Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
AMERICAN RIVERS INC
AMERICAN RIVERS INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 415 organizations whose IRS filings report $72,812,919 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($6,734,700). 251 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $53M
- Funders on record
- 415
- Grants received
- $73M
- Net assets
- $32M
What American Rivers Inc does
Mission
American rivers is championing a national effort to protect and restore all rivers, from remote mountain streams to urban waterways. Healthy rivers provide people and nature with clean, abundant water and natural habitat. For 50 years, american rivers staff, supporters, and partners have shared a common belief: life depends on rivers. American rivers is the only national organization dedicated entirely to protecting and restoring the rivers all life depends on. With a half-century of experience addressing river threats from coast-to-coast, we've protected more rivers and removed more dams than any other organization. In 2025, we worked in 50 states to protect healthy rivers, restore damaged ones, and champion a powerful river movement. We removed 108 dams, reconnected over 2,500 river miles, protected 1,165 miles from pollution and development, safeguarded 212,000 acres of riverside land, and supported 148 communities to ensure clean water and safety.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Restore damaged rivers and waters: we need to fundamentally transform the health of rivers in our country. Up to 85% of all dams in our country are unnecessary, harmful, and even dangerous. Because removing a dam is the single most impactful way to secure a river's future health, we must remove thousands of them quickly. Our work to remove dams has been central to american rivers over the past decades and will be even more important as we work to restore rivers in the decades ahead. We are prioritizing removing 400 outdated and unsafe dams by 2027 and will kickstart the removal of 30,000 dams by 2050. We also drive national solutions to flooding that prioritize communities' safety, equity, and the health of river habitats and will restore 20,000 acres of functional floodplains by 2027. In addition, we work to ensure clean water by working in cities to connect communities to their rivers, and we work to restore healthy river flows, habitat, and access by engaging in hydropower relicensing and reform.
$27,999,115 spentof which $6,608,312 as grants$316,259 earned by the program88% of program spendingMobilize river and water movement: american rivers has always been known for our willingness and ability to work with everyone, from local partners to government agencies to decision-makers, to do what's best for rivers. We know that the challenges to rivers are increasing dramatically. We need a broad, powerful, non-partisan river movement to face these challenges and drive change that makes rivers healthier, water cleaner, and communities safer. We won't stop until every river has multitudes of champions speaking up for it.
$2,406,556 spentof which $29,083 as grants$78,598 earned by the program8% of program spendingProtect healthy rivers: scientists say we must protect one-half of the planet to sustain the web of biodiversity upon which all life depends. By driving federal and state protections, we will safeguard 1 million miles of rivers, from remote mountain streams to urban waterways. To do it, we are working with local partners to protect our healthiest, most remote, and scenic rivers, as well as rivers in urban and suburban areas, through the federal wild and scenic legislation and other approaches.
$1,512,806 spentof which $20,526 as grants$141,597 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $31,918,477.
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 2024 to 2025, from $26M to $40M (+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 12% · 2018 56% · 2019 45% · 2020 18% · 2021 34% · 2022 23% · 2023 20% · 2024 44% · 2025 40%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of AMERICAN RIVERS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Pallavi Phartiyal Phd
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 81 funders to 183 funders, grant income rose $4.3M → $11M.
66 of 415 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 AMERICAN RIVERS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 415 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
AMERICAN RIVERS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 9% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
43% 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 AMERICAN RIVERS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 31% · 2019 13% · 2020 28% · 2021 12% · 2022 10% · 2023 9% — 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
50% of AMERICAN RIVERS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
AMERICAN RIVERS INC draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 39 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20M arriving through sponsors registered in 26 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
AMERICAN RIVERS INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 210 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding AMERICAN RIVERS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $47.1M on record — $47.1M federal, $63k state.
- Department of Commerce$26.5M
- Department of the Interior$13.9M
- Department of Energy$3.7M
- Environmental Protection Agency$1.4M
- Department of Agriculture$1.1M
- Department of Homeland Security$505k
- MA$39k
- DE$24k
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 AMERICAN RIVERS INC
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- American Rivers Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN RIVERS INC: 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 AMERICAN RIVERS INC?
- AMERICAN RIVERS INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 415 organizations whose IRS filings report $72,812,919 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($6,734,700). 251 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN RIVERS INC have?
- IRS filings report 415 organizations giving $72,812,919 in grants to AMERICAN RIVERS INC, 251 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN RIVERS INC?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,734,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN RIVERS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 415 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