Nebraska · Nonprofit
CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS
CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS (Nebraska) receives grants from 86 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,770,691 to it, the largest being THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION ($13,057,451). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $19M
- Funders on record
- 86
- Grants received
- $41M
- Net assets
- $24M
What Center for Rural Affairs does
Mission
To cultivate strong communities rooted in social and economic justice, environmental stewardship, and opportunity for all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
National sustainable agriculture coalition - an alliance of grassroots organizations that advocates for federal policy reform to advance the sustainability of agriculture, food systems, natural resources, and rural communities.
$3,313,151 spentof which $15,000 as grants$183,283 earned by the program28% of program spendingFarm and community - supports sustainable development in rural nebraska by providing technical assistance and training to support value added agriculture, wind energy development, organic farming, new farmers and ranchers, and entrepreneurship.
$3,772,072 spentof which $638,826 as grants$4,750 earned by the program32% of program spendingRural public policy program - advocates for state and federal policies that support family size farms, value added agriculture, microenterprise development, rural community development, beginning farmers, and soil and water conservation.
$2,281,386 spent$10,400 earned by the program19% of program spendingLending services - provides training and technical assistance to rural micro entrepreneurs across the full expanse of rural nebraska and includes a rural women's business center and a rural hispanic business center.
$1,041,476 spentof which $12,000 as grants$382,206 earned by the program9% of program spendingMississippi river network - a diverse coalition of 56 nonprofit organizations that are working together to protect the land, water, wildlife, and people of the united states' greatest river.
$644,454 spent$2,749 earned by the program6% of program spendingNewsletter and communications
$-38,800 spent0% of program spendingSolar for all
$702,863 spent6% of program spendingGeneral
$55,524 earned by the program
The 8 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $11,716,602.
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 2024 to 2025, from $20M to $38M (+91%).
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 32% · 2018 16% · 2019 25% · 2020 22% · 2021 29% · 2022 29% · 2023 18% · 2024 44% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Chief executive
Brian Depew
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 37 funders, grant income rose $2.1M → $6.4M.
24 of 86 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 86 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
CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 57% · 2019 38% · 2020 26% · 2021 21% · 2022 23% · 2023 26% — 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
45% of CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS draws 59% of its grant income from funders outside Nebraska, across 20 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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 CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $90.0M on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$62.5M
- Department of Agriculture$23.0M
- Small Business Administration$4.6M
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 CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS
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 Nebraska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
99% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 49 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- The Granary Foundation · exempt
- Center for Rural Affairs Community Capital · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS: 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 CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS?
- CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS (Nebraska) receives grants from 86 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,770,691 to it, the largest being THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION ($13,057,451). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS have?
- IRS filings report 86 organizations giving $40,770,691 in grants to CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS?
- THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $13,057,451 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CENTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nebraska. 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 86 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