Tennessee · Nonprofit
Mustang Heritage Foundation
Mustang Heritage Foundation (Tennessee) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $662,055 to it, the largest being SOUTHWESTERN EXPOSITION AND LIVESTOCK SHOW ($392,160). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $181k
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $662k
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What Mustang Heritage Foundation does
Mission
The Mustang Heritage Foundation is dedicated to promoting and supporting successful placements of America's wild mustangs and burros through innovative programs, events, and education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Mustang Heritage Foundation created a new event, The Mustang Heritage Spectacular, which included our Extreme Mustang Makeover (EMM) event to showcase the trainability and versatility of wild horses. Experienced horse trainers pick up a wild horse, train the horse for 6 months, and then compete for even incentives at the Mustang Heritage Spectacular event. The trained mustangs are then available for purchase or adoption through a public auction. There was one event in June of 2025 that included 3 days of competition and 1 placement auction. 60 mustangs were placed into private care through this event. The Mustang Heritage Spectacular also included the Great American Mustang Sale, in which eight titled mustangs with more advanced training were offered to the public via public auction.
$459,239 spent$33,893 earned by the program66% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$103,572 spent$12,366 earned by the program15% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$132,407 spent19% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $695,218.
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 $3.2M to $2.3M (−29%).
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 79% · 2018 83% · 2019 86% · 2020 90% · 2021 94% · 2022 79% · 2023 86%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
36% of Mustang Heritage Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (86% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Cary Scholtes
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $43k → $174k.
5 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 Mustang Heritage Foundation’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
Mustang Heritage Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
75% 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 Mustang Heritage Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 31% · 2019 46% · 2020 97% · 2021 68% · 2022 91% · 2023 70% — growing more concentrated.
“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
25% of Mustang Heritage Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
Mustang Heritage Foundation draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $101k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
Mustang Heritage Foundation's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 8 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,693 animals nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Mustang Heritage 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 Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Mustang Heritage 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 Mustang Heritage Foundation?
- Mustang Heritage Foundation (Tennessee) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $662,055 to it, the largest being SOUTHWESTERN EXPOSITION AND LIVESTOCK SHOW ($392,160). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Mustang Heritage Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $662,055 in grants to Mustang Heritage Foundation, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Mustang Heritage Foundation?
- SOUTHWESTERN EXPOSITION AND LIVESTOCK SHOW is the largest funder on record, with $392,160 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Mustang Heritage Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. 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 Mustang Heritage →
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 19 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