California · Nonprofit
Friends of No 9 Inc
Friends of No 9 Inc (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $120,150 to it, the largest being UP IN SMOKE FOUNDATION ($50,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $87k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $120k
- Net assets
- $514k
What Friends of No 9 Inc does
Mission
Friends of Number 9 seeks to acquire, restore, conserve and display the last piece of historic railway stock for the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
In 2024, Friends of No 9 accomplished major portions of the locomotive restoration. Initially, the focus was on disassembling the locomotive boiler, frame, wheel trucks and the V-twin 2-cylinder engine. Some of the bolts had to be individually drilled out to separate key components. Metal was cut away that could not be restored, parts were media-blasted to remove surface rust. Assembled pieces were riveted to match historic patterns, then painted with primer and two coats of marine epoxy paint. The boiler got a new jacket over foam insulation. The firepan was rebuilt, a mix of original and new materials. Historic parts were obtained for brakes, lubricators and water injectors, as well as controls and lights. By the end of 2024, the boiler, tender and cab were remounted on the frame. A new pilot was commissioned to conform to the mountain operation in 1921 that had been removed for logging operations. Reassembly was completed mid-2025.
$1,013 spent50% of program spendingInitial concepts for display of Engine 9 were undertaken in 2022 and continued through 2024. Architectural designs were prepared for display in downtown Mill Valley on the expanded Depot Plaza. A second location in front of the City Hall of Mill Valley was also designed. Neither of those locations proceeded beyond concept drawings. Engine 9 was invited to the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade in 2025. The California State Railroad Museum invited Engine 9 as a featured temporary exhibit in the summer of 2025. CSRM has not displayed an excursion train or a geared locomotive.Engine 9 offered both, operating on the steep Mt Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway that took sightseeings from San Francisco to the East Peak at the top of the mountain, one half mile above San Francisco Bay.
$1,012 spent50% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,025.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $332k to $448k (+35%).
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.
98% of Friends of No 9 Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (78% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $8k → $7k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 Friends of No 9 Inc’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
Friends of No 9 Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
57% 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 Friends of No 9 Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 90% · 2022 98% · 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.
Where its funders are
Friends of No 9 Inc draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $53k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Friends of No 9 Inc has grown faster than half of the 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14,550 arts & culture nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like Friends of No 9 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
50% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Friends of No 9 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 Friends of No 9 Inc?
- Friends of No 9 Inc (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $120,150 to it, the largest being UP IN SMOKE FOUNDATION ($50,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Friends of No 9 Inc have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $120,150 in grants to Friends of No 9 Inc, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Friends of No 9 Inc?
- UP IN SMOKE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $50,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Friends of No 9 Inc 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.
Play a game about who funds Friends of No 9 →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 5 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