Kentucky · Nonprofit
ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION
ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION (Kentucky) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,652,930 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LOUISVILLE INC ($1,557,558). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.2M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $4.7M
- Net assets
- $81M
What Isaac W Bernheim Foundation does
Mission
The Isaac W Bernheim Foundation in clermont, kentucky was incorporated for the benefit, development, and maintenance of bernheim arboretum and research forest (bernheim). Bernheim connects people and nature with over sixteen thousands acres of scenic natural areas, a nationally recognized arboretum, beautiful gardens, tranquil lakes, an award-winning visitor's center, and over thirty miles of walkways and hiking trails. More than 500,000 people annually benefit from bernheim through visits, public programs, visitor programs, school and teacher programs, and special events. Nature-inspired art and sculpture, and artist-in-residence program, concerts, a cafe and gift shop, and a wide spectrum of visitor activities round out the bernheim experience. Research activities include innovative horticultural conservation and nature areas management, and restoration projects. Bernheim works collaboratively with a wide variety of educational, scientific, academic, and community organizations, and relies on contributions and grants from individuals, corporations, foundations, and governmental organizations to carry out its mission.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Bernheim encompasses 16,500 acres and is the largest privately held forest in the eastern united states dedicated to nature based education and conservation. Annually, bernheim engages over 300,000 visitors and provides nature based education to over 10,000 students and their families. Bernheim's mission: connecting people with nature is realized on and off-site with activities including visitors exploring our scenic woodlands crossed by over 40 miles of hiking trails; attends award-winning nature based education programs; volunteering in bernheim's 600 acre arboretum; meet artists participating in bernheim's forty + years artist-in-residency program; grows up healthy and discovery of nature in our 17 acre innovative play zone: play cosystem; enjoys a meal harvested from bernheims edible garden and prepared at isaac's cafe.
$4,954,389 spent$1,474,103 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,954,389.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2020 to 2021, from $59M to $68M (+15%).
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 11% · 2022 7% · 2023 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
66% of ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION’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. 1 of the last 6 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
Mark Wourms
President/CEO
Board chair
Kathy Knotts
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $135k → $514k.
9 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 52% 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: $11M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Isaac Bernheim Trust). These are real filings, and they are not money ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% 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
63% 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 ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 35% · 2019 67% · 2020 42% · 2021 33% · 2022 54% · 2023 40% — 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
35% of ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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 ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION'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 $2.2M that is directly attributable, 87% of it comes from Kentucky funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M 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
ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION is better cushioned 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
Organizations like ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION
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 Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
58%
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 ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION: 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 ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION?
- ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION (Kentucky) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,652,930 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LOUISVILLE INC ($1,557,558). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $4,652,930 in grants to ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION?
- THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LOUISVILLE INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,557,558 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ISAAC W BERNHEIM FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. 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 Isaac W Bernheim →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 55 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