Arizona · Nonprofit
SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE
SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE (Arizona) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,157,999 to it, the largest being WILBURFORCE FOUNDATION ($1,447,500). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 44
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $787k
What Sky Island Alliance does
Mission
We work to connect people, wildlife, and lands across the u.s.-mexico border through the use of science, advocacy, educational activities, community engagement, and on-the-ground conservation initiatives. Our main activities include protecting flowing water at springs and streams; conserving transboundary connectivity and habitat for wildlife; engaging people in understanding, appreciating, and reconnecting to the incredible biodiversity of this region; and fostering the cross-border cooperation and partnerships necessary to conserve the sky islands' interconnected ecosystem.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Conservation/community - with the help of our dedicated volunteers, Sky Island Alliance worked to heal the land in 2024. We launched a new project to benefit neotropical migratory birds, many of which winter in mexico. This project on sonoran ranches is assessing the abundance and distribution of key grassland bird species and restoring habitat through erosion control, invasive shrub removal, and native grass reseeding. The project will increase local capacity for monitoring through our partnerships with profauna and advance continental-wide conservation for threatened grassland birds.over the last decade, Sky Island Alliance, the nature conservancy, and hundreds of volunteers removed over 80% of the invasive periwinkle from the banks of aravaipa creek. This effort, in one of the most intact native fisheries left in arizona, has improved the habitat for native fish. In the huachuca mountains we improved water sources for wildlife to ensure they will be clean and accessible in one of the few remaining cross-border corridors in the sky islands not blocked by border wall.we helped host a binational border bioblitz at cuenca los ojos' ranch in sonora and san bernardino national…
$579,424 spent64% of program spendingWildlife - our border wildlife study is documenting the remarkable wildlife community living along 30 miles of the u.s.-mexico border with an array of more than 100 cameras. In 2024 we published our first scientific paper in frontiers in ecology and evolution proving that the border impedes wildlife. We documented findings from 9,240 wildlife interactions with border barriers over two years. This is the first study on the crossing rates of species through barriers at the u.s.-mexico border and we are using it to advocate for wildlife connectivity at the border.our team confirmed two jaguar sightings in the whetstone mountains (likely of the same cat), on our wildlife cameras. This is the first reported jaguar in that area in 13 years. We are working to protect and restore cross border pathways to help wildlife like jaguar recover and thrive.more nature lovers joined the fotofauna network, thanks to new wildlife-camera lending libraries in arivaca, sierra vista, and douglas. Fotofauna identifies wildlife presence across the region, spanning more than 370 miles from north of phoenix to hermosillo, to inform protection. Nearly 300 volunteers and organizations submitted 941 wildlife…
$252,008 spent28% of program spendingSpring seeker/spring rescue - as climate changes and we see more heat waves, droughts, and wildfires, springs can act as refuges where plants and animals are protected. Sky Island Alliance works with volunteers to survey conditions, threats, and restoration opportunities at these precious water sources. Volunteers, staff, and interns surveyed 480 springs, breaking the previous year's record of 449. Many of these were in wilderness areas of the coronado national forest in arizona and in the sierra los ajos, a protected area east of cananea in mexico.volunteers and staff removed over 18 tons of invasive arundo donax stalks and roots from rock ledge spring, restoring it as a desert oasis for wildlife near tucson. The work helped launch a three-year project to pull harmful weeds and plant native seeds at nine low-elevation springs in the santa cruz river watershed. In the catalina mountains north of tucson, volunteers built 62 erosion-control structures to protect and enhance water flow in areas burned by the 2020 bighorn fire.
$73,171 spentof which $1,000 as grants8% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $904,603.
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 2017 to 2018, from $1.2M to $680k (−42%).
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: 2020 34% · 2021 19% · 2022 18% · 2023 25% · 2024 43%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Louise Misztal
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $388k → $551k.
10 of 44 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 44 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
SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 60%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
39% 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 SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 38% · 2019 52% · 2020 70% · 2021 71% · 2022 67% · 2023 56% — 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
56% of SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE'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
SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Arizona, across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $595k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE is better cushioned 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 SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.7M on record.
- Department of the Interior$1.9M
- Department of Agriculture$758k
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 SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% 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 SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE: 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 SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE?
- SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE (Arizona) receives grants from 44 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,157,999 to it, the largest being WILBURFORCE FOUNDATION ($1,447,500). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 44 organizations giving $3,157,999 in grants to SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE?
- WILBURFORCE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,447,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 44 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