California · Nonprofit
Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships
Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,338,465 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($609,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $651k
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $525k
What Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships does
Mission
Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (SWEP) promotes environmental stewardship by connecting students to their community and local environment through comprehensive watershed education and service learning projects.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
SWEP sponsors various fieldwork programs during the year with students eligible to participate in various programs based on their grade levels. The Wonders of Watershed fieldwork program for 4th grade students is a hands-on watershed education program that combines environmental science and community service.The Sagehen Field Station program for 5th grade students engages students in hands-on field study activities about the Sagehen forest, watershed and the plants and animals that exist in these environments.Environment Detectives is a field trip where 8th grade students learn skills used by environmental scientists to be detectives working as a group to solve the Mystery of the Dying Fish.The Tahoe Basin Watershed Education Summit allows high school students work along side scientific professionals to do hands-on field data collection.Various native fish education programs, field days and other events are sponsored for students of all grades.Forest Health and Defensible Space field programming has been expanding in Elementary, middle and high school, with some career pathway programming with older students.Winter Ecology programming involves getting the students outside to learn…
$250,072 spent81% of program spendingSWEP promotes Sustainability and Advocacy Clubs applicable to various groups based on school levels. For kindergarten to 5th grade the Green Team program is utilized, with the Eco-Action program applicable to 6th, 7th and 8th grades and via the Envirolution Club for high school students 9th grade and above.These sustainability and advocacy clubs utilize interactive educational projects to empower students and teachers to be good global citizens working to ensure adequate resources for a clean and healthy environment. SWEP educators, along with high school student mentors, facilitate weekly club meetings with student participants to explore green service learning projects including waste reduction, reuse, recycling, gardening, composting, energy and water conservation, and pollution prevention. Through these meetings students work together to develop their knowledge, create a sense of civic responsibility, foster a school environment that emphasizes sustainability while practicing data, monitoring and other important language arts, math and science skills.
$57,935 spent19% of program spendingSWEP sponsors a nature, art and adventure summer camp for children aged 6 through 12 in addition to science festivals and science family nights, with the science programs open to students kindergarten through 8th grade. SWEP also sponsors snow science programs that include a Winter Discover Program for 3rd through 5th grade students along with a Winter Trek program for 5th graders. SWEP has also established native fish education, waste management and fire ecology programs for various grade levels.
$2,186 spent1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $310,193.
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 $185k to $306k (+65%).
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.
67% of Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $30k → $314k.
6 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% 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 Watershed Education Partnerships’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 Watershed Education Partnerships leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% 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
96% 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 Watershed Education Partnerships.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 48% · 2019 64% · 2020 42% · 2021 47% · 2022 57% · 2023 65% — 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
55% of Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
81% of Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships'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 $248k that is directly attributable, 78% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 Watershed Education Partnerships has grown faster than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships
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
52% 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 Watershed Education Partnerships: 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 Watershed Education Partnerships?
- Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,338,465 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($609,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $1,338,465 in grants to Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $609,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships 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 Watershed Education Partnerships →
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 15 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