Wisconsin · Nonprofit
SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC
SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,087,832 to it, the largest being KENNETH W WOOD TRUST FBO MAD AUD SOC ($482,069). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $24M
What Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to protect and improve habitat for birds and other wildlife through land acquisition and management, education, and advocacy.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Sanctuaries: southern wisconsin bird alliance (sowba) actively protects, restores, and manages nearly 3,000 acres of land. At our four existing sanctuaries (fair meadows, faville grove, goose pond, and hillside prairie) we continue performing high-quality habitat conservation, including prairie planting, native seed collection (from 400+ native species), and prescribed burns. We hosted 9 summer interns and ran impactful volunteer citizen science projects like monarch butterfly tagging, nest box monitoring, wildlife surveys, and much more. Countless visitors enjoyed the outdoors at our sanctuaries. We maintain the highest standards for excellence and land conservation permanence as a nationally accredited land trust, a mark of distinction.
$840,428 spent$13,163 earned by the program68% of program spendingEducation: sowba has two full-time educators and one intern on our staff who taught weekly in about 14 classrooms spanning kindergarten through fifth grade. We also work with elementary students at local community centers. Our partnerships are with organizations serving groups with more than half of the kids being people of color or from low-income families. Our fun, hands-on lessons get kids running, exploring, and thinking like scientists. Lessons and podcast episodes are available online for free! We also provided many adult education programs like birding 101 and birding by ear (for people of all visual abilities) in addition to a variety of field trips welcoming people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.
$208,390 spent17% of program spendingAdvocacy: along with its members, southern wisconsin bird alliance supported meaningful conservation efforts and advocated widely for environmental justice issues through a blog, newsletter, email, social media, website, and more. We provided significant public outreach through hybrid (in person, streamed online) programs and events. We worked diligently to improve representation in conservation and access to nature for bipoc, lgbtq+, and people with disabilities. We coordinated multiple volunteer-led community science efforts across the state, including bald eagle nest watch, now established in over half of the counties around wisconsin. We also promoted bird-friendly communities through our bird-window collision monitoring and bird-window collision prevention outreach programs. We helped launch and maintain a statewide campaign to reduce light pollution called lights out wisconsin. Sowba also coordinates monthly meetings for a coalition of bird and environmental conservation advocacy organizations to better improve and strengthen our collective approach and work to better advocate for birds and their habitats.
$187,483 spent15% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,236,301.
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 $16M to $23M (+40%).
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: 2019 8% · 2020 4% · 2021 8% · 2022 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
84% of SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC’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. 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
Matt Reetz
Executive director
Board chair
Matthew Fortney
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $99k → $240k.
9 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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 WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
40% 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 WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 44% · 2019 28% · 2020 30% · 2021 37% · 2022 28% · 2023 31% — 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
50% of SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
60% of SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $589k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC's funding base is broadening — from 9 funders to 12 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $215k on record.
- Department of the Interior$215k
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 SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
63%
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 SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC: 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 WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC?
- SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,087,832 to it, the largest being KENNETH W WOOD TRUST FBO MAD AUD SOC ($482,069). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $2,087,832 in grants to SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC?
- KENNETH W WOOD TRUST FBO MAD AUD SOC is the largest funder on record, with $482,069 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOUTHERN WISCONSIN BIRD ALLIANCE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance →
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 32 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