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California · Nonprofit

BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC

BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,711,663 to it, the largest being Alumbra Innovations Foundation ($3,500,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$8.9M
Funders on record
24
Grants received
$11M
Net assets
$5.3M
9/24 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 80%
01What it does

What Blue Forest Finance Inc does

Mission

Blue forest is a non-profit conservation finance organization. We bring people, finance and science together to restore and protect our forests, watersheds, ecosystems and communities.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Project development - involves development, design, and implementation of conservation finance. This includes the forest resilience bond (frb), an innovative financing mechanism that accesses private capital to finance forest restoration projects to protect communities, ecosystem benefits, and rural livelhoods; and blue forest asset management (bfam), which provides flexible financing to companies leading forest restoration and wildfire mitigation work across california. 2024 impacts included $17.8m deployed for ecosystem resilience, 141 jobs supported, 12 active national forest engagements for frb project development, 10,168 acres protected, and 34,977 acre-feet of water supply protected.

    $6,494,036 spentof which $1,300,000 as grants$2,359,920 earned by the program
    93% of program spending
  2. Communications, outreach, & education - involves activities to produce and disseminate materials and information about our innovative finance models and the multiple benefits of ecosystem conservation and restoration generally. Our stakeholder and public outreach and education expands knowledge of our projects while promoting them as emerging and effective models that are applicable and replicable to many landscapes and ecosystem situations in need of large-scale management and restoration, while also advancing the field of conservation finance broadly. 2024 impacts included features in leading impact investing publications, inclusion in the revenues for nature database, winner of the forest service regional partnership of the year, achieving coin cdfi certification, and being named as a keeling curve prize laureate.

    $350,654 spent
    5% of program spending
  3. Science & research - blue forest combines the latest western science with indigenous knowledge to build more resilient ecosystems and communities. Our science team works to evaluate and monitor project benefits. We help develop, test and deploy new tools and methods for measuring restoration project outcomes. We partner with academic and research organizations to evaluate and communicate the benefits of investing in ecosystem resilience, and we maintain a portfolio of independent research projects aimed at gaining new insights into the benefits of well-managed landscapes. In 2024 blue forest team members published 4 research papers, completed benefits analysis for 21 unique projects, and participated in 19 public presentations and panels.

    $134,951 spent
    2% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,979,641.

02The organization over time

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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($404k) Expenses 100 ($54k) Net assets 100 ($349k)2020 Revenue 479 ($1.9M) Expenses 2135 ($1.2M) Net assets 321 ($1.1M)2021 Revenue 490 ($2.0M) Expenses 3223 ($1.8M) Net assets 386 ($1.3M)2022 Revenue 1321 ($5.3M) Expenses 6323 ($3.4M) Net assets 941 ($3.3M)2023 Revenue 1833 ($7.4M) Expenses 11885 ($6.5M) Net assets 1370 ($4.8M)2024 Revenue 2212 ($8.9M) Expenses 16542 ($9.0M) Net assets 1527 ($5.3M)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (2212)Expenses (16542)Net assets (1527)Peer revenue range

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 $22M to $35M (+63%).

$1.9M
$2.5M
$6.6M
$14M
$22M
$35M
201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 10% · 2021 25% · 2022 14% · 2023 22% · 2024 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

69% of BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,303 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$349k
’19
$776k
’20
$225k
’21
$1.9M
’22
$942k
’23
−$59k
’24
3.3
months of
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

Zachary Knight

CEO & president

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

201920202021202220232024
Listed589111414
Joined·+4+1+3+3+3
No longer listed·10103
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $404k → $3.0M.

7 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC’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

BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

40% 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 BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC.

33%
largest funder
65%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 37% · 2021 32% · 2022 58% · 2023 51% — growing more concentrated.

“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 BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 10 states in all.

IL
NY
OR
CT
CA
CO
VA
AR
SC
HI

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,187 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−1% · below the median
Months of reserve3.3mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)86% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Government funding BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $15.6M on record.

Federal$15.6M
grants $15.6Mcontracts $0
20
21
22
23
24
Top agencies
  • Department of Agriculture$15.1M
  • Environmental Protection Agency$500k

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 BLUE FOREST FINANCE 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 California

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

78% of spending goes to programs.

Program 78%Management 20%Fundraising 3%

Governance

7
board members
71%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

70%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Part of a family of 13 related entities

  • Butte Valley I Frb LLC · disregarded
  • North Feather I Frb LLC · disregarded
  • Plumas Community Protection I Frb LLC · disregarded
  • Sonec I Wrb LLC · disregarded
  • Upper Butte Creek I Frb LLC · disregarded

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BLUE FOREST FINANCE 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.

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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 BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC?
BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,711,663 to it, the largest being Alumbra Innovations Foundation ($3,500,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC have?
IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $10,711,663 in grants to BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC?
Alumbra Innovations Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $3,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BLUE FOREST FINANCE INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 24 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