Utah · Nonprofit
Sutherland Institute
Sutherland Institute (Utah) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,214,213 to it, the largest being The GFC Foundation ($10,297,730). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $736k
What Sutherland Institute does
Mission
A conservative public policy think tank, Sutherland Institute is pursuing the path to "a new birth of freedom" for america through a free market economy, civil society, and community-driven solutions.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Outreach: The Institute strives to convene voices on all sides of important issues and facilitate sound, community-driven policy solutions. Newsletters, mailings, and events are all critical to both education and engagement. Newsletters provide summaries on important and topical issues. Events are held to coincide with policy publications and are held when topics rise to the level of public interest. Keynote speakers, ranging from elected officials to local and national subject experts, are joined by panelists representing diverse views.
$648,050 spent46% of program spendingResearch: As a think tank, policy research on complex issues is core to the operations of the Institute. This includes active studies of current and historical academic research, proposed legislation in Utah - the region - and nationally. Collaboration with other think tanks, issues-oriented organizations and educational institutions, is part of the process as well. The Institute monitors social and legislative efforts that threaten to limit free market function, religious liberty, and the prioritization of families. Potential limitations are often embedded in seemingly unrelated or nebulous legislation, which necessitates a careful and ongoing watch of priority areas.
$593,886 spent42% of program spendingLobbying: The Institute maintains government affairs staff who are registered lobbyists. The Institute reports its lobbying activities to the IRS using the expenditures test under a Section 501(h) election. Qualified and designated staff attend legislative sessions, interim sessions, and special sessions at Capitol Hill in Utah, and, at times, in Washington DC. Lobbyists are available to testify on the floor and before committees and sub-committees, meet with legislators, and determine areas of need with respect to the history and implications of pending legislation. Communications are shared on a nonpartisan basis through printed publications, fliers and emails. The Institute can provide policy research at a depth and scope that is difficult to obtain otherwise for members of a part-time legislature.
$159,525 spent11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,401,461.
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 2018 to 2019, from $112k to $1.3M (+1082%).
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.
99% of Sutherland Institute’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Rick Larsen
president & CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $1.7M.
3 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 Sutherland Institute’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
Sutherland Institute leans on a few funders — its largest provides 78% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 97% · 2019 96% · 2020 84% · 2021 91% · 2022 77% · 2023 57% — 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
21% of Sutherland Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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
88% of Sutherland Institute's grant income comes from Utah funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $214k 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
Sutherland Institute's funding base is broadening — from 6 funders to 9 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,761 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Sutherland Institute
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 Utah
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
37%
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 Sutherland Institute: 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 Sutherland Institute?
- Sutherland Institute (Utah) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,214,213 to it, the largest being The GFC Foundation ($10,297,730). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Sutherland Institute have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $13,214,213 in grants to Sutherland Institute, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Sutherland Institute?
- The GFC Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $10,297,730 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Sutherland Institute find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Utah. 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 Sutherland Institute →
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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing