North Carolina · Nonprofit
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION (North Carolina) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,106,510 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($7,547,810). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.9M
- Funders on record
- 116
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $9.9M
What The American Chestnut Foundation does
Mission
To return the iconic american chestnut to its native range.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Continued research by integrating three major research tracks including: breeding, bio-control, and biotechnology. Each of these approaches holds keys to the future of the species' recovery, and the foundation is committed to scientific collaboration and ecological restoration of the american chestnut at scale.
$3,210,850 spentof which $354,006 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,210,850.
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 $6.7M to $8.7M (+30%).
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 2% · 2018 7% · 2019 2% · 2020 3% · 2021 8% · 2022 3% · 2023 2% · 2024 0% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION’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 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.
Board chair
Dr Elizabeth Kramer
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 48 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $1.5M.
19 of 116 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 77% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $207k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest The American Chestnut Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 116 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
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
77% 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 THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 89% · 2018 85% · 2019 87% · 2020 61% · 2021 71% · 2022 64% · 2023 45% — 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
49% of THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
77% of THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION'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 $2.8M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 27 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $855k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$555k
- Department of the Interior$300k
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 THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 20 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION: 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 THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION?
- THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION (North Carolina) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,106,510 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($7,547,810). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 116 organizations giving $12,106,510 in grants to THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION, 72 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $7,547,810 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION 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 116 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