North Carolina · Nonprofit
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (North Carolina) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,931,754 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($44,074,930). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $31M
- Funders on record
- 79
- Grants received
- $51M
- Net assets
- $146M
What Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy does
Mission
To conserve the unique plant and animal habitat, clean water, farmland, scenic beauty, and places for all people to enjoy outdoor recreation in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, enduring for future generations. Continued-see schedule O.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Over the past fiscal year we completed 19 major conservation transactions discussed below which protected 2,820 acres of key mountain lands. This includes 15 fee simple purchases and 4 conservation easement purchases. The total value of the 19 transactions was $28.1 million. Landowner donation value was $3 million. The purchase price of the transactions was $25.1 million. At times the organization purchases land below appraised value in transactions that were not planned to be bargain purchases. In this tax year that difference totaled $0.3 million.
$7,901,210 spentof which $18,500 as grants$21,722 earned by the program100% of program spendingThe $25.1 million purchase prices came in the form of private philanthropic contributions and federal and state grants. We are now working on more than 50 significant transactions, which we hope will protect another 7,700 acres in the next 12-18 months. One particular transaction included above was the Richmond Hill Park Addition Its transaction value was $12.4 million.
Our Farmland Access Program supports local communities, local food production, and the long- term productive use of farmland. We work with different members of the farming community to ensure that our agricultural resources stay productive - providing local food from local farms. We continue to work toward our goals to Protect and Steward land, and to advance opportunities for access to land, in order to carry out SAHCs Vision and Mission. Our Connecting People with Nature program connects people with land for outdoor recreation, health, fitness, well-being and learning. We led 34 outings for over 700 people to protected places.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,901,210.
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 $80M to $125M (+56%).
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 15% · 2018 14% · 2019 20% · 2020 11% · 2021 24% · 2022 16% · 2023 2% · 2024 1% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Chief executive
Carl Silverstein
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 33 funders, grant income fell $5.0M → $3.3M.
17 of 79 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 93% 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 Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 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
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy leans on a few funders — its largest provides 87% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
95% 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 Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 92% · 2019 94% · 2020 93% · 2021 80% · 2022 86% · 2023 74% — 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
60% of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy'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
93% of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy'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 $3.7M that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 21 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $47M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 195 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 195 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Affp LLC · disregarded
- Symp LLC · disregarded
- Sahc LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy: 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 Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy?
- Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (North Carolina) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,931,754 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($44,074,930). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy have?
- IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $50,931,754 in grants to Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $44,074,930 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 79 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