Alaska · Nonprofit
Alaska Trails
Alaska Trails (Alaska) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,211,129 to it, the largest being RASMUSON FOUNDATION ($705,118). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $662k
What Alaska Trails does
Mission
Building partnerships, building trails. Working to build trails across the state and build capacity for trail organizations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Volunteer and Paid Trail Crews: Alaska Trails Stewards-Alaska Trails is continuing its program to train, equip, and deploy trail maintenance volunteers. Alaska Trails partners with municipal, borough, state and federal agencies on the Alaska Trail Stewards Program. By training capable volunteers and connecting them with government agencies in need of trail support, the Alaska Trail Stewards Program significantly increases the amount of maintenance performed on trails in Alaska. In addition, Alaska Trails employs seasonal employees to help build and maintain trails. Alaska Trails works with the Municipality of Anchorage and Anchorage Parks Foundation to coordinate the Youth Employment in the Parks (YEP) Program by hiring a YEP Field Supervisor. Alaska Trails also hires paid trail crew members to work on trail construction and maintenance. They work May through September to help build trails, improve existing trails, and decrease the backlog of trail maintenance.
$782,284 spentof which $500 as grants58% of program spendingTraining and education: Alaska Trails conducts trail trainings across the state of Alaska, and conducted several throughout the year. Alaska Trails hosted its 2023 Statewide Trails Conference in April 2023 as both in person and virtual format. In November, Alaska Trails held the Land Manager Forum in connection with the Bureau of Land Management. In May, Alaska Trails held the annual Crew Leader Training which trains our volunteers and partner trail organization members to be leaders on trail construction and maintenance projects. In July, Mike Shields, local trail expert, led an Alaska Trails training on Trail Structures and Hydrology. The variety of training and education Alaska Trails provides for the community ensures that our volunteers, staff, trail crew members, and trail work partners in Alaska are well informed, knowledgeable, and confident in building sustainable trails that will last and benefit everybody across Alaska.
$516,326 spent38% of program spendingConference
$35,519 spentof which $18,062 as grants$4,850 earned by the program3% of program spendingProjects/partners: Alaska Trails Initiative-Alaska Trails is leading this initiative which is a coalition of trails organizations from around the state collaborating with leaders in government, business, the health industry, and the non-profit sector to invest more in the trails we love. People and communities across Alaska recognize that outdoor recreation supports health, contributes to a high quality of life and, perhaps more importantly, drives spending that supports business, creates jobs, and generates tax revenue that pays for schools and other public services. Investing in outdoor infrastructure attracts employers, residents, retirees, and a skilled workforce, ensuring those communities thrive economically and socially. More than one job in ten in Alaska is tied to tourism and outdoor recreation spending. Smart investments could further grow this dynamic sector. In this vein, the Alaska Long Trail project seeks to connect 500 miles from Seward to Fairbanks.
$23,771 spentof which $500 as grants2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,357,900.
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 2023 to 2024, from $460k to $698k (+52%).
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: 2017 16% · 2018 43% · 2019 26% · 2020 64% · 2021 82% · 2022 65% · 2023 78% · 2024 85%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of Alaska Trails’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Steve Cleary
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $64k → $482k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 Alaska Trails’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
Alaska Trails leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
62% 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 Alaska Trails.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 67% · 2019 48% · 2020 65% · 2021 47% · 2022 33% · 2023 44% — 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
33% of Alaska Trails's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
80% of Alaska Trails's grant income comes from Alaska funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $673k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Against its field
Alaska Trails has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,728 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,728 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Alaska Trails receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.1M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$698k
- Department of the Interior$441k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Alaska Trails
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 Alaska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 Alaska Trails: 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 Alaska Trails?
- Alaska Trails (Alaska) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,211,129 to it, the largest being RASMUSON FOUNDATION ($705,118). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Alaska Trails have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $2,211,129 in grants to Alaska Trails, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Alaska Trails?
- RASMUSON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $705,118 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Alaska Trails find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alaska. 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 16 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