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Washington · Nonprofit

North Cascades Institute

North Cascades Institute (Washington) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,186,587 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($786,250). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$4.6M
Revenue FY2024
52
Funders on record
$4.2M
Grants received
$8.8M
Net assets
39/52 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 15%

Against its field

North Cascades Institute's funding base is broadening — from 14 funders to 28 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−3% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve1.5mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)0% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,184 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($4.5M) Expenses 100 ($3.9M) Net assets 100 ($6.9M)2018 Revenue 99 ($4.5M) Expenses 112 ($4.4M) Net assets 93 ($6.4M)2019 Revenue 94 ($4.3M) Expenses 106 ($4.2M) Net assets 106 ($7.3M)2020 Revenue 71 ($3.2M) Expenses 69 ($2.7M) Net assets 112 ($7.8M)2021 Revenue 101 ($4.6M) Expenses 87 ($3.4M) Net assets 137 ($9.5M)2022 Revenue 83 ($3.8M) Expenses 103 ($4.1M) Net assets 109 ($7.6M)2023 Revenue 104 ($4.7M) Expenses 115 ($4.5M) Net assets 122 ($8.4M)2024 Revenue 101 ($4.6M) Expenses 120 ($4.7M) Net assets 128 ($8.8M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (101)Expenses (120)Net assets (128)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 7% · 2018 8% · 2019 10% · 2020 22% · 2021 33% · 2022 13% · 2023 20% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

38% of North Cascades Institute’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,285 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$600k
17
$79k
18
$104k
19
$480k
20
$1.2M
21
$299k
22
$197k
23
$138k
24
1.5
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $221k → $612k.

11 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)43% 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 North Cascades Institute’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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

North Cascades Institute has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

47% 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 North Cascades Institute.

19%
largest funder
44%
top three
~11
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 32% · 2019 19% · 2020 30% · 2021 25% · 2022 28% · 2023 24%broadly stable.

“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

68% of North Cascades Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

90% of North Cascades Institute's grant income comes from Washington funders.

WA
MT
WI
NY
NV
PA
CA
CO
MD
NC
DC
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Washington out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 52 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding North Cascades Institute receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $355k on record.

Federal$355k
grants $355kcontracts $0
17
18
19
21
25
26
Top agencies
  • Department of the Interior$228k
  • Department of Agriculture$127k

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 North Cascades Institute

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Washington

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

83% of spending goes to programs.

Program 83%Management 10%Fundraising 6%

Governance

15
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

WA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for North Cascades Institute: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds North Cascades Institute?
North Cascades Institute (Washington) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,186,587 to it, the largest being SEATTLE FOUNDATION ($786,250). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does North Cascades Institute have?
IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $4,186,587 in grants to North Cascades Institute, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of North Cascades Institute?
SEATTLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $786,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like North Cascades Institute 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 52funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing