North Carolina · Nonprofit
MountainTrue
MountainTrue (North Carolina) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,250,773 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($6,125,500). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.1M
- Funders on record
- 72
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $3.1M
What MountainTrue does
Mission
MountainTrues Mission Statement: MountainTrue champions resilient forests, clean waters, and healthy communities across the Southern Blue Ridge.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Public Lands Our Public Lands program protects and restores the commons of the Southern Blue Ridge for sustainable public use. We continue to fight to amend or revise the flawed forest plan for Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests while we organize and mobilize the public to protect public land. -MountainTrue, with other conservation groups, filed three lawsuits against the US Forest Service: 1) Southside Timber Project - We challenged a 15-acre stand as incompatible with the newly adopted Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan then reached an agreement that resulted in the Forest Service abandoning logging at that site. 2)Sued for violations of the Endangered Species Act related to endangered forest bats 3)We sued for not considering the carbon impacts related to timber targets. -Hosted our annual bioblitz in the Nolichucky Gorge. -Recruited volunteers to remove invasive plants from public land. -Re-treated 338 ash trees along the Appalachian Trail.
$3,112,961 spent$851,410 earned by the program100% of program spendingHealthy Communities Our Healthy Communities Team advocates for patterns of growth that promote vibrant communities and protect the rural character and natural assets of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains. We appreciate that the natural and built environments are interconnected. To keep our communities safe from pollution and protect our forests from sprawl, MountainTrue advocates for sustainable development. - The Neighbors for More Neighbors program is hitting its stride. - Implementing Buncombe Countys Comprehensive Plan. - Protecting Madison Countys residential communities and ridgetops. - Protecting water quality and reducing sprawl in Henderson County. . Creation Care Alliance of WNC (CCA) The Creation Care Alliance (CCA) unites people of faith from across the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains to care for Gods creation by fostering a deeper love for our planet and our neighbors. Our program educates and mobilizes congregations throughout the region, providing them with action alerts, lobbying opportunities, and avenues to address climate change.
Water Our water team protects the French Broad, Watauga, New, Green, Broad, Little Tennessee, Savannah, and Hiwassee River basins by tracking and reporting sewer leaks, straight pipes, pollution sources, and negative impacts from agriculture and development. We fix water quality problems through policy advocacy, funding solutions, project-based approaches, and litigation when necessary. -We joined a petition asking the EPA to withdraw state authority over discharge permits. -Administered over $400,000 in funding from NC DHHS to repair 34 residential septic systems for low-income families across WNC. -Followed up on 62 pollution reports, identified 12 sources of pollution, monitored 96 Swim Guide sites, and collected 1,383 E. coli samples. -Secured over $40,000 in funding to establish additional real-time E. coli monitoring sites. -Improved and expanded the French Broad Paddle Trail to provide better recreation opportunities, deepen the publics connection to the outdoors, and foster more environmental advocates. -Continued building a broader coalition of environmental advocates by engaging communities of color in more outdoor activities. With continued support from Made X Mountains…
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,112,961.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.8M to $3.4M (+93%).
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: 2017 0% · 2018 0% · 2019 2% · 2020 8% · 2021 17% · 2022 7% · 2023 8% · 2024 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of MountainTrue’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. 3 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.
Board chair
Moriah Dean
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $785k → $1.2M.
20 of 72 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 73% 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 MountainTrue’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 72 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
MountainTrue leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
90% 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 MountainTrue.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 89% · 2018 84% · 2019 86% · 2020 72% · 2021 46% · 2022 72% · 2023 66% — 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
55% of MountainTrue's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
73% of MountainTrue'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 $3.0M that is directly attributable, 78% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 19 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.2M 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
MountainTrue runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters 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 MountainTrue receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $35k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$35k
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 MountainTrue
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
87% 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 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MountainTrue: 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 MountainTrue?
- MountainTrue (North Carolina) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,250,773 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($6,125,500). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MountainTrue have?
- IRS filings report 72 organizations giving $11,250,773 in grants to MountainTrue, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MountainTrue?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $6,125,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MountainTrue 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 72 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