Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
Rodale Institute
Rodale Institute (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 119 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,934,195 to it, the largest being JHC Foundation ($7,500,000). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $23M
- Funders on record
- 119
- Grants received
- $27M
- Net assets
- $57M
What Rodale Institute does
Mission
Rodale Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing regenerative organic agriculture through rigorous research, farmer training and education. For more than seventy-five years, Rodale Institute has been researching best practices for managing pests and diseases in organic agriculture and sharing those findings with farmers and scientists worldwide to educate and support the transition to regenerative organic agricultural practices. Through organic leadership, we improve the health and wellbeing of people and the planet.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Rodale Institute (the "institute"), located in kutztown, pennsylvania, is an innovative 501(c)(3) nonprofit, dedicated to advancing regenerative agriculture through independent scientific research, direct farmer support initiatives, consumer education, and workforce training programs. Widely recognized as the birthplace of the modern organic movement in the us, Rodale Institute is celebrated as a prestigious agricultural organization, and is a trusted partner of farmers, corporations, and state and federal governments and agencies. The work of the Rodale Institute, since its establishment in 1947, is grounded in the principle that healthy soil is key to human and environmental health. As the global leader in regenerative organic agriculture, our mission is to advance groundbreaking research and best-in-class education that enables farmers to transition to regenerative organic agricultural practices, thereby improving the health of the world's soil and securing the global food supply. The world is at a critical inflection point. The rise in environmental pollution, chronic diseases, and increased frequency of extreme weather events requires us to reckon with how we feed the world.…
$15,095,348 spentof which $1,766,356 as grants$685,099 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $15,095,348.
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 2022 to 2023, from $45M to $54M (+20%).
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 16% · 2018 9% · 2019 18% · 2020 18% · 2021 11% · 2022 10% · 2023 24% · 2024 34% · 2025 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of Rodale Institute’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Jeffrey Tkach
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 52 funders, grant income rose $229k → $5.3M.
20 of 119 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 Rodale Institute’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 119 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
Rodale Institute has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 15% · 2019 42% · 2020 32% · 2021 27% · 2022 36% · 2023 29% — 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
60% of Rodale Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
Rodale Institute draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 24 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
Rodale Institute runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 201 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 201 food & nutrition nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Rodale Institute receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $28.4M on record — $28.4M federal, $225 state.
- Department of Agriculture$28.4M
- DEDICATED$225
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 Rodale Institute
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 36 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Christman Farm LLC · disregarded
- Fst Farm LLC · disregarded
- Marion G Wilkerson Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Rodale 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.
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 Rodale Institute?
- Rodale Institute (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 119 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,934,195 to it, the largest being JHC Foundation ($7,500,000). 66 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Rodale Institute have?
- IRS filings report 119 organizations giving $26,934,195 in grants to Rodale Institute, 66 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Rodale Institute?
- JHC Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $7,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Rodale Institute find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 119 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