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Washington · Nonprofit

NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER

NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER (Washington) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,101,911 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($406,025). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1.2M
Funders on record
38
Grants received
$1.1M
Net assets
$759k
19/38 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 23%
01What it does

What Northwest Avalanche Center does

Mission

The Northwest Avalanche Center (nwac) exists to increase avalanche awareness, reduce avalanche impacts, and equip the community with mountain weather and avalanche forecasts, education, and data.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Support of the us forest service avalanche forecasting for the northwest. Provided financial support to the usfs.

    $133,000 spentof which $133,000 as grants
    22% of program spending

  2. New collaborative avy website development, plus the continued development and maintenance of the avy app. Both projects are collaborative in nature and host information for and used by many avalanche centers around the us.

    $127,688 spent$14,060 earned by the program
    21% of program spending

  3. Public education provided avalanche safety and awareness education to the public, reaching a wide range of winter outdoor enthusiasts.

    $88,659 spent$15,990 earned by the program
    15% of program spending

  4. To assist in the mission of the nwac, other programs services include: mountain weather stations network maintenance and data communications. Snowpack observation gathering. Trailhead outreach. Exisiting website maintenance and development.

    $248,547 spent
    42% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $597,894.

02The 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 ($374k) Expenses 100 ($379k) Net assets 100 ($390k)2018 Revenue 131 ($490k) Expenses 111 ($420k) Net assets 118 ($461k)2019 Revenue 147 ($551k) Expenses 148 ($560k) Net assets 116 ($452k)2020 Revenue 169 ($631k) Expenses 158 ($601k) Net assets 123 ($482k)2021 Revenue 176 ($659k) Expenses 162 ($616k) Net assets 135 ($525k)2022 Revenue 226 ($846k) Expenses 191 ($725k) Net assets 165 ($646k)2023 Revenue 218 ($814k) Expenses 222 ($842k) Net assets 158 ($618k)2024 Revenue 243 ($908k) Expenses 254 ($964k) Net assets 144 ($563k)2025 Revenue 322 ($1.2M) Expenses 265 ($1.0M) Net assets 195 ($759k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (322)Expenses (265)Net assets (195)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $563k to $768k (+36%).

$390k
$461k
$452k
$532k
$525k
$646k
$618k
$563k
$768k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 2% · 2021 6% · 2024 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

95% of NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (70% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 855 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$6k
’17
$71k
’18
−$10k
’19
$30k
’20
$43k
’21
$121k
’22
−$27k
’23
−$56k
’24
$197k
’25
7.5
months of
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

Scott Schell

Executive director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed161718181820192020
Joined·+3+5+4+1+4+3+3+4
No longer listed·24412424
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $30k → $177k.

Funder
'17
'18
'19
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24*
'25*
'26*
total
funders
6
7
6
8
13
19
14
18
9
1

14 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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

NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

71% 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 NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER.

37%
largest funder
65%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 36% · 2019 31% · 2020 47% · 2021 42% · 2022 37% · 2023 43% — 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

35% of NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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

70% of NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER'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 $330k that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from funders outside Washington, across 10 states.

WA
ID
WI
MI
NY
MA
PA
CO
MO
DE

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. $772k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 513 public safety & disaster nonprofits its size.

Operating margin16% · above the median
Months of reserve7.5mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)16% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 513 public safety & disaster nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER

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 Washington

Northwest Maritime Center83%Philanthropy Northwest82%North Olympic Land Trust82%Pacific Northwest Trail Association82%Northwest Railway Museum81%Washington Association of Land Trusts81%Association of Washington Cities81%Pacific Northwest Ski Assn81%

Nationally

National Winter Activity Center85%Friends of Utah Avalanche Fore Cast Center Inc85%The American Alpine Club85%National Ability Center84%Alaska Avalanche School Inc84%Sierra Avalanche Center84%Northwest Maritime Center83%Wild Salmon Center83%
05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

59% of spending goes to programs.

Program 59%Management 17%Fundraising 24%

Governance

19
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

95%

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 NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER: 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER?
NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER (Washington) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,101,911 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($406,025). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER have?
IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $1,101,911 in grants to NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER?
AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $406,025 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 38 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing