Kansas · Nonprofit
ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION
ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION (Kansas) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $349,671 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF DICKINSON COUNTY INC ($261,603). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $350k
- Net assets
- $259k
What Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad Association does
Mission
Promote and preserve the railroad history of the area through tourist train rides and membership dues and donations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Promote and preserve the railroad history of the area through tourist train rides and membership dues and donations. In 2025 we hosted 14,970 riders from 50% of kansas' communities, 45 states and over 10 foreign countries. Our market area stretches from denver to omaha to st. Lous to oklahoma city. We operated over 220 trains in 2025 from our historic 1887 rock island depot in abilene. We continued an aggressive marketing and branding effort through a number of social media, publications, and radio platforms. We continued our relationship with heritage rail management, durango, co. We expended our seasonal event trains, "pumpin harvest express- and "cowtown santa express" trains with positive results. We continued developing an enhanced eductional program plan to tie railroads, our operating replica hoffman grist mill and general store, and the crop scenery along our right of way, into an exclusive oppoertunity for riders to experience the entire farm to table agricultural process during a single trip on our railroad. We have a dedicated working board that meets monthly to oversee the operations of the organization and assist our general manager with a variety of critical tasks.…
$1,052,794 spent$525,947 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,052,794.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $166k to $419k (+153%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 2% · 2025 38%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
44% of ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $8k → $48k.
1 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 75% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 75% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
85% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 99% · 2022 65% · 2023 68% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
75% of ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $88k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Kansas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $262k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Kansas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION?
- ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION (Kansas) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $349,671 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF DICKINSON COUNTY INC ($261,603). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $349,671 in grants to ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION?
- THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF DICKINSON COUNTY INC is the largest funder on record, with $261,603 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ABILENE AND SMOKY VALLEY RAILROAD ASSOCIATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kansas. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad Association →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 5 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing