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South Carolina · Nonprofit

TRAIL LIFE USA INC

TRAIL LIFE USA INC (South Carolina) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $802,437 to it, the largest being William E Armentrout Foundation co Robert P Ritchie ($358,500). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$6.5M
Funders on record
29
Grants received
$802k
Net assets
$2.6M
16/29 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 6%
01What it does

What Trail Life USA Inc does

Mission

Trail life's mission is to guide generations of courageous young men to honor god, lead with integrity, serve others, and experience outdoor adventure.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The organization accomplishes its exempt purpose by promoting membership and troop involvement, conducting training (online and in-person); providing leadership, materials and support to the overall program; and promoting activities and advancement within the program for its members. Trail life usa has over 67,000 youth and adult members in approximately 1,400 troops in all 50 states.

    $5,868,102 spentof which $512,002 as grants$5,865,654 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,868,102.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($2.1M) Expenses 100 ($1.8M) Net assets 100 ($2.9M)2019 Revenue 120 ($2.5M) Expenses 117 ($2.2M) Net assets 106 ($3.1M)2020 Revenue 126 ($2.6M) Expenses 153 ($2.8M) Net assets 98 ($2.8M)2021 Revenue 138 ($2.8M) Expenses 136 ($2.5M) Net assets 109 ($3.2M)2022 Revenue 192 ($3.9M) Expenses 184 ($3.4M) Net assets 128 ($3.7M)2023 Revenue 209 ($4.3M) Expenses 323 ($5.9M) Net assets 72 ($2.1M)2024 Revenue 297 ($6.1M) Expenses 291 ($5.4M) Net assets 102 ($3.0M)2025 Revenue 315 ($6.5M) Expenses 372 ($6.9M) Net assets 89 ($2.6M)
'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (315)Expenses (372)Net assets (89)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $4.0M to $2.7M (−33%).

$3.0M
$3.3M
$3.1M
$3.5M
$4.0M
$2.7M
$3.6M
$3.3M
'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 7% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

9% of TRAIL LIFE USA INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,038 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$216k
’17
$309k
’19
−$225k
’20
$336k
’21
$551k
’22
−$1.6M
’23
$749k
’24
−$366k
’25
2.2
months of
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

Mark Hancock

CEO

Board chair

Stuart Michelson

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed88101011111313
Joined··+2+3+1+1+4+2
No longer listed··030122
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $95k → $44k.

6 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 TRAIL LIFE USA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 28 of 29 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

TRAIL LIFE USA INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

31% 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 TRAIL LIFE USA INC.

45%
largest funder
70%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 90% · 2018 51% · 2019 83% · 2020 59% · 2021 25% · 2022 42% · 2023 29% — 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

43% of TRAIL LIFE USA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

TRAIL LIFE USA INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside South Carolina, across 14 states in all.

WA
ID
MN
IL
WI
NY
WY
CA
MO
DE
TN
NC
SC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
South Carolina out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $248k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

TRAIL LIFE USA INC has grown faster than half of the 1,152 youth development nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−6% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.2mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)15% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like TRAIL LIFE USA 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 South Carolina

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

86% of spending goes to programs.

Program 86%Management 14%Fundraising 0%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

96%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 22 states

NH
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
PA
NJ
RI
KY
WV
VA
MD
NM
KS
TN
SC
HI
MS
GA
FL

Part of a family of 9 related entities

  • North Central Region of Trail Life · disregarded
  • North East Region of Trail Life USA · disregarded
  • North Plains Region of Trail Life · disregarded
  • North West Region of Trail Life USA · disregarded
  • South Central Region of Trail Life · disregarded

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TRAIL LIFE USA 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 TRAIL LIFE USA INC?
TRAIL LIFE USA INC (South Carolina) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $802,437 to it, the largest being William E Armentrout Foundation co Robert P Ritchie ($358,500). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does TRAIL LIFE USA INC have?
IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $802,437 in grants to TRAIL LIFE USA INC, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TRAIL LIFE USA INC?
William E Armentrout Foundation co Robert P Ritchie is the largest funder on record, with $358,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TRAIL LIFE USA INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South 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 29 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