California · Nonprofit
SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT
SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT (California) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,467,652 to it, the largest being TAHOE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,050,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $4.5M
- Net assets
- $7.3M
What Sierra Institute for Community & Environment does
Mission
Promoting healthy and sustainable forests and watersheds by investing in the well-being of rural communities and strengthening their participation in natural resource decision-making and programs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Community based Natural Resource Management: The Sierra Institute's Community-based Natural Resource Management program includes on-the-ground resource management, applied research, and capacity-building work to promote resilient forest ecosystems that benefit rural communities. Current projects include: facilitation of several forest collaboratives; coordination of a statewide, peer-learning network of forest collaboratives; and, partnering to complete planning and implementation of forest and meadow restoration projects with multiple National Forests and Lassen Volcanic National Park.
$5,274,868 spent52% of program spendingRural Community Development: Rural Community Development focused on planning and rebuilding rural economies throughout rural forested California. We have launched a workforce training program to train workers for a new forest worker economy. This includes training a tribal workforce to advance cultural burning on forest land and ancestral tribal land recovery. We also are managing dought funding from the California Department of Water Resources for communities and collaborative groups throughout the Sierra and Northern Sacramento regions.In Addition we host a 'pathways to the profession' program called Plumas Conservation, Restoration Education in Watersheds bringing 16-18 year old youth from urban and rural areas to do natrual resource projects.
$2,986,381 spent30% of program spendingWood Utilization :SI is developing a wood utilization campus to show how burned wood and small wood harvested as a part of forest restoration projects can be turned into high value products that will support additional forest restoration. Goals include advancing forest restoration work; creating community scale projects that put people back to work; and share lessons learned and project development with other rural communities. Latest work includes construction of a sawmill to mill burned timber and turn it into lumber for rebuilding. Through this program we are helping residents get back into homes by building homes with cross laminated timber to create homes more resistant to wildfire and offer an example of a new hardened community.
$1,559,696 spent15% of program spendingDeveloping Young Stewards and a pathways to the profession youth program: Sierra Institute takes a three prong approach to developing stewardship ethic among local and urban youth including recreation, environmental education, and career development. One example is: P-CREW is a mix of rural and urban high school students who participate in a five week restoration projects in the Feather River Watershed during the summer.
$269,251 spent3% of program spendingSierra Institute launched Indian Valley Strong to support residents and businesses displaced by the Dixie Fire. Sierra Institute provided short-term food, gas, clothing and similar assistance, along with longer-term assistance focused on helping get residents back into homes by building homes with cross laminated timber to create homes more resistant to wildfire and offer an example of a new hardened community.
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $10,090,196.
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 2023 to 2024, from $5.2M to $8.7M (+67%).
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 76% · 2018 85% · 2019 83% · 2020 77% · 2021 62% · 2022 43% · 2023 63% · 2024 57%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (52% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $105k → $516k.
11 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT’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
SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
89% 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 SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 95% · 2018 85% · 2019 45% · 2020 45% · 2021 27% · 2022 31% · 2023 40% — 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
27% of SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
50% of SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT'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 $2.2M that is directly attributable, 65% of it comes from funders outside California, across 6 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 149 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 149 science & tech nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $12.3M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$8.3M
- Environmental Protection Agency$2.6M
- Department of the Interior$1.4M
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 SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
102% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT: 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 SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT?
- SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT (California) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,467,652 to it, the largest being TAHOE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,050,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $4,467,652 in grants to SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT?
- TAHOE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,050,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIERRA INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Sierra Institute for Community & Environment →
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 23 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing