North Carolina · Nonprofit
Conserving Carolina
Conserving Carolina (North Carolina) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,084,711 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($4,791,714). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 72
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $49M
What Conserving Carolina does
Mission
To protect, restore, and inspire appreciation of the natural world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Stewardship, Restoration, and Public Access Conserving Carolina continued to steward and enforce the conservation easements it holds, while striving to bring the most current scientific land management resources to our partner landowners. Conserving Carolina also continued its management of the properties it owns by partnering with federal and state agencies, volunteers, and others to increase biological diversity, enhance wildlife habitat, and address other land management needs. Among restoration projects, Conserving Carolina installed pollinator habitat on public and private conserved properties, actively engaged in several stream and wetland restoration projects on private lands and lands that it owns and continued to combat nonnative invasive plant species throughout its service area. Conserving Carolina partnered with state and local governments to create new public parks and recreational lands and to advance greenways, multi-use paths, and trails for a multitude of user groups throughout the region by creating new opportunities for trail construction and maintaining trails.
$14,990,060 spentof which $12,809,927 as grants$326,629 earned by the program89% of program spendingEducation and Outreach Conserving Carolina continues to educate the public through a variety of avenues including print and social media stories and in-person and remote educational events. Conserving Carolina also continues to encourage and facilitate public engagement with conserved and protected areas through outings, hikes, and its Hiking Challenge program, as well as regular volunteer and service-learning opportunities including hosting numerous Alternative Spring Break programs. Conserving Carolina continued the administration of AmeriCorps Project Conserve, a federally sponsored program which placed AmeriCorps members with conservation nonprofits and government agencies across western North Carolina. The project engages individuals in 6- to 11-month terms of service. By promoting additional community volunteerism, Project Conserve provides over 35,000 hours of service annually to the conservation of land, water and other
$1,150,070 spent7% of program spendingLand Protection Program The Land Protection Program conserves natural resources by protecting lands including water quality, endangered and threatened species, critical habitat for wildlife, important agricultural soils, scenic views, and opportunities for public recreation.
$740,170 spent4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $16,880,300.
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 2021 to 2022, from $28M to $39M (+38%).
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 34% · 2019 24% · 2020 25% · 2021 52% · 2022 53% · 2023 36% · 2024 25% · 2025 77%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of Conserving Carolina’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Kieran Roe
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 32 funders, grant income fell $1.6M → $1.5M.
13 of 72 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $530k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Hickory Nut Gorge Teaching and Research Reserve LLC). These are real filings, and they are not money Conserving Carolina raised.
From the IRS filings of Conserving Carolina’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 72 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
Conserving Carolina leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
85% 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 Conserving Carolina.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 62% · 2019 54% · 2020 42% · 2021 54% · 2022 45% · 2023 32% — 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
41% of Conserving Carolina's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
58% of Conserving Carolina'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 $5.1M that is directly attributable, 77% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 20 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Conserving Carolina runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 195 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 195 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Conserving Carolina receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10.7M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$9.7M
- Department of the Interior$620k
- Appalachian Regional Commission$450k
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 Conserving Carolina
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
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Mountain Acres LLC · disregarded
- EcustaRails2Trails LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Conserving Carolina: 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 Conserving Carolina?
- Conserving Carolina (North Carolina) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,084,711 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($4,791,714). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Conserving Carolina have?
- IRS filings report 72 organizations giving $12,084,711 in grants to Conserving Carolina, 47 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Conserving Carolina?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $4,791,714 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Conserving Carolina 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.
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 72 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