New Mexico · Nonprofit
Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary
Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary (New Mexico) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $708,334 to it, the largest being BURKET-PLACK FOUNDATION INC 0649-01-49 ($175,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $139k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $708k
- Net assets
- $235k
What Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary does
Mission
Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuarys mission is to create healthy ecosystems for wild horses and other wildlife while giving refuge for vulnerable mustangs where they roam free forever.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Accomplishment 1: Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary protected the lives and freedom of 17 wild horses threatened by starvation, life in holding facilities, abuse, and sale for slaughter after they were rounded up and removed from the range. After adoption by the Sanctuary, these mustangs now roam free together throughout their lives on sanctuary land conserved for them and all other wildlife who share it. The Sanctuary team offered classes for students and tours for community members, public officials, and artists to share the sanctuary experience of seeing healthy, free wild horses roaming in balance with all wildlife and the range.
$20,240 spent$15,000 earned by the program15% of program spendingAccomplishment 2: Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary protected the lives and freedom of a herd of 119 wild horses by using kind, science-based, cost-effective range strategies to secure freedom for these mustangs on their home range. The Sanctuary team contributed to wild horse and range health by treating mustangs with immunocontraception to reduce reproduction and balance herd numbers with available grass and water. The team collected monitoring data to evaluate these strategies in partnership with community members, federal agency staff, and expert scientists.
$55,507 spent$79,843 earned by the program40% of program spendingAccomplishment 3: The Sanctuary team contributed to policy change to secure health, freedom, and balance for wild horses on their home range in place of round up and removal to holding facilities and/or sale for slaughter. Team members offered consultation as requested by tribal, state, and federal agency personnel, gave public testimony, and provided technical assistance on the range for health for wild horses, and other wildlife, and the land.
$37,940 spent28% of program spendingOther program expenses
$23,726 spent17% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $137,413.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $171k to $306k (+79%).
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: 2021 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
135% of Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (73% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Karen Herman
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $10k → $196k.
5 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary’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
Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
60% 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 Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 75% · 2019 47% · 2020 61% · 2021 58% · 2022 39% · 2023 51% — 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
38% of Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
56% of Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary'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 $313k that is directly attributable, 64% of it comes from funders outside New Mexico, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $395k 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
Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary is better cushioned than half of the 850 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 850 unclassified nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $100k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$100k
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 Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary
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 New Mexico
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary: 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 Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary?
- Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary (New Mexico) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $708,334 to it, the largest being BURKET-PLACK FOUNDATION INC 0649-01-49 ($175,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $708,334 in grants to Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary?
- BURKET-PLACK FOUNDATION INC 0649-01-49 is the largest funder on record, with $175,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Mexico. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), 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