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· Public charity

The Wilderness Society

Founded in 1935 by conservation visionaries, THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY protects wilderness and unites people to protect america's wild public lands.

$2.6M
Granted FY2024still arriving
79
Grants FY2024still arriving
20
States reached
$300k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
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 FY2017–2024.

Environment$16MHuman Services$843kArts & Culture$317kAnimals$289kRecreation & Sports$40kPhilanthropy$35kCivil Rights$20kEducation$10kOther$0
02FY2024 · 79 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 79 grants below total $2,316,500 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $2,571,306 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $254,806 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 $10k19 grants · $126k
  • $10k–50k47 grants · $892k
  • $50k–250k12 grants · $999k
  • $250k+1 grant · $300k
$15,000
Median grant
20
States reached
$119M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY ACTION FUND$300,000
THE INTERNATIONAL SONORAN DESERT ALLIANCE$183,000
THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP$126,000
TROUT UNLIMITED INC$100,000
SILVIX RESOURCES$85,000
NEW MEXICO WILDERNESS ALLIANCE$75,000
NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND$75,000
RESOURCE LEGACY FUND$70,000
GREENLATINOS$65,000
THE SEMILLA PROJECT$60,000
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF TRIBAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICERS$55,000
OUTDOOR AFRO$55,000
HIGH COUNTRY CONSERVATION ADVOCATES$50,000
ALASKA COMMUNITY ACTION ON TOXICS$45,000
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION-RESTON$45,000
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 (FY17–24, $1.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 23% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%ATABEY OUTDOORS: $10k → 11%SUN VALLEY INSTITUTE FOR RESILIENCE: $10k → 7%WINTER WILDLANDS ALLIANCE: $15k → 8%GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS: $35k → 12%WINTER WILDLANDS ALLIANCE: $11k → 8%GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS: $30k → 12%FLOWERS AND BULLETS: $10k → 15%TIDES CENTER: $30k → 10%GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS: $25k → 12%NM COMMUNIDADES EN ACCION Y DE FE: $20k → 23%GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS: $10k → 12%GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS: $10k → 12%HISPANIC ACCESS FOUNDATION: $30k → 14%PROYECTO PASTORAL: $45k → 14%PROYECTO PASTORAL: $10k → 14%LATINO COMMUNITY FUND OF WASHINGTON STATE: $10k → 9%LATINO COMMUNITY FUND OF WASHINGTON STATE: $10k → 9%MARK TAD MASAOKA: $8k → 14%YMCA OF GREATER SEATTLE: $190k → 9%YMCA OF GREATER SEATTLE: $160k → 9%YMCA OF GREATER SEATTLE: $160k → 9%YMCA OF GREATER SEATTLE: $150k → 9%YMCA OF GREATER SEATTLE: $125k → 9%YMCA OF GREATER SEATTLE: $48k → 9%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

AK
ME
WA
ID
MT
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
UT
CO
WV
VA
MD
AZ
NM
TN
NC
SC
DC
OK
GA
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.

84%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$14M · 118 repeat orgs$2.7M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +45% since the first grant, against +21% for the ones you funded once.

118 repeat relationships — 52 still active in FY2024, 66 since wound down; 25 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

118
110

Total granted

$14M
$2.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+45%
+21%

Still filing today

90%
84%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 77% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $527k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentArts & CultureAnimalsHuman ServicesEducationCommunity ImprovementOther

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

  • Appalachian Mountain Club
    7× · 2017–2023 · $990k · revenue +32%
  • TY
    THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER SEATTLE (6871)
    6× · 2018–2023 · $833k · revenue +38%
  • CG
    COTTONWOOD GULCH EXPEDITIONS
    6× · 2018–2023 · $786k · revenue +29%

Funded once

  • NC
    NFRIA-WSERC CONSERVATION CENTER INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $99k · revenue +59%
  • NV
    NATIVE VILLAGE OF THE VENETIE TRIBAL GOVERNMENT
    one grant, 2018 · $65k
  • CP
    COMMUNITY PARTNERSgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $52k · revenue +169%

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
Cascadia Wildlands

Cascadia wildlands defends and restores cacasia's wild ecosystems in the forests,in the courts, and in the streets. we envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and…

Environment
2
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
3
Boulder Watershed Collective

The Boulder Watershed Collective is a 501c3 non-profit stakeholder-driven organization established to address forested watershed health,resiliency and stewardship. We have three program areas: ClimateAdaptation and Resilience Watershed…

Environment
4
Sustainable Conservation

Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…

Environment
5
San Juan Citizens Alliance

The San Juan Citizens Alliance advocates for clean air, pure water, and healthy lands - the foundations of resilient communities, ecosystems and economies in the San Juan Basin.

Environment
6
Santa Fe Forest Coalition

Educate the public on forest conservation issues in New Mexico

Environment
7
Sageland Collaborative

To provide science-based strategies for wildlife and land conservation.

Environment
8
Idaho Conservation League Inc

Icl's mission is to create a conservation community and pragmatic, enduring solutions that protect and restore the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the land and wildlife you love.

—
9
Cowiche Canyon Conservancy

Protecting our shrub-steppe and connecting people to this vanishing landscape.

—
10
Native Ecosystems Council

Promote wildlife habitat

Environment
11
Land Conservancy of West Michigan

Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…

Environment
12
Western Rivers Conservancy

Western rivers conservancy's mission is to protect outstanding river ecosystems in the western united states. continued on schedule o.we acquire land to conserve critical habitat, provide public access for compatible use and enjoyment, and…

Environment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Environment America Inc and the most unlike its peers is Ndponics. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCommunity FoundationsLocal History MuseumsImmigrant Worker SupportPolicy Research and AdvocacyEnvironmental Conservation …Local Food System Organizat…Independent K-12 SchoolsCommunity College Foundatio…Youth Sports ProgramsYouth Development ServicesYouth Mentoring ProgramsChristian Missionary Organi…Women & Girls Leadership De…School District FoundationsUnited Way AffiliatesAffordable Housing Developm…Military Veterans SupportYmca Youth Development
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 27 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%6%<5yr14%8%5–10yr19%20%10–20yr16%36%20–35yr13%21%35–55yr16%9%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%3%<5yr14%4%5–10yr19%22%10–20yr16%28%20–35yr13%17%35–55yr16%26%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.4% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.4%1/258
the rest of the field
13%
240,395/1,819,307

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

230 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. 230 of the 259 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.

10
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
72
Early backer (in before they grew)
227/230
Grantees still filing
154/230
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Appalachian Mountain Club — $990,001 · EnvironmentAppalachian Mountain ClubKEYSTONE CENTER — $398,950 · EnvironmentKEYSTONE CENTERINTERNATIONAL SONORAN DESERT ALLIANCE — $326,000 · EnvironmentResources for the Future Inc — $311,225 · EnvironmentGreenLatinos — $303,000 · EnvironmentProject for Clean Energy and Innovation co 38 North Solutions — $299,000 · EnvironmentALASKA WILDERNESS LEAGUE — $292,000 · EnvironmentYOUTH OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE — $234,850 · EnvironmentWEST VIRGINIA RIVERS COALITION INC — $230,000 · Environment+70 more — $3,416,571 · Environment+70 moreWILDERNESS SOCIETY ACTION FUND — $1,824,500 · OtherWILDERNESS SOCIETY ACTION FUNDCONFEDERATED SALISH AND KOOTENAI — $293,500 · OtherCONFEDERATED SALISH AND KOOTENAIWESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER — $231,000 · OtherVIRGINIA WILDERNESS COMMITTEE — $206,000 · Other+73 more — $2,895,015 · Other+73 moreTHE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER SEATTLE (6871) — $833,000 · Human ServicesGREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS — $110,000 · Human ServicesProyecto Pastoral — $55,000 · Human Services+5 more — $126,000 · Human ServicesCOTTONWOOD GULCH EXPEDITIONS — $785,500 · EducationNACA-INSPIRED SCHOOLS NETWORK — $88,800 · EducationTHE SONORAN INSTITUTE INC — $71,000 · EducationTHE SEMILLA PROJECT — $60,000 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATION — $42,500 · EducationThe Center For Native Health Inc — $37,500 · Education+2 more — $28,333 · EducationTHEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP INC — $271,000 · AnimalsNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION — $135,000 · AnimalsTROUT UNLIMITED INC — $100,000 · AnimalsWYOMING WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION — $66,500 · AnimalsWYOMING WILDLIFE FEDERATION — $61,600 · AnimalsNevada Wildlife Federation — $50,000 · AnimalsWASHINGTON WILD — $48,000 · AnimalsUPPER COLUMBIA SALMON RECOVERY BOARD — $29,667 · Animals+1 more — $25,000 · AnimalsNational Association of Tribal Historic Officers Inc — $263,000 · Arts & CultureFloodlight Inc — $150,000 · Arts & CultureSOCIETY OF ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS INC — $50,000 · Arts & CultureFriends of Katahdin Woods & Waters — $40,250 · Arts & CultureEASTERN WOODLAND LACROSS — $40,000 · Arts & CultureWild Earth Society Incorporated — $37,000 · Arts & CultureBlackfeet Eco Knowledge — $30,000 · Arts & CultureWabanaki Alliance — $26,000 · Arts & Culture+6 more — $120,500 · Arts & CultureNATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC — $511,104 · Civil RightsVET VOICE FOUNDATION INC — $75,000 · Civil RightsSOUTHWEST ORGANIZING PROJECT — $37,500 · Civil Rights+2 more — $40,500 · Civil Rights
Environment$6,801,597Other$5,450,015Human Services$1,124,000Education$1,113,633Animals$786,767Arts & Culture$756,750Civil Rights$664,104

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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 budgetWILDERNESS SOCIETY ACTION FUND — $1,824,500 over 7y, 37% of budgetAppalachian Mountain Club — $990,001 over 7y, 0.8% of budgetTHE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER SEATTLE (6871) — $833,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetCOTTONWOOD GULCH EXPEDITIONS — $785,500 over 6y, 17% of budgetNATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC — $511,104 over 6y, 0.8% of budgetKEYSTONE CENTER — $398,950 over 5y, 2.7% of budgetINTERNATIONAL SONORAN DESERT ALLIANCE — $326,000 over 3y, 10% of budgetResources for the Future Inc — $311,225 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetGreenLatinos — $303,000 over 5y, 5.0% of budgetProject for Clean Energy and Innovation co 38 North Solutions — $299,000 over 5y, 95% of budgetALASKA WILDERNESS LEAGUE — $292,000 over 3y, 5.5% of budgetTHEODORE ROOSEVELT CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP INC — $271,000 over 5y, 1.5% of budgetNational Association of Tribal Historic Officers Inc — $263,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetYOUTH OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE — $234,850 over 5y, 23% of budgetWESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER — $231,000 over 5y, 2.0% of budgetWEST VIRGINIA RIVERS COALITION INC — $230,000 over 7y, 11% of budgetVIRGINIA WILDERNESS COMMITTEE — $206,000 over 7y, 55% of budgetRESOURCES LEGACY FUND — $190,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetSTAND — $175,000 over 2y, 2.9% of budgetOUTDOOR AFRO — $160,400 over 5y, 2.3% of budgetSouthern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards — $150,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetFloodlight Inc — $150,000 over 3y, 5.6% of budgetHIGH COUNTRY CONSERVATION ADVOCATES — $150,000 over 6y, 17% of budgetNevada Conservation League Ed Fund — $145,400 over 2y, 15% of budgetFRIENDS OF VALLE DE ORO NWR — $138,550 over 7y, 82% of budgetTAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE — $135,000 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION — $135,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetWILDERNESS WORKSHOP — $130,000 over 6y, 1.8% of budgetNEW MEXICO WILDERNESS ALLIANCE — $130,000 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetCENTER FOR CIVIC POLICY — $124,250 over 5y, 2.2% of budgetDolores River Boating Advocates — $116,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetGREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS — $110,000 over 5y, 5.1% of budgetTROUT UNLIMITED INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNFRIA-WSERC CONSERVATION CENTER INC — $99,000 over 1y, 23% of budgetNDPONICS — $96,000 over 3y, 35% of budgetNACA-INSPIRED SCHOOLS NETWORK — $88,800 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetGREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION — $88,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetSILVIX RESOURCES — $85,000 over 1y, 20% of budgetCalWild — $82,000 over 4y, 3.7% of budgetTHE FOREST STEWARDS GUILD — $80,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetGreen 20 — $80,000 over 4y, 2.5% of budgetMONTANA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION — $80,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetVET VOICE FOUNDATION INC — $75,000 over 3y, 4.2% of budgetGlacier Peak Institute — $75,000 over 3y, 6.0% of budgetWESTERN COLORADO ALLIANCE — $72,500 over 4y, 2.4% of budgetTHE SONORAN INSTITUTE INC — $71,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetNATURE FOR ALL — $68,000 over 3y, 4.2% of budgetWestern Leaders Network — $67,500 over 4y, 19% 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.

Resources Legacy FundWestern Conservation …PatagoniaorgThe Pew Charitable Tr…Conservation Lands Fo…Wilburforce FoundationNational Forest Found…Environmental Defense…Natural Resources Def…The Schmidt Family Fo…The New-Land Foundati…Maki Foundation
Resources Legacy FundCA116.4× affinity68 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Resources Legacy Fund · Western Conservation Foundation · Patagoniaorg · The Pew Charitable Trusts · Conservation Lands Foundation · Wilburforce Foundation · National Forest Foundation · Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated · Natural Resources Defense Council Inc · The Schmidt Family Foundation · The New-Land Foundation Inc · Maki 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 The Wilderness Society 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 · 30%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 9%
  • Chesapeake Conservancy Inc — 27% of income from government
  • Oregon Natural Desert Association — 9% of income from government
  • American Whitewater — 5% of income from government
  • Appalachian Mountain Club — 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
47report 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.

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 259 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

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