Oregon · Nonprofit
UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE
UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE (Oregon) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $511,423 to it, the largest being MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST ($167,227). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $511k
- Net assets
- $114k
What Understory Initiative does
Mission
Facilitate the Restoration and Conservation of Native Species Habitat Through Partnership & Community Engagement.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Vesper Meadow Education Program: In 2024, Vesper Meadow continued to blend human healing with land restoration through a variety of community-centered programs and conservation efforts. We expanded the Healing Landscapes program, engaging youth and families particularly from Indigenous communitiesand supported an internship for an SOU student and Siletz Tribal memberfocused on native plant restoration, creek restoration, leadership, and nonprofit coordination. Our beaver-based restoration efforts gained momentum, with over 60 restoration structures built in Latgawa and Spencer Creeks in partnership with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, BLM, Project Beaver, and dedicated volunteers. Conservation of endangered species remained a priority, as we worked alongside Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, KS Wild, BLM biologists, and independent scientists to monitor and protect Mardon skipper butterfly habitat. We also proudly hosted Camas Camp in partnership with the Indigenous Gardens Network, welcoming over 60 Siletz and Grand Ronde Tribal families to Vesper Meadow for workshops, walks, and cooking centered around the culturally significant Camas lily.
$251,973 spent$158,199 earned by the program23% of program spendingPartnership Building and Applied Restoration: In 2024, RNPP (Rogue Native Plant Partnership) completed follow-up monitoring on 16 post-fire huckleberry plots in partnership with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians. We also hosted five farm tours highlighting local seed growers and their techniques, and partnered with seven local and regional organizations to host seed collecting and cleaning events that brought together partners, volunteers, and community members. UNPP (Umpqua Native Plant Partnership) made significant progress in strengthening native plant supply efforts across the region. To focus efforts and resources, we narrowed our species priorities from over 200 to fewer than 50, emphasizing plants with the highest ecological and cultural value. We also launched the native plant reservation system to streamline plant access for restoration practitioners. Community engagement remained a core part of our work, with hands-on restoration events alongside local producers, landowners, and volunteers, and participation in events like Earth Day, the Glide Wildflower Show, and a successful community seed swap. In…
$582,477 spent$704,678 earned by the program53% of program spendingEcological Research and Monitoring: In 2024, staff and volunteers with the Rare Plant Monitoring Network contributed a total of 566 hours monitoring 32 species of rare plants. We also completed monitoring of the native McFarlanes four oclock in Idaho and providing recommendations to improve monitoring efforts and recovery actions for the species. On Oregons south coast, staff mapped invasive species and evaluated their impact on pollinating insects in coastal prairies and dunes. Additionally, the team designed innovative monitoring protocols that will inform and guide restoration efforts on federal lands for years to come, including at the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
$256,114 spent$195,413 earned by the program23% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,090,564.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $92k to $282k (+207%).
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.
10% of UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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.
Chief executive
Kathryn Prive
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $4k → $108k.
4 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 INITIATIVE’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
UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
61% 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 UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 51% · 2022 59% · 2023 28% — 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 UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 29% 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
89% of UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE's grant income comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $125k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,187 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.6M on record — $2.4M federal, $209k state.
- Department of the Interior$1.9M
- Department of Agriculture$499k
- PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT>$75K$127k
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-GOVERNMENTS$34k
- PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NON-IT$14k
- OTHER SERVICES$14k
- AGENCY PROGRAM RELATED SUPPLIES$13k
- AGENCY PROGRAM RELATED SERVICES$7k
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 UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE
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 Oregon
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE: 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 INITIATIVE?
- UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE (Oregon) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $511,423 to it, the largest being MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST ($167,227). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $511,423 in grants to UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE?
- MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $167,227 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNDERSTORY INITIATIVE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Understory Initiative →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing