Tapestry Institute
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Tapestry Institute facilitates promotes and carries out collaborative research scholarship and education in different ways of knowing learning about and responding to the natural world within Indigenous worldview. Our purpose in doing so is to enhance the ability of human beings to hear understand and learn from the Land which Tapestry Institute serves.
- Income
- $1.8 million
- Spending
- $1.7 million
- Spent on programs
- 100%
- Reserves
- 0.8 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 100%
- Employees
- 2
- Volunteers
- 4
- Highest pay
- $25,833, co-president of board and tapestry
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2023, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Fair: 69 out of 100. Higher than 44% of charities in its peer group (human services, $1m to $10m).
Reserves
4 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 0.8 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 0% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 5% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 4644% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 15100% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 0 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2023, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Weak: 40 out of 100. Higher than 4% of charities in its peer group (human services, $1m to $10m).
Independent board
25 of 254 of 6 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
0 of 15Reports no written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
0 of 8Reports no written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
0 of 7Reports no written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
0 of 10Did not give the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
0 of 5Reports no independent review process for its chief executive's pay.
Independent check of accounts
0 of 15Its accounts were not audited or reviewed by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2023, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $1.5 million spent. Tapestrys work began to draw strong interest from the philanthropy community in 2020. By 2022 this interest had developed into growing financial support. In June 2023 we received a pledge of up to 1.5 million USD to fund our purchase of a ranch with equine facilities and prairie habitat suitable for hosting and supporting our mission. After extensive survey of Colorados Front Range eastern Wyoming the Nebraska panhandle and southwestern South Dakota we chose the area of Chadron Nebraska as ideal for our work. The town is within driving distance of an airport in Rapid City encourages and promotes local tourism provides necessary support services e.g. emergency and hospital facilities and has a rural property market in which its still possible to find and secure the kind of facility we need. We therefore actively engaged with the local real estate market and were able to act quickly when the right place and the right pledge came together in summer 2023. On the last day of August 2023 we closed purchase on the 160-acre ranch property and equestrian facility that is now the base of Tapestrys research and education work. As part of this move we bought a 2023 Ford F-250 super-crew pickup truck for working use on the ranch. The extended cab lets us take program participants to regional state parks national parks and historic sites for expanded experiential learning opportunities. The trucks tow package and fifth-wheel hitch permit us to haul horses for example for veterinary treatment.
- $72,422 spent. As support started growing for our work in 2023 Tapestry prepared to transition our Horse Ibachakali program from an urban service environment in which we could meet the needs of only two subsets of people in highly limited ways back to a rural environment in which wed be able to more effectively serve a broader spectrum of the population. The staff member primarily responsible for Ibachakali immediately delved into current horse-human relationship research literature so wed be able to expand our program with insights from new best practices models. We also prepared our horses for transport to a new location reviewed the needs for adding new horses to a herd that had aged in ways impacting what we could ask from some of them reviewed the new elements we needed to fold into Ibachakali now that wed be expanding our work in general and how we could more responsibly help preserve the kinds breeds of horses we partner with in Ibachakali as an act of reciprocity. We purchased a truck with a tow package and began researching horse trailers. We also began to draft plans and budgets for an in-hand on-site adventure course repairs and alterations of fences and barns at our new facility and decisions about the kinds of saddles and related tack well eventually need to purchase as Ibachakali grows.
- $82,583 spent. In May of 2023 we held our second IKhana Fund planning team meeting again using a digital meeting format. This time we were working to develop the specific policies and practices that will guide IKhana Funds grant application and award processes when the program is fully operational. Once the meeting ended Tapestry staff became deeply engaged in the major research required to develop the three separate but related reports that were then emerging from the insights of the 2023 meeting. Writing began on the first of these three reports in November of that year. In accord with Tapestrys public service emphasis all three reports will be available for free download on our website once theyre completed. We had expected a much more modest outcome from the work done in our second meeting so we were surprised by the ways the programs scope and agenda expanded during this meeting. While our focus is still on providing grant support to community members advancing Indigenous Knowledge we began to understand that people working so intensely with Indigenous Knowledge may need more than financial support. We therefore began to envision ways we could build the group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people participating in IKhana Fund into a giving-and-receiving community that can together walk a Story that is likely to be challenging for us all. This new way of understanding the community coming into existence as we do this work -- a community of IKhana Fund team members donors supporting IKhana Fund and IKhana Fund grant recipients -- permits us to provide critically important support of several different kinds in addition to the financial support of grant funds to the people and Places that become part of our community through this program. The same kind of support will flow to the IKhana Fund team members Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike who review and award the grants whose donations support IKhana Fund and who participate in the work of learning to relate and engage in appropriate ways with Indigenous communities the natural world and one another.
- $6,423 spent. Over the past few years innovative and interesting new legal theories and fields of law have emerged to explore ways of protecting the natural world within a Western system of jurisprudence. Few of the Western scholars doing this work however discuss the impact of Indigenous Knowledge Indigenous law and Indigenous rights on the issues involved in current environmental law. None pay appropriate attention to the publications of Indigenous scholars who address these subjects with a maturity of thought and experience that environmentalists and legal scholars rooted in Western culture havent yet acquired. Tapestry is exploring this significant gap in knowledge and awareness through literature reviews and conversations with professional colleagues interested in and invested in knowing more about this field. This permits us to begin writing introductory texts we post on our website for feedback that can help us understand the most effective way to connect the Wests emerging new ideas about people ecosystems and the law to the published Indigenous scholarship about these things thats being ignored by the dominant culture.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2023, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since April 1999.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.