Skip to content
Plinth

· Public charity

New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Recognizing that a healthy environment is critical to the well-being and survival of all living things, NEW JERSEY CONSERVATION FOUNDATION is devoted to preserving land and protecting natural resources throughout new jersey's (continued on schedule o)rural, suburban, and urban landscapes.

$1.6M
Granted FY2024still arriving
12
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Environment$14MHousing & Shelter$2.4MEducation$455kFood & Nutrition$276kCommunity Improvement$75kPublic Benefit$72kHuman Services$24kYouth Development$19kOther$0
02FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $15k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $163k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $62k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.4M
$27,488
Median grant
4
States reached
$68M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UPSTREAM ALLIANCE$1,023,366
RETHINK ENERGY NJ$354,500
EASTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER$62,000
ISLES INC$40,000
NISKANEN CENTER INC$30,000
PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE$27,488
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY$20,000
HOPEWORKS'N CAMDEN$19,000
ACADIA CENTER$15,000
MAKE THE ROAD$11,500
CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION$7,605
LAND TRUST ALLIANCE$6,924
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $8.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 5%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $3.3M → 5%Hispanic Family Center: $13k → 12%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $1.3M → 5%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $1.1M → 5%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $667k → 5%MAKE THE ROAD: $12k → 10%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $567k → 5%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $483k → 5%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $421k → 5%RETHINK ENERGY NJ: $355k → 5%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

84%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$14M · 18 repeat orgs$2.7M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +59% since the first grant, against +19% for the ones you funded once.

18 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

18
16

Total granted

$14M
$2.7M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+59%
+19%

Still filing today

89%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $45k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentHuman ServicesEducationCivil RightsPublic BenefitHousing & ShelterOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • UA
    Upstream Alliance Inc
    5× · 2020–2024 · $2.5M · revenue +359% · 73% of their budget
  • PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE
    8× · 2017–2024 · $332k · revenue +55%
  • SJ
    South Jersey Land & Water Trust Inc
    4× · 2018–2021 · $218k · revenue +508%

Funded once

  • MC
    MORRIS COUNTY
    one grant, 2019 · $1.1M
  • SH
    Save Hamilton Open Space
    one grant, 2017 · $395k · revenue -85%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2018 · $268k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Recognizing that a healthy environment is critical to the well-being and survival of all living things, new jersey conservation foundation is devoted to preserving land and protecting natural resources throughout new jersey's (continued on…

Environment
2
New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance

New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, Inc. Is an alliance of New Jersey Organizations and Individuals committed to creating healthy, sustainable and just communities by eliminating environmental injustices in low income and…

Environment
3
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey Inc

Conserve wildlife foundation of new jersey works to preserve rare and at-risk wildlife in new jersey through field science, habitat restoration, education, and public engagement.

Animals
4
The Native Plant Society of New Jersey Inc

The Native Plant Society of New Jersey is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to the appreciation protection and study of the native flora of New Jersey.

Environment
5
Ridge and Valley Conservancy Inc

Ridge and valley conservancy is an accredited land trust that, in cooperation with strategic partners, permanently protects and stewards land in northwestern new jersey for the benefit of natural communities.

Environment
6
Federation of State Conservation Voter Leagues Dba Nj League of Cons Voters

New jersey lcv is the statewide political voice for the environment. working with our allies in the community, we advocate for strong environmental policies, support our environmental justice partners in pursuing more equitable policies,…

7
Hackensack Riverkeeper Inc

The mission of hackensack riverkeeper is to protect, preserve, and restore the hackensack river watershed and its living resources. hackensack riverkeeper fights for clean water, open space preservation, and public access to the river for…

Environment
8
Canal Society of New Jersey
9
Wetlands Foundation
Environment
10
Raritan Headwaters Association

To ensure the protection of the natural resources of the headwaters region of the raritan river basin through science, education, advocacy, land preservation and stewardship.

Environment
11
Foodshed Alliance a Nj Nonprofit Corporation

Foodshed Alliance works to strengthen sustainable farming, increase access to local, healthy food, and protect the environment for all members of our communities

Food & Nutrition
12
Earthshare New Jersey Inc

Connect businesses, nonprofits and individuals to protect and restore new jersey's natural environment, assuring a better quality of life for all.

Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is New Jersey League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and the most unlike its peers is Homeowners Against Land Taking - Penneast Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 34 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%0%<5yr14%7%5–10yr19%13%10–20yr17%33%20–35yr15%33%35–55yr13%13%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%0%<5yr14%56%5–10yr19%18%10–20yr17%17%20–35yr15%7%35–55yr13%2%55yr+

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 6% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
6%
2/34
the rest of the field
12%
4,137/34,759

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

32 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 32 of the 40 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
31/32
Grantees still filing
23/32
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

RETHINK ENERGY NJ A NEW JERSEY NONPROFIT CORPORATION — $8,187,134 · Human ServicesRETHINK ENERGY NJ A NEW JERSEY NONPROFIT CORPORATION+2 more — $24,000 · Human ServicesUpstream Alliance Inc — $2,459,316 · EnvironmentUpstream Alliance IncEASTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER INC — $1,336,365 · EnvironmentEASTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER INCSave Hamilton Open Space — $395,450 · EnvironmentSave Hamilton Open SpacePINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE — $332,391 · EnvironmentPINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCESouth Jersey Land & Water Trust Inc — $218,499 · Environment+14 more — $1,015,142 · Environment+14 moreMORRIS COUNTY — $1,150,000 · OtherMORRIS COUNTYIndividual grant recipient — $497,043 · OtherIndividual grant …Individual grant recipient — $332,074 · OtherIndividual grant …Individual grant recipient — $267,962 · OtherIndividual grant …STATE AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE — $250,000 · OtherSTATE AGRICULTURE…Individual grant recipient — $115,000 · Other+6 more — $137,399 · OtherTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $384,747 · EducationROWAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC — $70,000 · EducationHOPEWORKS 'N CAMDEN INC — $19,000 · EducationISLES INC — $80,000 · Housing & ShelterTHE NISKANEN CENTER INC — $72,285 · Public BenefitGROUNDWORK ELIZABETH INC — $50,000 · Recreation & Sports
Human Services$8,211,134Environment$5,757,163Other$2,749,478Education$473,747Housing & Shelter$80,000Public Benefit$72,285Recreation & Sports$50,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetRETHINK ENERGY NJ A NEW JERSEY NONPROFIT CORPORATION — $8,187,134 over 8y, 100% of budgetUpstream Alliance Inc — $2,459,316 over 5y, 73% of budgetEASTERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER INC — $1,336,365 over 8y, 53% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $384,747 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE — $332,391 over 8y, 5.6% of budgetSouth Jersey Land & Water Trust Inc — $218,499 over 4y, 19% of budgetRANCOCAS CONSERVANCY INC — $185,500 over 2y, 26% of budgetAMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY — $151,081 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetHUNTERDON LAND TRUST — $132,812 over 2y, 11% of budgetNEW JERSEY LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND — $114,400 over 4y, 13% of budgetAcadia Center — $90,000 over 3y, 1.6% of budgetISLES INC — $80,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetWASHINGTON TOWNSHIP LAND TRUST OF MORRIS COUNTY INC — $75,950 over 1y, 47% of budgetTHE NISKANEN CENTER INC — $72,285 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetNEW JERSEY HIGHLANDS COALITION — $72,000 over 7y, 2.3% of budgetROWAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC — $70,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetGROUNDWORK ELIZABETH INC — $50,000 over 3y, 4.2% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $35,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LAND CONSERVANCY OF NEW JERSEY — $30,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetCAMDEN COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNEW JERSEY TREE FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetHOPEWORKS 'N CAMDEN INC — $19,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONS — $15,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetHISPANIC FAMILY CENTER OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY INC — $12,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMake The Road States Inc — $11,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFRIENDS OF HOPEWELL VALLEY OPEN SPACE — $9,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION INC — $7,605 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetLAND TRUST ALLIANCE INC — $6,924 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR AQUATIC SCIENCES — $5,940 over 1y, 0.5% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The William Penn FoundationPA33× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The William Penn Foundation · Geraldine R Dodge Foundation Inc · Community Foundation of New Jersey · Pseg Foundation Inc · National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · The Hyde and Watson Foundation · American Water Charitable Foundationinc · Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Inc · Environmental Endowment for New Jersey Inc · Victoria Foundation Inc · New Jersey League of Conservation Voters Education Fund · Princeton Area Community Foundation Inc

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization New Jersey Conservation Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 90%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 21%
  • New Jersey Tree Foundation100% of income from government
  • Camden Community Partnership Inc94% of income from government
  • Hunterdon Land Trust48% of income from government
  • Pinelands Preservation Alliance35% of income from government
  • Isles Inc21% of income from government
  • Groundwork Elizabeth Inc9% of income from government
  • The Watershed Institute Inc3% of income from government
  • American Littoral Society1% of income from government
  • Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space0% of income from government
  • Rowan University Foundation Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
9get no government money at all
7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
2rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY2025

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 40 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph