Utah · Nonprofit
Tread Lightly Incorporated
Tread Lightly Incorporated (Utah) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $596,449 to it, the largest being GIVING IS BETTER ($171,688). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $596k
- Net assets
- $778k
What Tread Lightly Incorporated does
Mission
Tread Lightly! engages partnersincluding the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, other public land agencies, industry, and recreation communitiesto protect and sustain motorized access to America's public lands through responsible recreation education, stewardship and partnership activation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
During the fiscal year, Tread Lightly! advanced its mission to promote responsible outdoor recreation through stewardship, education, and strategic partnerships. The organization worked with public land agencies, nonprofit organizations, recreation groups, industry partners, local communities, and volunteers to protect public lands, improve recreation infrastructure, restore trails and natural resources, reduce environmental impacts, and support sustainable access to outdoor recreation. Program activities included trail maintenance and restoration, cleanup projects, habitat and watershed improvements, signage and visitor education, volunteer engagement, and responsible recreation outreach. These efforts helped strengthen conservation outcomes, improve the public-land recreation experience, and build long-term capacity for stewardship across diverse recreation communities.
$2,112,434 spentof which $87,467 as grants$424,716 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,112,434.
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 2024 to 2025, from $2.2M to $1.3M (−41%).
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 67% · 2018 46% · 2019 50% · 2020 50% · 2021 37% · 2022 35% · 2023 41% · 2024 56% · 2025 37%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
72% of Tread Lightly Incorporated’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% 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
Harold Phillips
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $20k → $102k.
2 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 Tread Lightly Incorporated’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
Tread Lightly Incorporated leans on a few funders — its largest provides 29% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
68% 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 Tread Lightly Incorporated.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2020 67% · 2021 95% · 2022 56% · 2023 36% — 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
25% of Tread Lightly Incorporated's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 55% 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
Tread Lightly Incorporated draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Utah, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $105k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Tread Lightly Incorporated's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Tread Lightly Incorporated receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.7M on record — $3.6M federal, $62k state.
- Department of Agriculture$1.9M
- Department of the Interior$1.1M
- Department of Transportation$600k
- OR$61k
- FL$1k
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 Tread Lightly Incorporated
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 Tread Lightly Incorporated: 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 Tread Lightly Incorporated?
- Tread Lightly Incorporated (Utah) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $596,449 to it, the largest being GIVING IS BETTER ($171,688). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Tread Lightly Incorporated have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $596,449 in grants to Tread Lightly Incorporated, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Tread Lightly Incorporated?
- GIVING IS BETTER is the largest funder on record, with $171,688 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Tread Lightly Incorporated 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.
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 11 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