California · Nonprofit
Death Valley Natural History Association
Death Valley Natural History Association (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $818,197 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY INITIATIVES ($482,641). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $818k
- Net assets
- $731k
What Death Valley Natural History Association does
Mission
Preserving & interpreting the natural & cultural resources of the region with government partners.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Support for Death Valley National Park. Death Valley Natural History Association (DVNHA) continued to support a number of Death Valley Projects. At Scotty's Castle DVNHA funded programs to restored the historic theater organ and chimes tower. We continued our support of the Death Valley Education Program giving 20 transportation grants to local schools for science- ased education in the park. DVNHA sold 279,500 educational items and provided 9,824 visitor contacted hours.
$941,499 spent91% of program spendingSupport for Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. At Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, we sold 10,580 educational items and provided 2,187 visitor contact hours. Due to FWS staffing issues we had to put a number of projects on hold.
$46,990 spent5% of program spendingEducational Programing. Our Death Valley Institute was active even with areas of the park closed due to flooding. We completed 9 programs with 59 participants for 330 educational hours. We also had 6 bus groups and a private group with 171 participants and 820 educational hours.
$43,607 spent4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,032,096.
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 2022 to 2023, from $829k to $1.0M (+22%).
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: 2021 20% · 2023 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
19% of Death Valley Natural History Association’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $35k → $74k.
3 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 Death Valley Natural History Association’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
Death Valley Natural History Association leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 Death Valley Natural History Association.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 96% · 2019 66% · 2020 75% · 2021 71% · 2022 35% · 2023 89% — 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
50% of Death Valley Natural History Association's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
63% of Death Valley Natural History Association's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $45k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Death Valley Natural History Association's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Death Valley Natural History Association receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $118k on record.
- Department of the Interior$118k
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 Death Valley Natural History Association
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Death Valley Natural History Association: 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 Death Valley Natural History Association?
- Death Valley Natural History Association (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $818,197 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY INITIATIVES ($482,641). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Death Valley Natural History Association have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $818,197 in grants to Death Valley Natural History Association, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Death Valley Natural History Association?
- COMMUNITY INITIATIVES is the largest funder on record, with $482,641 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Death Valley Natural History Association 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 11 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