Alaska · Nonprofit
SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE
SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE (Alaska) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,107,638 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($2,900,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 24
- Grants received
- $6.1M
- Net assets
- $57M
What Sealaska Heritage Institute does
Mission
To protect, perpetuate, and enhance the cultural, social, political and economic traditions for the tlingit, haida and tsimshian tribes of southeast alaska natives. The institute encourages and promotes the preservation and maintenance of their traditional culture, tribal organization, and lifestyle for the benefit of their youth and future generations, as well as the general public, and promotes educational achievement and opportunities for the tlingit, haida and tsimshian people.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Cultural education we know for a fact that native children do better academically when they know who they are--when they are familiar with their history, language, and culture. Sealaska heritage works with universities, school districts, tribes, and other educational institutions throughout the region and the lower 48 to teach people about southeast alaska native cultures, as evaluations have shown that integrating culture into schools has improved academic achievement. Through programs such as its award-winning baby raven reads, shi also promotes early literacy in alaska native children, publishes children's books, offers summer camps, and operates a native language program. Shi also develops teaching materials, including books and curriculum resources, and provide professional development to train teachers to use our materials and on cultural orientation. Sealaska Heritage Institute provides scholarships and internships to alaska native students attending college, university, vocational schools, and technical schools.
$11,989,706 spentof which $2,732,876 as grants$840,518 earned by the program61% of program spendingLanguage and culture Sealaska Heritage Institute provides the following language programs: our ancestors' echoes and language scholars programs, tlingit culture, language, and literacy program, baby raven reads program, southeast regional language committee, and native language transcription and translation of audio/video recordings. Sealaska heritage integrates language in its variety of youth summer programs, including latseen arts academy, steam academies, running camps, and voices on the land performing arts camps. It publishes curriculum and educational resources to perpetuate and enhance the tlingit, haida, and tsimshian languages. Sealaska heritage's cultural programs include: celebration, native american heritage month and periodic lecture series, its extensive box of knowledge publication series, visiting scholars program, its rotating and permanent exhibit, ethnographic and archaeological research, and its archive and collections housed in shi's state-of-the-art walter soboleff building. Sealaska heritage develops and oversees scientific and public policy research that supports shi's mission. These projects contribute to the increase of knowledge about tlingit, haida,…
$2,871,672 spentof which $654,503 as grants$38,957 earned by the program15% of program spendingArt Sealaska Heritage Institute operates numerous programs to perpetuate northwest coast art-- one of the most distinctive art forms in the world. The goals are to provide opportunities for native artists' professional development; expand demand for native arts through developing native arts markets; provide native arts cross-cultural education among the general public; advocate for artists' access to traditional materials; and, research, preserve, and perpetuate northwest coast art. Shi operates the sealaska heritage arts campus, (atnan ht) in juneau, and partners with university of alaska southeast and institute of american indian arts to offer higher education opportunities in nwc arts, including in-person and virtual nwc arts classes (including, but not limited to: tool making, formline design, sculptural design, metal engraving, chasing and repouss, basketry, woolen weaving, spruce root gathering and processing, business literacy for artists), on campus, in se alaska, and beyond. Shi offers optional college credits for all eligible courses and is developing the sealaska heritage certificate of merit to offer a valuable non-college credit credential. The institute hosts tours,…
$2,573,608 spentof which $510,651 as grants$38,080 earned by the program13% of program spendingOther programs including the scholarship program, traditional celebrations and the sealaska heritage retail store.
$2,062,627 spentof which $871,354 as grants$186,213 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $19,497,613.
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 2020 to 2021, from $39M to $52M (+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: 2017 54% · 2018 52% · 2019 44% · 2020 67% · 2021 64% · 2022 75% · 2023 74% · 2024 74%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Vicki Soboleff
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $153k → $176k.
4 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $15k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest First Alaskans Institute). These are real filings, and they are not money SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE raised.
From the IRS filings of SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE’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
SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2018 45% · 2019 94% · 2020 53% · 2021 61% · 2022 80% · 2023 57% — 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
45% of SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE draws 71% of its grant income from funders outside Alaska, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $123k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 772 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $141.7M on record.
- Department of Education$125.2M
- Department of the Interior$11.8M
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.3M
- National Science Foundation$863k
- National Endowment for the Humanities$647k
- Department of Commerce$510k
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 SEALASKA HERITAGE 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 Alaska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Sealaska Corporation · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SEALASKA HERITAGE 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 SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE?
- SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE (Alaska) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,107,638 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($2,900,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $6,107,638 in grants to SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,900,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alaska. 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 24 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