Texas · Nonprofit
WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY
WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY (Texas) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $63,366 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($44,650). 2 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
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $63k
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Wilderness Medical Society does
Mission
The mission of the wms is to encourage, foster, support, or conduct activities to improve the scientific knowledge of the membership and general public in human health activities in a wilderness environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Membership programs & services: the wms achieves its mission to improve the scientific knowledge of the membership and general public via the following: 1. Its peer-reviewed scientific journal, the wilderness & environmental medicine journal (wemj) which is the leading publication for cutting edge advances in the science and practice of wilderness medicine (wm). Wm clinical practice guidelines are published to provide clinicians and other practitioners with evidence-based guidance for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of wilderness-related injuries and illnesses, while advancing the scientific foundation of wilderness medicine. 2. Research grants: in order to foster and promote research in health and medicine in extreme or austere environments, the wms offered $30,700 in grants in 2025. 3. The online magazine disseminates timely scientific information, clinical updates, and best practices in wilderness medicine to health care professionals, outdoor leaders, rescuers, educators, and the broader public. 4. $50k professional medical liability insurance coverage for members for pre-hospital care provided.
$359,614 spentof which $30,700 as grants$701,606 earned by the program28% of program spendingConferences: wms educational conferences advance the practice of wilderness medicine by providing evidence-based continuing medical education, interdisciplinary collaboration, and dissemination of current research to health care professionals and other stakeholders working in remote and austere environments. Group sessions. 1. The winter conference provided 19 hours of cme credits via topics including avalanche practice guidelines, medical evac, subacute treatment of msk injuries, island medicine, surfers myelopathy, marine toxins, swimming induced pulmonary edema, snakebites, and physiological amputation 2. The summer conference provided 29 hours of cme credits via topics including dive injuries, wildland fire, cancer patients and wilderness medicine, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, event medicine, antimicrobial prophylaxis, managing fertility/infertility in the wild, collapse at the finish line and ankle instability 3. The desert conference provided 15.5 hours of cme credits via topics including desert rescue, desert survival, reptiles dysfunction, bee envenomation, risk mitigation of drowning during flash floods, hyponatremia, heat exertsion / heat stroke, skin problems in the…
$397,651 spent$588,351 earned by the program31% of program spendingDiploma in mountain medicine (dimm): the diploma in mountain medicine (dimm) advances professional competency in wilderness medicine by providing specialized education and practical training for clinicians and rescue professionals working in technical mountain environments.
$240,615 spent$252,291 earned by the program19% of program spendingThe other program services that the wms provides to members as part of accomplishing our mission include adventure cme trips, student electives, two additional professional development opportunities including a diploma in dive & marine medicine (didmm), and the fellowship in the academy of wilderness medicine (fawm).
$283,291 spent$456,169 earned by the program22% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,281,171.
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 $1.8M to $2.8M (+52%).
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: 2021 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
0% of WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (51% 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.
Chief executive
Renita Fonseca
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $21k → $6k.
4 of 5 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 WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY’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
WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 70% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 65% · 2021 99% · 2022 55% · 2023 99% — growing more concentrated.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY'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 $100 that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Texas, across 1 state.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $63k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 5,002 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,002 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY: 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 WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY?
- WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY (Texas) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $63,366 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($44,650). 2 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 WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $63,366 in grants to WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $44,650 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WILDERNESS MEDICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 5 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