Wisconsin · Nonprofit
LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS
LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS (Wisconsin) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $144,228 to it, the largest being LUKIS FOUNDATION ($81,154). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $155k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $144k
- Net assets
- $122k
What Lake Superior Tall Ships does
Mission
The Mission of Lake Superior Tall Ships is; To teach youth seamanship personal responsibility teamwork and self-esteem while building skills in leadership and citizenship to inspire all generations to be responsible stewards of Lake Superior and all lakes rivers and oceans and to promote awareness appreciation and preservation of Lake Superiors marine communities and maritime heritage.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Abbey Road was out sailing on Lake Superior for 68 days in 2025 with guests. She sailed 2,004 nautical miles on trips from Bayfield to the Apostle Islands Grand Marais MN and Whitefish Bay MI. Most of the trips were 3 to 4-hour half day or evening sails and many of the guests especially the Sea Scouts were repeat sailors. Of the trips 37 days were Youth Adventure Trips with the area Sea Scouts school groups and other area youth. We had 7 days of Family Adventures 8 days of Adult Offshore Adventure 7 days of bareboat charter and 7 days participating in the Tall Ships America Festival of Sail in Duluth MN. The season was cut a little short due to an engine failure the first week of September and the part was not available in the US.
$0 spentWe acquired the schooner Zeeto in the spring of 2023. Zeeto was out sailing on Chequamegon Bay and in the Apostle Islands Superior for 16 days in 2025 with guests. Most of the trips were 3 to 4-hour half day or evening sails and many of the guests especially the Sea Scouts were repeat sailors. Of the trips 9 days were Youth Adventure Trips with the area Sea Scouts school groups and other area youth. We had 1 days of Family Adventures 1 Friendraiser trip and 5 days sailing in teh Tall Ships America Festival of Sail in Duluith MN.
$0 spent
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
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 2020 to 2021, from $216k to $161k (−25%).
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.
54% of LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (18% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Gordon Ringberg
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $5k → $518.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS’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
LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
42% 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 LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 98% · 2023 97% — 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
LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Wisconsin, across 1 state in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $60k 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
LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 10,453 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,453 recreation & sports nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
84%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS: 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 LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS?
- LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS (Wisconsin) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $144,228 to it, the largest being LUKIS FOUNDATION ($81,154). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $144,228 in grants to LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS?
- LUKIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $81,154 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LAKE SUPERIOR TALL SHIPS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Lake Superior Tall Ships →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), 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