North Carolina · Nonprofit
Dogwood Alliance Inc
Dogwood Alliance Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,450,854 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($11,171,500). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $5.0M
What Dogwood Alliance Inc does
Mission
Dogwood Alliance advances environmental justice and climate action by mobilizing diverse voices to protect southern forests and communities from industrial logging.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Campaigns: Throughout the year, our campaigns and advocacy translated into increased political engagement, with more than 50 meetings held between Dogwood staff, community partners, and state and federal policymakers. At the federal level, Dogwood helped advance an updated biomass bill and continues to work closely with two vocal congressional champions. These efforts coincide with growing scrutiny of the industry overall: Drax is facing regulatory investigations, mounting lawsuits, and questions about its long-term economic viability, signaling that sustained public pressure and coordinated advocacy are creating a potential tipping point for the biomass industry in the US South. On World Health Day, Dogwood Alliance and its 20+ member coalition hosted an educational webinar on the public health impacts of the biomass industry, drawing 649 registrants and 236 attendees.
$558,155 spent24% of program spendingOrganizing: Dogwood Alliance helped drive meaningful momentum against the expansion of the wood pellet industry across the US South. We expanded and strengthened partnerships opposing Drax and Envivas proposed expansions in Mississippi and North Carolina, aligning community groups, regional allies, and national advocates around shared strategies. Our organizing supported tangible outcomes: Enviva withdrew its permit application for a facility expansion in North Carolina, and a proposed Drax expansion in Mississippi was initially denied before being reconsidered through appeal. State regulators also issued new fugitive-dust regulations for Envivas North Carolina port facility, while Enviva closed a Mississippi plant and Drax halted operations at two Arkansas facilities. Dogwood also activated new impacted communities in Georgia and initiated outreach in Alabama and Louisiana. Dogwood Alliance distributed $194,000 directly to frontline organizations through our community subgrants program, reinforcing our commitment to grassroots, community-led activism. These funds provided critical resources to leaders fighting forest destruction and advancing protection in their own communities.…
$1,309,472 spentof which $163,100 as grants$50,000 earned by the program56% of program spendingConservation: Our work to proactively protect forests through establishing community-owned forests has been focused in the Pee Dee Watershed of South Carolina. Against the backdrop of a culture that has largely accepted the working forest conservation and economic model, Dogwood Alliance and our local partners are charting a new course that puts community-led forest protection at the center of our conservation and rural economic development agenda. This work gained significant momentum in 2024 with two new community forests in South Carolina secured and in process for Conservation easements and ongoing conservation plans. One additional community forest is ready to be acquired in South Carolina and funded through the Justice Conservation Fund. Potential community forest partners in North Carolina were contacted, and relationships were established. In 2025, Dogwood Alliance and New Alpha Community Development Corporation celebrated the opening of Freedom Land Community Forest, a 305-acre former slave plantation in Marion County, SC, now reclaimed as a community-owned space for healing, recreation, and ecological restoration. As Dogwoods second justice-centered community…
$486,989 spentof which $40,000 as grants21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,354,616.
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 2023 to 2024, from $4.9M to $5.9M (+20%).
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 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of Dogwood Alliance Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Margaret Danna Smith
Executive Director
Board chair
Jacob Blass
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $2.5M.
13 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 Dogwood Alliance Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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
Dogwood Alliance Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
75% 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 Dogwood Alliance Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 77% · 2019 77% · 2020 55% · 2021 72% · 2022 57% · 2023 63% — 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
47% of Dogwood Alliance Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
70% of Dogwood Alliance 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. Of the $5.3M that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 13 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $12M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
Dogwood Alliance Inc holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Dogwood Alliance 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 26 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Dogwood Alliance 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 Dogwood Alliance Inc?
- Dogwood Alliance Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,450,854 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($11,171,500). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Dogwood Alliance Inc have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $17,450,854 in grants to Dogwood Alliance Inc, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Dogwood Alliance Inc?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $11,171,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Dogwood Alliance Inc 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 52 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