Tennessee · Nonprofit
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,920,773 to it, the largest being HASLAM FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($695,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.3M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $7.1M
What Great Smoky Mountains Institute Inc does
Mission
Great smoky mountains institute, inc. Provides in-depth experiences through education programs that celebrate ecological and cultural diversity, foster stewardship, and nurture appreciation of the great smoky mountains national park.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Environmental education programs for elementary school, high school, college and adult students through hands on learning experiences in the great smoky mountains national park.
$1,764,094 spent$1,586,539 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,764,094.
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 2018 to 2019, from $4.1M to $7.2M (+77%).
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 5% · 2021 10% · 2022 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
38% of GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC’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. 0 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.
Board chair
Brandon Bruce
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 16 funders, grant income fell $216k → $162k.
8 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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: $171k from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest East Tennessee Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC raised.
From the IRS filings of GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 36% 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
39% 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 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 41% · 2019 46% · 2020 26% · 2021 62% · 2022 24% · 2023 23% — 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
53% of GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC'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
52% of GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $265k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $40k on record.
- Department of the Interior$40k
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 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE 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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE 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 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC?
- GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,920,773 to it, the largest being HASLAM FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($695,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $1,920,773 in grants to GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC?
- HASLAM FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $695,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Great Smoky Mountains Institute →
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 33 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