Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY
RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,443,129 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($784,144). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 60
- Grants received
- $3.4M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Ruffed Grouse Society does
Mission
1. Established in 1961, the Ruffed Grouse Society unites conservationists to improve wildlife habitat and forest health and promote a conservation ethic, all grounded in the tenets of science-based management practices.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Chapter operations: rgs chapters understand and further the organization's mission to improve wildlife habitat, forest health and promote conservation ethics. With the help of rgs engagement staff, chapters organize various activities including educational seminars, habitat days, youth outings, social events, upland hunts, and membership meetings.
$2,236,534 spent26% of program spendingHabitat projects: rgs works with various landowners and government agencies to enhance forest habitat for ruffed grouse and all forest wildlife using science-supported management practices, and guided by forest conservation directors and other conservation delivery staff employed to carry out the organization's habitat mission.
$5,218,484 spent61% of program spendingMembership services: rgs communicates and educates members on habitat, forest management and upland hunting through the Ruffed Grouse Society magazine, website (www.ruffedgrousesociety.org), email and social media communication.
$1,066,505 spent12% of program spendingGeneral education and outreach: the rgs recruitment programs recruit, retain and reactivate conservationists to ensure current and future forest stewardship work that is essential to creating, protecting and restoring forest health and forest diversity for ruffed grouse, american woodcock, and all forest wildlife.
$77,604 spent1% of program spendingResearch; rgs provides funding to develop sound scientific management practices that foster diverse, healthy forests for ruffed grouse, american woodcock and all forest wildlife.
Advocacy: rgs advocates for the application of sound scientific principles in wildlife conservation, sustainable forest management, and recruitment, reactivation, and retention of hunter conservationists.
The 6 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,599,127.
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 2019 to 2020, from $8.4M to $11M (+31%).
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: 2025 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% 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
Benjamin C Jones
President and CEO
Board chair
Julie Sandstrom
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $124k → $850k.
15 of 60 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 60 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
RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
62% 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 RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 21% · 2019 27% · 2020 28% · 2021 20% · 2022 18% · 2023 39% — 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
39% of RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY draws 82% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 20 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $850k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY is better cushioned than half of the 210 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9.2M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$8.9M
- Department of the Interior$242k
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 RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY
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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 35 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY: 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 RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY?
- RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 60 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,443,129 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($784,144). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 60 organizations giving $3,443,129 in grants to RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $784,144 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RUFFED GROUSE SOCIETY 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.
Play a game about who funds Ruffed Grouse Society →
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 60 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