California · Nonprofit
Sierra Streams Institute
Sierra Streams Institute (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,227,390 to it, the largest being Washakie Foundation ($476,500). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $660k
What Sierra Streams Institute does
Mission
To promote community stewardship and advance scientific knowledge of watersheds through reserarch, monitoring and education for the benefit of the Sierra Nevada region and beyond.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Restoration: Watersheds throughout the Sierra Nevada have suffered impacts to their health, water quality and ecological function as a result of gold mining, residential development, road building, agriculture, diversions, and other activities. Our restoration programs are aimed at correcting these problems, with efforts that include the following: salmon habitat restoration, invasive non-native species removal, restoration of native vegetation, geomorphological restoration, forest health and prescribed fire, and integration of traditional native practices. Our work is focused in the Sierra Nevada, with the goal of increasing community member and multi-stakeholder participation in the restoration process. We have undertaken extensive restoration efforts in our home watershed of Deer Creek in the past, and now work with partners in the Bear River watershed on projects ranging from post-dam removal salmon passage and habitat restoration through endangered or protected plant species protection at current conservation easements throughout the Sierra. In general, our approaches involve what is known as "process based restoration", focusing on restoring the processes that let nature…
$1,221,018 spent79% of program spendingMonitoring and Research: Sierra Streams Institute works with community members to monitor the health of multiple watersheds throughout the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains. These watersheds include Deer Creek, our home watershed, as well as the Bear River, Truckee River, American River, and portions of the Yuba River. This year we expanded into monitoring stream health across even more watersheds, including the Pit, McCloud, Feather, Mokelumne, and Stanislaus rivers. Collecting these data regularly over time allows us to see changes, evaluate restoration efforts, and locate sources of potential problems. Our quarterly baseline monitoring collects data on water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, pH, and turbidity; these vital signs tell us how the creek is doing and what kinds of life can inhabit its waters. We also check nutrient and bacteria levels, which are important for algae growth and safe swimming. Finally, we use benthic macroinvertebrates (BMI), stream-dwelling insect larvae, as bioindicators of stream health throughout all of the watersheds we monitor, connecting BMI communities to water quality and climate change impacts. Sierra Streams Institute's research…
$216,442 spent14% of program spendingScience Education: The Sierra Streams Education Program offers a variety of science instruction options for the youth of Nevada County and beyond. Rooted in the Yuba and Bear watersheds of Nevada County, our program offers an unparalleled educational experience where students of all ages learn core watershed science principles while exploring the rugged beauty of our landscape and waterways. Our programming is also focused on generating easy-to-use resources for community educators, including curriculum, tools and lesson plans, and databases of public environmental education learning sites.
$103,677 spent7% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,541,137.
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 $527k to $889k (+69%).
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: 2018 1% · 2019 69% · 2020 50% · 2021 41% · 2022 84% · 2023 83% · 2024 69%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Sierra Streams Institute’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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 narrowed from 5 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $240k → $85k.
2 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 Streams 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
Sierra Streams Institute leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 80%; 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 51% · 2018 49% · 2019 59% · 2020 43% · 2021 50% · 2022 61% · 2023 59% — 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
27% of Sierra Streams Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% 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
59% of Sierra Streams Institute's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $35k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 Streams Institute runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Sierra Streams Institute receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.2M on record.
- Department of Defense$1.9M
- National Science Foundation$1.5M
- Department of the Interior$600k
- Environmental Protection Agency$191k
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 Streams 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Sierra Streams 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 Sierra Streams Institute?
- Sierra Streams Institute (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,227,390 to it, the largest being Washakie Foundation ($476,500). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Sierra Streams Institute have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $1,227,390 in grants to Sierra Streams Institute, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Sierra Streams Institute?
- Washakie Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $476,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Sierra Streams Institute 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 Streams Institute →
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 14 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