Washington · Nonprofit
ISLANDWOOD
ISLANDWOOD (Washington) receives grants from 80 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,647,377 to it, the largest being ISLANDS FUND ($1,500,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 80
- Grants received
- $9.6M
- Net assets
- $48M
What Islandwood does
Mission
The primary goal is to help children & adults develop a commitment to lifelong learning & environmental and community stewardship through hands-on learning experiences combining science, technology, & the arts at Islandwood's 255-acre outdoor learning center and in schools.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Islandwood delivers educational experiences that help children and adults alike understand their environment and discover the impact they can have on the world and their communities. Our place-based, experiential learning programs for puget sound area schools are offered on our bainbridge island, washington campus, at the brightwater wastewater treatment plant in woodinville, washington, and in seattle schools and communities. Islandwood extends its impact on elementary students through our graduate program in education, the development of elementary school curriculum, teacher training programs, and statewide advocacy initiatives.continued on schedule o.Islandwood's graduate program is a 10-month immersive residency in justice-oriented environmental education experiential, student centered learning and culturally responsive teaching and curriculum development. In fiscal year 2024-2025, 14 students earned their certificate from the graduate program. Islandwood is helping teachers connect science learning to students' lives and communities through our teacher professional development series. During the 2024- 2025 fiscal year, over 350 teachers participated in the series, impacting…
$9,341,827 spentof which $226,065 as grants$6,327,452 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $9,341,827.
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 2021 to 2022, from $53M to $49M (−7%).
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 6% · 2021 26% · 2022 15% · 2023 13% · 2024 2% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
44% of ISLANDWOOD’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Megan Karch
CEO
Board chair
Ellie Fields
Chair
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 21 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $620k → $1.2M.
16 of 80 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 ISLANDWOOD’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 80 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
ISLANDWOOD has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
60% 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 ISLANDWOOD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 26% · 2019 40% · 2020 32% · 2021 31% · 2022 30% · 2023 26% — 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
49% of ISLANDWOOD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
57% of ISLANDWOOD'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 $4.2M that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from funders outside Washington, across 20 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
ISLANDWOOD's revenue grew 35% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding ISLANDWOOD receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $103k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$85k
- Department of Agriculture$18k
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 ISLANDWOOD
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Creaky Tree LLC · disregarded
- Bluebill Partners LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ISLANDWOOD: 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 ISLANDWOOD?
- ISLANDWOOD (Washington) receives grants from 80 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,647,377 to it, the largest being ISLANDS FUND ($1,500,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ISLANDWOOD have?
- IRS filings report 80 organizations giving $9,647,377 in grants to ISLANDWOOD, 46 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ISLANDWOOD?
- ISLANDS FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ISLANDWOOD find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 80 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