Nevada · Nonprofit
TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE
TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE (Nevada) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $560,270 to it, the largest being CARTER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($110,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $357k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $560k
- Net assets
- $255k
What Tahoe Institute for Natural Science does
Mission
To advance the natural history, conservation and ecosystem knowledge of the Tahoe region through science, education and outreach.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
EDUCATION: In 2024, we had a total of 5759 student contacts from over 22 different schools and homeschool groups. We provided in-school and field trip programs covering topics from insects, bats, birds, frogs, mammals, and geology. We presented 252 field trip programs, and 69 in-school programs, and gave 53 TINS nature day camps and camps/outings for other organizations (e.g. Courage Project, Boys and Girls Club of South Lake Tahoe). We hosted 727 children across nature camps.
$143,256 spent$45,690 earned by the program44% of program spendingRRESEARCH:TINS continued with our usual suite of Citizen Science coordination, including the Lake Tahoe Mid-winter Bald Eagle Survey, South Lake Tahoe Christmas Bird Count, Mid-winter Raptor Surveys in both Sierra and Carson valleys, North American Butterfly Association Butterfly Counts, and the annual Odonates Mini-blitz. We had 228 volunteers participate in these Citizen Science programs. We continued to participate in joint monitoring efforts of Peregrine Falcon nesting sites around the Tahoe/Truckee region. We continued snowshoe hare monitoring in California State Parks around the Lake Tahoe region, assisted NDOT with surveys for Federally Endangered Carson Wandering Skipper (Pseudocopaeodes eunus obscurus), and collaborated with USFS Region 5 scientists on the Tahoe Environmental Observation Network (TEON) project.
$120,775 spent$82,501 earned by the program37% of program spendingOUTREACH:In 2024, we engaged in a diversity of Outreach events and festivals, with much of our Outreach programming centered around our 4th triennial Tahoe Big Year birding event. We hosted 56 outings with 968 participants, and hosted 20 talks, with at least 745 participants. We took a more active role in promoting and coordinating the Sagehen Bio-blitz with 6 guides and 26 participants. We also attended several Earth Day festivals, the Mono Basin Bird Chautaqua, and the Truckee River Day festival, as well as hosting our own Lake Tahoe Bird Festival and Native Species Day, resulting in solid education engagement with approximately 1440 people.
$58,680 spent$17,428 earned by the program18% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $322,711.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2021 to 2022, from $174k to $228k (+31%).
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 12% · 2021 11% · 2023 2% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
56% of TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE’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. 3 of the last 7 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.
Board chair
Ron Hemig
Chair
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 → $84k.
7 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE’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
TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
64% 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 TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 81% · 2019 56% · 2020 45% · 2021 67% · 2022 45% · 2023 30% — 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
33% of TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 79% 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
50% of TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE'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 $279k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Nevada, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $281k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE has grown faster than half of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $12k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$12k
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 TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE
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 Nevada
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE: 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 TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE?
- TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE (Nevada) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $560,270 to it, the largest being CARTER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($110,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $560,270 in grants to TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE?
- CARTER FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $110,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TAHOE INSTITUTE FOR NATURAL SCIENCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nevada. 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 Tahoe Institute for Natural Science →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), 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