Kentucky · Nonprofit
CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC
CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $756 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($756). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $290k
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $756
- Net assets
- $1.7M
What Cave Research Foundation Inc does
Mission
Facilitate and support research, management, and interpretation of caves and karst resources in the United States and overseas; Promote the long-term conservation of caves and karst ecosystems; Explore, survey, and document all aspects of the underground environment; Assist government agencies and private landowners with management and protection of caves on their land; Educate the public about the importance of caves and karst ecosystems for conservation and water supplies.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
CAVE AND KARST RESEARCH, MANAGEMENT, AND CARTOGRAPHY: The primary focus of the Foundation is assisting government land managers who are responsible for cave and karst areas. Support includes inventorying caves and karst features, developing management plans to protect these unique resources, constructing protective gates on sensitive caves, performing biological and other inventories in the caves, and systematically mapping the caves. Working agreements are in place with the Mammoth Cave National Park, Carlsbad Caverns NP, Buffalo National River, Mark Twain National Forest, Lava Beds National Monument, Craters of the Moon National Monument, Sequoia-Kings Canyon NP, and others. The Foundation has a pool of over 200 active volunteers who do the actual work under the guidance of the various agency land managers. Over 23,000 hours of volunteer time were donated to the Foundation in 2024-25.
$122,225 spent$153,926 earned by the program85% of program spendingPUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF CAVE-RELATED BOOKS AND MAPS: The Foundation publishes and distributes a variety of cave-related technical, scientific, and popular books and maps related to the science, history, exploration, and management of caves and karst landforms. Most of the books are sold through the visitor centers in national parks that contain caves.
$6,187 spent$15,894 earned by the program4% of program spendingGRADUATE RESEARCH GRANTS: The Foundation awards a variable number of graduate-level research grants each year to support thesis research in fields related to cave and karst studies. The grants are awarded solely on the merits of the grant requests. Grant requests are reviewed by an independent committee of academic researchers working in cave and karst-related fields. Grants are not awarded directly to the recipient, but are sent to their university and the university administers the grant for the recipient. Grant recipients are required to publish their research results in a public document, which can be the Foundation's CRF Newsletter or other appropriate publication. There were twelve grants awarded in 2025.
$15,000 spentof which $15,000 as grants10% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $143,412.
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 $1.6M to $1.7M (+11%).
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.
25% of CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (79% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $198 → $138.
1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION 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.
Where its funders are
100% of CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $756 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 453 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 453 science & tech nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $712k on record.
- Department of the Interior$430k
- Department of Agriculture$282k
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 CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION 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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION 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 CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC?
- CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $756 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($756). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $756 in grants to CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC?
- AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $756 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CAVE RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 Cave Research →
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 1 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