North Carolina · Nonprofit
FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC
FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,857,932 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($390,702). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Forest History Society Inc does
Mission
To preserve and help people use the documents of forest & conservation history. The society identifies, collects, interprets, and disseminates historical information on the relationship of humans and forests, contributing to informed natural resource decision-making.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Library & archives - the fhs maintains the foremost collection in the world of forest and conservation history books, journals, and other materials for current and future generations. It houses over 200,000 historic photographs, 12,000 books, maps, moving footage, artwork, and over 350 oral history interviews. It provides free online databases for remote researching for k-12 and college students, teachers, journalists and other researchers. Over 5,000 searches annually are conducted in the databases and over 100,000 users reach fhs web pages for information. The archives preserve almost one-mile of unique records from individuals, families, companies, and institutions and hosts on-site researchers from around the world. The fhs serves as the first stop for global inquiries in forest history.
$578,740 spent50% of program spendingResearch and publications - conduct research and promote writing and publications that synthesize the substantial historical literature in forest and conservation history. The society's impressive list of publications includes the "forest history today" magazine, and "environmental history", the leading scholarly journal in the field. Its issues series books have reached over 25,000 classrooms, households, and natural resource managers and are used in teacher education across the united states. The recent film, "america's first forest" was broadcast over 5,000 times, on 450 pbs stations, in 47 states, with over 5 million viewers. The fhs has published dozens of book-length publications and is currently working on a book about private family forests.
$312,227 spent$870 earned by the program27% of program spendingAwards & education - the fhs provides travel grants to researchers in need in order to access the fhs collections. To encourage scholarly work in forest and conservation history the fhs offers awards for the best wrting in journals, books, and the popular press. Two annual fellowships support graduate students studying forest history. To convey an understanding of forest history to a wide variety of publics, fhs provides the free online "if trees could talk" curriculum for middle school students that reaches hundreds of teachers and thousands of students. A live-streamed lectureship in collaboration with duke university reaches thousands annually and the general public is served by a variety of social media outlets including the award-winning blog "peeling back the bark."
$257,119 spent$31 earned by the program22% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,148,086.
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 2017 to 2018, from $12M to $15M (+21%).
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: 2020 9% · 2021 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
69% of FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
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
Tania Munz
President & CEO
Board chair
Clark W Seely
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $62k → $148k.
5 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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: $121k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC raised.
From the IRS filings of FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% 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
42% 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 FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 49% · 2019 39% · 2020 38% · 2021 49% · 2022 28% · 2023 22% — 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
56% of FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 13 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $777k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $175k on record — $175k federal, $300 state.
- Department of Agriculture$175k
- OR$150
- OK$150
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 FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY 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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY 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 FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC?
- FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,857,932 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($390,702). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $1,857,932 in grants to FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $390,702 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY 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.
Play a game about who funds Forest History Society →
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 35 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