Arizona · Nonprofit
Archaeology Southwest
Archaeology Southwest (Arizona) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,239,071 to it, the largest being WALLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION ($4,208,700). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.1M
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $6.2M
- Net assets
- $12M
What Archaeology Southwest does
Mission
We practice Preservation Archaeology, a holistic and conservation-based approach to exploring and protecting heritage places while honoring their diverse values. We compile archaeological information, make it accessible and understandable, share it with the public and decision-makers, advocate for landscape-scale protection, and steward heritage properties and conservation easements. We are committed to real and ongoing collaboration with Indigenous communities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Landscape and Site ProtectionSave History: The Save History campaign expanded prevention and outreach in 2024, distributing 2,000+ children's activity books, launching an oral history video project, and presenting at conferences, including the Society for American Archaeology, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, and the Southwest Symposium. Media outreach included NPR's Here and Now, podcasts, and Tribal youth events. Through SaveHistory.org, 12 crime tips were relayed to law enforcement.Archaeological Resource Crime Response and Prevention: The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) Assistance Program, funded through a contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), strengthened detection and response by completing fieldwork for seven Tribe-requested damage assessments, installing 75+ trail cameras, and distributing 500+ no-trespassing signs. We built national capacity for protecting cultural heritage through three 5-day ARPA trainings with over 100 total participants from 18 Tribal Nations and multiple agencies, plus custom seminars and regional sessions.Respect Great Bend 2024: Archaeology Southwest remains a lead organization in the Respect…
$1,527,313 spentof which $600 as grants$214,998 earned by the program54% of program spendingResearchCultural Uses of Plants and Animals in the Southern Southwest: We have a National Science Foundation grant to study how people used animals and plants before, during, and after migrants from what is now northeastern Arizona moved south to join existing communities in southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. We have compiled substantial quantities of previously analyzed paleobotanical (plant) and osteofaunal (animal bone) data from published and unpublished sources, much of which is now in cyberSW (see below). We partnered with Desert Archaeology, Inc., to train an undergraduate research assistant who processed numerous 50-year-old flotation samples that are now being analyzed, and we continue to analyze additional zooarchaeological assemblages. Documenting Indigenous and Historical Trails: 2023 and 2024 grants from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)put us on the ground documenting trails in the Sonoran Desert National Monument and expanding that methodology to other BLM units in Arizona. The objective is to evaluate the relationship, if any, between the Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail and existing Indigenous trails on public lands across the state.
$503,912 spentof which $4,800 as grants$33,046 earned by the program18% of program spendingcyberSWcyberSW: With the support of three National Science Foundation grants, the cyberSW team (Joshua Watts, Manager; Andre Takagi, Senior Systems Analyst/Developer; Caitlynn Mayhew [Din], Native American Fellow; Sarah Oas, Preservation Archaeologist; and Jeff Clark, Vice President for Research, serving in an advisory capacity) continued standardizing and adding information about pottery, plant & animal remains, and stone tools & artifacts recovered from ancient Indigenous settlements in AZ's Tonto, Phoenix, & Tucson Basins, southwestern NM, and southwestern CO. By the end of 2024, they had added data from more than 200 settlements. In late 2024, we were awarded a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for Humanities' prestigious Digital Humanities Advancement Grant program. Funding will help us develop a digital field guide to O'Odham keystone plant & animal species, and help us improve the web platform in general. Work will build upon Mayhew's pilot project on Indigenous Knowledge & use of bird species.
$441,292 spentof which $26,694 as grants$51 earned by the program16% of program spendingOutreach and EducationPreservation Archaeology Position Papers: : John Welch, Paul Reed, Ashleigh Thompson, and Skylar Begay published a position paper: "Tribal Co-Management: What Works, Where and How." The paper complements attendance by Thompson and Begay at two "Bears Ears Gatherings," where members of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and the Bears Ears Commission planned co-management with the BLM and the US Forest Service. The paper blends the deliberations over Bears Ears with the results of international academic research and considerations of opportunities to structure co-management for the Great Bend of the Gila. Plans are in place for a new position paper on how Archaeology Southwest might uphold Indigenous data sovereignty principles.Archaeology Cafe: We concluded the 2023-2024 season of Archaeology Cafe, Nourishing Body, Soul, & Earth: Traditional Foods & Foodways, with a mix of in-person and virtual meetups. Later in 2024, we launched our 16th season with a fully in-person format at Catalyst, a community-creative space run by the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance. Dogs! Exploring Canine Cultural Histories in North America proved to be vibrant and…
$354,860 spent$11,123 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,827,377.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $11M to $13M (+21%).
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 14% · 2018 33% · 2019 40% · 2020 42% · 2021 43% · 2022 46% · 2023 45% · 2024 47%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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 Nash
President & CEO
Board chair
Dan Kimball
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $900k → $918k.
8 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 Archaeology Southwest’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
Archaeology Southwest leans on a few funders — its largest provides 67% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
29% 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 Archaeology Southwest.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 85% · 2018 81% · 2019 77% · 2020 38% · 2021 56% · 2022 70% · 2023 56% — 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
47% of Archaeology Southwest's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
Archaeology Southwest draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Arizona, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $323k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Government funding Archaeology Southwest receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $15.7M on record.
- Department of the Interior$13.0M
- National Science Foundation$2.0M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$639k
- Department of Agriculture$55k
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 Archaeology Southwest
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Prudent Preservation Partners LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Archaeology Southwest: 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 Archaeology Southwest?
- Archaeology Southwest (Arizona) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,239,071 to it, the largest being WALLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION ($4,208,700). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Archaeology Southwest have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $6,239,071 in grants to Archaeology Southwest, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Archaeology Southwest?
- WALLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,208,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Archaeology Southwest find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 25 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