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Oregon · Nonprofit

INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY

INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY (Oregon) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,650,071 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($559,052). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$6.4M
Funders on record
20
Grants received
$1.7M
Net assets
$3.2M
12/20 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 8%
01What it does

What Institute for Applied Ecology does

Mission

The Institute for Applied Ecology conserves native species and habitats through restorations, research, and education

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Conservation research: our efforts to research, monitor and reintroduce endangered species into restored habitats in western oregon has many successes. We have established new populations of golden paintbrush, kincaid's lupine, nelson's checkermallow, bradshaw's lomatium, cook's desert parsley, columbia yellowcress and willamette daisy. All of these species were on the brink of extinction, but due to our efforts and partnerships with other organizations, are now becoming more common on the landscape. They also now grow in places where local people in local communities can see and interact with them regularly, a sea change for conservation! (continued on schedule o)program accomplishment numbers: for the ninth year, coordinated range-wide monitoring for fender's blue butterfly, with surveys at 71 sites, tracking important trends in this endangered species population. Thirty-four research projects at over 123 sites with 18 federally and state listed endangered/threatened/species of concern species in the nw. In the sw 12 rare plant species were monitored in 115 plots and pollinator communties were monitored across 5 sites pre- and post-restoration. Seeds were collected from 4 rare…

    $638,817 spent
    12% of program spending
  2. Habitat restoration: for over 20 years, iae's mission has included restoring resilient ecosystems. We've learned that to increase habitat restoration in the willamette valley, new mexico and arizona, an increase in the availability of native seeds and plants is needed. We've accomplished much by supporting four regional seed partnerships and developing a native plant farm. The willamette valley native plant partnership (wvnpp), staffed by iae and funded in part by the oregon watershed enhancement board, has over 30 public, private, and nonprofit organizations as members, including watershed councils, soil and water conservations districts, local municipalities, private land trusts, commercial growers, and state and federal agencies. (continued on schedule o)program accomplishment numbers:73 sites in restoration in oregon, 1481 acres in restored or in active restoration2.7 acres in seed production at iae farm, with 46 species in production at the iae farm; 33 fields with 23 species yielding 4,259 pounds of seed in the sw365 pounds of seed produced at iae farmwild seed collected from 53 species in oregon, 104 species and 276 seed collections in arizona and new mexico1913 pounds of…

    $1,115,526 spent$124,633 earned by the program
    21% of program spending
  3. Ecological education: the decline in human connection with nature is found especially in underserved communities within our region, including incarcerated people who number over 15,000 in oregon and 2.3 million nationwide. This nature deficit leads to lower human health, higher incidents of violence, and reduced sense of well-being. Furthermore, there is often a disconnect between environmental professionals and the diverse communities that live in the region where restorations take place. This isolation excludes valuable insights from projects and reduces ownership of habitat restorations by diverse communities. Incarcerated people and communities of diversity are particularly deprived of opportunities to interact with ecosystems as well as in environmental fields. (continued on schedule o)one project of our ecological education program, sagebrush in prisons, deeply engages prison inmates in habitat conservation by giving them vocational training in native plant nursery management and a lecture series in conservation science. These incarcerated adults are healing their environment, their communities, and themselves.program accomplishment numbers:over 300,000 sagebrush and other…

    $657,282 spent
    12% of program spending
  4. The Institute for Applied Ecology (iae) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization whose vision is a world where all people and wildlands are healthy and interact positively, biologically diversity flourishes, and environmental challenges are met with a social commitment to solving problems with science. Our mission is conserving native species and habitats through restoration, research and education. We partner with and serve a diversity of groups across oregon and the western us, including government agencies, local municipalities, conservation organizations and nonprofits, prisons, juvenile detention facilities, k-12 schools, alternative high school programs, tribes, and private individuals. Our projects work across the western united states, with our main office in oregon and an office in new mexico. Our strategic plan lays out three programming goals: restoring resilient ecosystems, conserving species, and connecting people with nature. We present an accomplishment from each in the sections above.

    $2,859,664 spent
    54% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,271,289.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($3.5M) Expenses 100 ($3.0M) Net assets 100 ($1.5M)2018 Revenue 84 ($2.9M) Expenses 93 ($2.8M) Net assets 109 ($1.6M)2019 Revenue 107 ($3.8M) Expenses 118 ($3.5M) Net assets 130 ($1.9M)2020 Revenue 105 ($3.7M) Expenses 113 ($3.4M) Net assets 154 ($2.3M)2021 Revenue 132 ($4.6M) Expenses 142 ($4.2M) Net assets 184 ($2.8M)2022 Revenue 140 ($4.9M) Expenses 154 ($4.6M) Net assets 201 ($3.0M)2023 Revenue 190 ($6.7M) Expenses 210 ($6.3M) Net assets 232 ($3.5M)2024 Revenue 181 ($6.4M) Expenses 224 ($6.7M) Net assets 213 ($3.2M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (181)Expenses (224)Net assets (213)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $2.5M to $3.3M (+34%).

$1.8M
$1.9M
$2.3M
$2.5M
$3.3M
$3.6M
$4.1M
$4.5M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 94% · 2018 91% · 2019 96% · 2020 90% · 2021 84% · 2022 83% · 2023 82% · 2024 93%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

97% of INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,303 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$534k
’17
$164k
’18
$262k
’19
$328k
’20
$414k
’21
$334k
’22
$431k
’23
−$295k
’24
1.6
months of
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

Keith Norris

Executive director as of 5/20/24

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed1212121214121214
Joined·+1+1+4+2+1+1+2
No longer listed·1140310
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $117k → $187k.

6 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY’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

INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% 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

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 INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY.

34%
largest funder
59%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 28% · 2019 41% · 2020 67% · 2021 72% · 2022 35% · 2023 78% — growing more concentrated.

“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

42% of INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside Oregon, across 9 states in all.

VT
WA
MA
OR
CA
MO
DE
NM
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Oregon out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $704k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 6 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−5% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve1.6mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)9% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Government funding INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $36.6M on record — $32.6M federal, $4.0M state.

Federal$32.6M
grants $28.5Mcontracts $4.1M
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • Department of the Interior$25.1M
  • Department of Agriculture$4.7M
  • Environmental Protection Agency$1.8M
  • Department of Defense$1.0M
State$4.0M
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top programs
  • DISTRIBUTION TO NON-GOVERNMENTS$2.7M
  • PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT$595k
  • PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT>$75K$515k
  • AGENCY PROGRAM RELATED SERVICES$75k
  • AGENCY PROGRAM RELATED SUPPLIES$47k
  • OTHER SERVICES$38k

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 INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY

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 Oregon

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

79% of spending goes to programs.

Program 79%Management 20%Fundraising 1%

Governance

11
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

99%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 2 states

OR
NM

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY?
INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY (Oregon) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,650,071 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($559,052). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY have?
IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $1,650,071 in grants to INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY?
SEATTLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $559,052 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ECOLOGY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Institute for Applied Ecology →

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 20 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