Alabama · Nonprofit
Special Equestrians Inc
Special Equestrians Inc (Alabama) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $565,540 to it, the largest being TUM TUM TREE FOUNDATION ($195,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $349k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $566k
- Net assets
- $345k
What Special Equestrians Inc does
Mission
Our Vision: A community where the impossible becomes possible. Our mission: To enrich the lives of people with physical, cognitive or emotional challenges through a relationship with a horse.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Special Equestrians provides therapeutic riding and hippotherapy to children and adults with a wide range of mental, physical, developmental and emotional disabilities. These disabilities include but are not limited to autism spectrum disorders, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. Individuals participate in weekly lessons during three terms: Fall, Spring and Summer. A typical lesson is taught by a certifed Therapeutic Riding Instructor with training specific to people with disabilities. It lasts 35 - 45 minutes and teaches riding skills appropriate to the individuals abilties. Classes may also include caring for, grooming, and tacking the horse. Special Equestrians serve over 100 individuals a year and holds Premier Accredited Status, the highest recognition possible, from PATH International (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship). The objective of the program is to maximize the physical, cognitive and emotional benefits of therapeutic horseback riding for each participant. Many of the physical benefits are related to the fact that the tri-dimensional hop action of the horse is…
$240,287 spent$30,691 earned by the program100% of program spendingThe development of these skills improves a riders performance during the riding lesson and often carries forward into their daily lives outside the arena. Program participants most often experience increased confidence, motivation, and self-esteem from learning to control a horse. Perhaps most importantly, riding offers individuals with disabilities freedome - the freedom to be who they are without the restrictions placed on them by their disability.The success of the therapeutic riding program is best seen in the achievements of the riders: Their ability to execute more complex maneuvers and to ride at faster gaits, their increased participation in the lessons and interactions with the horses, volunteers, and staff and their improved quality of life.Special Equestrians Inc. is fortunate to receive over $27,142 in donated services in addition to the use of the 13 acres on which it operates its program, all of which are not reported herein, in order to complete its mission.Additionally, over 200 volunteers provided over 8,000 hours toward our mission accomplishment.
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $240,287.
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 $248k to $316k (+27%).
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 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of Special Equestrians Inc’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Kathleen M Claybrook
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $3k → $76k.
3 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 Special Equestrians Inc’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
Special Equestrians Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 65%; 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 Special Equestrians Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 41% · 2019 28% · 2020 24% · 2021 26% · 2022 25% · 2023 52% — 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
46% of Special Equestrians Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
87% of Special Equestrians Inc's grant income comes from Alabama funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Special Equestrians Inc runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 21,648 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,648 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Special Equestrians 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 Alabama
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
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 Special Equestrians 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 Special Equestrians Inc?
- Special Equestrians Inc (Alabama) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $565,540 to it, the largest being TUM TUM TREE FOUNDATION ($195,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Special Equestrians Inc have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $565,540 in grants to Special Equestrians Inc, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Special Equestrians Inc?
- TUM TUM TREE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $195,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Special Equestrians Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. 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 Special Equestrians →
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 22 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing