    LAKE TAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION
    3× · 2023–2025 · $291k · revenue +29%

Funded once

  • OD
    Olsen&AsscPR dba Goodstanding
    one grant, 2017 · $156k
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF SKI RUN
    one grant, 2023 · $118k · revenue -81% · 40% of their budget
  • CT
    CALIFORNIA TAHOE CONSERVANCY
    one grant, 2024 · $100k
How this is measured

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

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Truckee Trails Foundation Inc

The Truckee Trails Foundation (TTF) is working towards a system of trails and bikeways in and around Truckee, California that will connect people and places, reduce our community's dependence on automobiles, and improve our physical,…

Environment
2
Clean Tahoe Program

To improve the visual quality of the Tahoe Basin portion of El Dorado County through community education, citizen involvement and enforcecment of litter and nuisance ordinances.

Environment
3
Sierra Watch

Sierra watch secures conservation outcomes to protect the natural resources, mountain communities, and timeless values of the tahoe sierra.

Environment
4
Tahoe Fund

To use the power of philanthropy to improve the Lake Tahoe environment for all to enjoy.

Environment
5
The Sierra Fund

The Sierra Fund (TSF) is a non-profit organization with a mission to restore ecosystem and community resiliency in the Sierra Nevada.

Environment
6
Truckee River Watershed Council

The truckee river watershed council was founded to implement locally developed public-private collaborative solutions to protect and improve water quality and biological resources for the sustainable environmental and economic health of…

Environment
7
Alpine Avalanche Rescue Foundation

Alpine Avalanche Rescue Foundation main purpose is to promote snow safety and avalanche awareness to the Tahoe Basin community and the professionals in the field. We give scholarships for avalanche awareness classes, teaching participants…

Public Safety & Disaster
8
Tahoe Maritime Foundation
Philanthropy
9
Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce

A membership organization dedicated to developing, promoting, and serving your business and community. Our goal is to sustain a high quality of life by achieving economic vitality, with sensitivity and respect for the environment.

—
10
Tahoe Youth Sports Development
Recreation & Sports
11
Friends of Washoe
Animals
12
Mltpa Foundation

To plan, steward, interpret, promote, and sustain a system of four-season trails and public access to natural areas in the Mammoth Lakes and Eastern Sierra Nevada region in the state of California while protecting its natural resources.

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Tahoe Rim Trail Association; the most unlike its peers is Earthviews Conservation Society. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

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

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 44 of the 71 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
19
Early backer (in before they grew)
43/44
Grantees still filing
31/44
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: $382,580 · OtherNEVADA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESTahoe Regional Planning Agenc: $291,983 · OtherTahoe Regional Planning AgencTahoe Transportation Auth: $280,268 · OtherTahoe Transportation AuthTahoe Resource Consv Distr: $253,000 · OtherTahoe Resource Consv DistrACHIEVE TAHOE: $201,667 · OtherACHIEVE TAHOEAGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE (USDA): $171,208 · OtherAGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE (USDA)Olsen&AsscPR dba Goodstanding: $156,000 · OtherTahoe City PUD: $150,000 · OtherCALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION CANDLESTICK POINT STATE RECR: $123,622 · Other+29 more: $1,001,692 · Other+29 moreTahoe Area Mountain Biking Association: $595,386 · Recreation & SportsTahoe Area Mountain Biking …Tahoe Rim Trail Association: $503,176 · Recreation & SportsTahoe Rim Trail AssociationLAKE TAHOE BICYCLE COALITION: $138,159 · Recreation & SportsLAKE TAHOE BICYCLE COALITIO…SOS OUTREACH: $130,000 · Recreation & SportsSOS OUTREACHNATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION: $63,299 · Recreation & Sports+4 more: $108,361 · Recreation & Sports+4 moreCLEAN UP THE CAYES dba CLEAN UP THE LAKE: $278,710 · EnvironmentCLEAN UP THE CA…TAHOE BACKCOUNTRY ALLIANCE: $130,000 · EnvironmentTAHOE BACKCOUNT…Nevada Conservation League Ed Fund: $80,000 · EnvironmentNevada Conserva…SIERRA NEVADA ALLIANCE: $76,000 · EnvironmentSIERRA NEVADA A…TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE: $75,519 · EnvironmentTAHOE INSTITUTE…GREAT BASIN INSTITUTE: $75,000 · EnvironmentGREAT BASIN INS…VP DATA COMMONS: $50,000 · EnvironmentVP DATA COMMONSRestoring The Lake Depths Foundation Corp: $35,000 · Environment+3 more: $62,021 · Environment+3 moreLAKE TAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $290,650 · EducationUniversity of Nevada Reno Foundation: $38,875 · EducationINCLINE EDUCATION FUND: $19,850 · EducationADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE: $105,000 · Youth DevelopmentGATEWAY MOUNTAIN CENTER INC: $95,000 · Youth DevelopmentGIRLS ON THE RUN - SIERRAS: $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentScotty Lapp Foundation: $7,600 · Youth DevelopmentFRIENDS OF SKI RUN: $117,900 · Community ImprovementGLENBROOK UNDERGROUND INC: $50,000 · Community ImprovementINCLINE VILLAGE CRYSTAL BAY ASSOCIATION: $20,000 · Community ImprovementLAKE VALLEY FIREFIGHTERS FOUNDATION: $56,007 · PhilanthropyTAHOE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $50,000 · PhilanthropyCommunity Foundation of Northern Nevada: $20,000 · Philanthropy
Other$3,012,020Recreation & Sports$1,538,381Environment$862,250Education$349,375Youth Development$222,600Community Improvement$187,900Philanthropy$126,007

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTahoe Area Mountain Biking Association: $595,386 over 6y, 23% of budgetTahoe Rim Trail Association: $503,176 over 6y, 15% of budgetLAKE TAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $290,650 over 3y, 9.6% of budgetCLEAN UP THE CAYES dba CLEAN UP THE LAKE: $278,710 over 4y, 23% of budgetACHIEVE TAHOE: $201,667 over 3y, 4.9% of budgetLAKE TAHOE BICYCLE COALITION: $138,159 over 5y, 79% of budgetTAHOE BACKCOUNTRY ALLIANCE: $130,000 over 4y, 46% of budgetSOS OUTREACH: $130,000 over 4y, 2.2% of budgetFRIENDS OF SKI RUN: $117,900 over 1y, 40% of budgetADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE: $105,000 over 3y, 8.0% of budgetGATEWAY MOUNTAIN CENTER INC: $95,000 over 3y, 3.8% of budgetNevada Conservation League Ed Fund: $80,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetSIERRA NEVADA ALLIANCE: $76,000 over 2y, 3.2% of budgetTAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE: $75,519 over 4y, 8.1% of budgetGREAT BASIN INSTITUTE: $75,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetNATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION: $63,299 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGLENBROOK UNDERGROUND INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetTAHOE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetVP DATA COMMONS: $50,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetLake Tahoe Wildlife Care Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetINCLINE VILLAGE-CRYSTAL BAY VISITOR & CONV BUREAU: $50,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetTAHOE NORDIC SEARCH & RESCUE INC: $43,771 over 2y, 19% of budgetStephen J Wampler Foundation Camp WAMP: $41,130 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetUniversity of Nevada Reno Foundation: $38,875 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRestoring The Lake Depths Foundation Corp: $35,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetNevada Nordic: $31,791 over 2y, 7.2% of budgetDRI RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $30,207 over 1y, 7.5% of budgetLAKE TAHOE WATERMAN ASSOCIATION INC: $21,632 over 2y, 26% of budgetEARTHVIEWS CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $21,000 over 1y, 58% of budgetINCLINE VILLAGE CRYSTAL BAY ASSOCIATION: $20,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetCommunity Foundation of Northern Nevada: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLEAGUE TO SAVE LAKE TAHOE: $20,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetTAHOE FOREST HEALTH SYSTEM FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetBarton Memorial Hospital Foundation: $20,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetINCLINE EDUCATION FUND: $19,850 over 1y, 9.1% of budgetCCC FOUNDATION: $19,389 over 1y, 3.8% of budgetTRUCKEE MEADOWS PARKS FOUNDATION: $15,840 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetGIRLS ON THE RUN - SIERRAS: $15,000 over 1y, 4.7% of budgetHEADWATERS SCIENCE INSTITUTE: $7,600 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetBoys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe: $6,780 over 2y, 0.2% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

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

  • Who funds Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association ↗
  • Who funds Tahoe Rim Trail Association ↗
  • Who funds LAKE TAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds CLEAN UP THE CAYES dba CLEAN UP THE LAKE ↗
  • Who funds ACHIEVE TAHOE ↗
  • Who funds LAKE TAHOE BICYCLE COALITION ↗
  • Who funds TAHOE BACKCOUNTRY ALLIANCE ↗
  • Who funds SOS OUTREACH ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF SKI RUN ↗
  • Who funds ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE ↗
  • Who funds GATEWAY MOUNTAIN CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds Nevada Conservation League Ed Fund ↗
  • Who funds SIERRA NEVADA ALLIANCE ↗
  • Who funds TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE ↗
  • Who funds GREAT BASIN INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds LAKE VALLEY FIREFIGHTERS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds GLENBROOK UNDERGROUND INC ↗
  • Who funds TAHOE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds VP DATA COMMONS ↗
  • Who funds Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care Inc ↗
  • Who funds INCLINE VILLAGE-CRYSTAL BAY VISITOR & CONV BUREAU ↗
  • Who funds TAHOE NORDIC SEARCH & RESCUE INC ↗
  • Who funds Stephen J Wampler Foundation Camp WAMP ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Tahoe Community Found…Tahoe Truckee Communi…Martis Camp Community…The Lundrigan Walker …El Dorado Community F…Pipkin Charitable Fou…Community Foundation …Park L Loughlin Chari…The Corrigan-Walla Fo…Truettner Family Foun…NV Energy Charitable …Lake Tahoe Visitors A…
Tahoe Community FoundationNV61.6× affinity28 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Tahoe Community Foundation · Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation · Martis Camp Community Foundation Dba Martis Camp Foundation · The Lundrigan Walker Family Foundation · El Dorado Community Foundation · Pipkin Charitable Foundation · Community Foundation of Northern Nevada · Park L Loughlin Charitable Foundation · The Corrigan-Walla Foundation · Truettner Family Foundation · NV Energy Charitable Foundation · Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Tahoe Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Tahoe Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    14report 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
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 71 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Tahoe’s filings →

    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