Hawaii · Nonprofit
UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE
UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE (Hawaii) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $10,000 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($10,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $45k
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $10k
- Net assets
- $43k
What Understory Alliance does
Mission
Understory Alliance develops and stewards Mala Laau community forest gardens in public spaces on Kauai, providing free access to food and medicine plants, place-based education, and ecological restoration through community stewardship.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Understory Alliance grows and stewards Mala Laau, community forest gardens in public spaces on Kauai, runs 2 plant nurseries, and delivers hands-on education and workforce development. All sites are free and open to the public. SITES AND STEWARDSHIP: Stewarded 2 active Mala Laau sites in 2025. The Kauai Animal Education Farm site was converted from degraded guinea grass into a functioning multi-layered forest garden now supporting 50+ plant species available for community harvest. Advanced the Wailua Homesteads Park Mala Laau (approximately 0.6 acres) through a formal 5-year stewardship agreement with the County of Kauai Parks and Recreation, the first of its kind for the organization. Site work included invasive species clearing, fencing design to exclude feral pigs, and phased planting. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Conducted a multi-channel community survey with 127 participants to guide Wailua site design. Results: 83% supported the project (exceeding the pre-established 70% threshold required to proceed); 92% identified food security as a priority; 88% environmental restoration; 85% health and wellness; 81% recreation; 89% expressed interest in learning. Survey results directly…
$26,011 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $26,011.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2023 to 2024, from $4k to $24k (+474%).
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 UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (92% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Sari Pastore
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE’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.
Where its funders are
100% of UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,195 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,195 environment nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE
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 Hawaii
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE: 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 UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE?
- UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE (Hawaii) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $10,000 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($10,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $10,000 in grants to UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE.
- Who is the largest funder of UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $10,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNDERSTORY ALLIANCE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Hawaii. 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 2022–2025), and the filings of 1 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