North Carolina · Nonprofit
ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG
ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG (North Carolina) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $680,713 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($200,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $665k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $681k
- Net assets
- $735k
What Asheville Watchdog does
Mission
Our mission is to inform and engage the citizens of asheville and surrounding communities by providing fair, factual and reliable in-depth news stories about local government, institutions, issues, and people.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Asheville Watchdog published 355 stories on our website in 2025, reaching 1,695,132 unique visitors. Our in-depth investigative and local accountability stories about people and institutions in asheville and western north carolina received 6 million views on our facebook page and 1.9 million views on our instagram account. We hosted three free community events, and our staff spoke to more than a dozen student and community groups about the importance of local journalism. We also added two reporters to our staff of investigative journalists and hired our first director of development
$465,584 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $465,584.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $90k to $468k (+418%).
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.
94% of ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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
Catrina Lloyd
Executive director
Board chair
Selena Lauterer
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $28k → $126k.
8 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 85% 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 ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG’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
ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
91% 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 ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 77% · 2022 69% · 2023 24% — 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
85% of ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG'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 $104k that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $577k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG has grown faster than three-quarters of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG: 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 ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG?
- ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG (North Carolina) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $680,713 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($200,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $680,713 in grants to ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG?
- AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Asheville Watchdog →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 18 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