North Carolina · Nonprofit
Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc
Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,361,030 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($9,256,427). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.7M
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $18M
What Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc does
Mission
To conserve unique and special places in the heart of the Southern Blue Ridge for the benefit of all.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
LAND In 2024, Mainspring completed sixteen land transactions, protecting 1528 acres in Western North Carolina. - Two fee simple donations of property received & three fee simple land acquisitions - Three sales of conserved land, one to the USFS and two to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission - Four CEs donations received & two CEs purchased with grant and private funding - Two CEs sold to the NC Land and Water Fund By the end of 2024, Mainspring was responsible for monitoring 105 conservation easements totaling 16,184 acres. It owned 32 properties in fee simple, or 3,468 acres; 1,946 acres on 14 Mainspring properties were also under conservation easement. Volunteers contributed more than 725 hours to help improve the landscape through habitat management and recreational improvements.
$5,508,146 spent$310,718 earned by the program100% of program spendingWATER As part of Mainsprings restoration program, Mainspring finished construction on a large wetland-complex project and conducted a feasibility study on six sites for potential restoration. Mainspring also held about 60 events around water, targeted at either youth education, citizen science, or community engagement.
CULTURAL HERITAGE Mainspring continued its efforts to conserve significant cultural heritage areas and to facilitate enhanced management and non-invasive research to better understand these resources. Through partnership with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Western Carolina University, the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, the NC Trail of Tears Association, and others, work continues to identify culturally significant unprotected sites and ensure they are conserved.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,508,146.
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 2020 to 2021, from $12M to $17M (+34%).
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: 2019 27% · 2020 30% · 2021 32% · 2022 40% · 2023 20% · 2024 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 1 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.
Chief executive
Jordan Smith
Executive Director
Board chair
David Adams
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 17 funders, grant income fell $2.2M → $1.2M.
15 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 75% 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 Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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
Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 83% · 2019 90% · 2020 58% · 2021 94% · 2022 71% · 2023 61% — 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
61% of Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
75% of Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc'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 $3.5M that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 10 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $6.6M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$6.1M
- Department of the Interior$529k
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 Mainspring Conservation Trust 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Ela Dam Project LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Mainspring Conservation Trust 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 Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc?
- Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,361,030 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($9,256,427). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $14,361,030 in grants to Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $9,256,427 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Mainspring Conservation Trust Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 41 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