Tennessee · Nonprofit
AERIAL RECOVERY
AERIAL RECOVERY (Tennessee) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,864,388 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($1,320,550). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $3.9M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Aerial Recovery does
Mission
Aerial Recovery's mission is to save lives and stop evil. Through the creation and deployment of humanitarian special operators, Aerial Recovery brings together selected veterans, first responders, and mission-qualified civilians who, through their own experiences and healing, are equipped to serve others on a global scale across disaster relief, anti-human trafficking, animal rescue, and humanitarian missions worldwide.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Aerial Recovery deploys humanitarian special operators to disaster-affected communities domestically and internationally, providing search and rescue, medical assistance, logistics coordination, supply distribution, and direct survivor support. Operators include veterans and first responders developed through Aerial Recovery's heal the heroes program, as well as mission-qualified volunteers and civilian specialists, all trained, screened, and equipped to function in austere, high-risk, and rapidly evolving environments where conventional aid organizations have difficulty effectively operating.Aerial Recovery does not operate primarily as a supply-distribution organization. Its model is to deploy trained human operators capable of functioning in high-risk, rapidly evolving environments. This operator-first approach requires sustained investment in recruitment, training, and readiness that precedes and enables every field response.disaster response deployments also function as active recruitment environments within the Aerial Recovery impact engine. In the field, teams identify veterans, first responders, and community members with the capability and calling to serve, including…
$524,183 spentof which $20,000 as grants$42,400 earned by the program16% of program spendingHeal the heroes is Aerial Recovery's foundational program and the engine that powers every mission. The program addresses a documented national crisis: more than 6,200 u.s. Veterans take their own lives each year (one every 84 minutes). The primary drivers include the loss of mission, community, and purpose that follows separation from service. Heal the heroes confronts these drivers directly by replacing them with something real: a new mission, a new team, and a new calling.the heal the heroes program is available to veterans and first responders, whether already serving on Aerial Recovery's teams or newly identified through field recruitment, community outreach, or partner referrals. Participation is not a prerequisite for joining Aerial Recovery's teams; it is a resource actively made available to eligible team members, and a pipeline through which many operators are developed. Aerial Recovery also provides mental health support, resilience resources, and peer care to team members who do not meet the veteran or first responder criteria but who serve in demanding operational environments.the program operates through Aerial Recovery's five-phase impact engine:recruit: veterans…
$919,887 spent28% of program spendingAerial Recovery's anti-human trafficking initiative deploys humanitarian special operators and training volunteers in coordination with domestic and international law enforcement agencies, intelligence partners, and vetted ngos to combat trafficking networks, support victim identification, assist in rescue operations, and provide or fund survivor aftercare services. With an estimated 49.6 million people living in modern slavery globally, including 12.4 million children, and Aerial Recovery deploys primarily operators with military, law enforcement, and specialized civilian backgrounds because the environments where trafficking occurs require that level of capability and discretion.operational teams include veterans and first responders developed through heal the heroes, as well as civilian specialists, analysts, and support personnel with relevant expertise or capability. All team members are screened, trained, and operate under established protocols designed to protect victim safety, dignity, and identity.in some cases, Aerial Recovery's anti-trafficking work includes funding or coordinating with organizations that provide specialized rehabilitation, legal support, family…
$1,441,506 spentof which $421,109 as grants$74,000 earned by the program44% of program spendingAerial Recovery's animal rescue initiative, primarily operated through its redemption ranch program, rescues and rehabilitates animals displaced, injured, or endangered by disaster, neglect, and human cruelty. Animal rescue operations are frequently conducted in direct connection with disaster response deployments, as natural disasters disproportionately harm animals alongside human survivors.rehabilitated animals are integrated into therapeutic programming serving veterans with post-traumatic stress, children with special needs, survivors of abuse and others. Redemption ranch also provides animal-assisted support and equine therapy access to team members who do not qualify for heal the heroes, extending Aerial Recovery's commitment to wellbeing across its full team.
$372,054 spent$37,375 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,257,630.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $1.3M to $3.0M (+129%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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.
Chief executive
Britnie Turner
President/CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $292 → $444k.
18 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 AERIAL RECOVERY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 funders by total. 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
AERIAL RECOVERY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
66% 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 AERIAL RECOVERY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 50% · 2022 80% · 2023 92% — 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.
How long its funders stay
25% of AERIAL RECOVERY's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 27% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
53% of AERIAL RECOVERY'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 $1.8M that is directly attributable, 99% of it comes from funders outside Tennessee, across 21 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 states 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.
Organizations like AERIAL RECOVERY
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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AERIAL RECOVERY: 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 AERIAL RECOVERY?
- AERIAL RECOVERY (Tennessee) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,864,388 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($1,320,550). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AERIAL RECOVERY have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $3,864,388 in grants to AERIAL RECOVERY, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AERIAL RECOVERY?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,320,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AERIAL RECOVERY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 55 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing