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Sonoma Land Trust at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Sonoma Land Trust

Protect the scenic, natural, cultural, agricultural and open landscapes of sonoma county for the benefit of the community and future generations by developing long-term land protection strategies; (continued on schedule o) promoting private and public funding for land conservation; acquiring land and conservation easements; practicing…

$1.9M
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$831k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Environment$2.8MHousing & Shelter$856kRecreation & Sports$314kAnimals$100k
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 7 grants below total $1,884,838, the rows itemized in this filing. The $1,924,696 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $39,858 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $509k
  • $250k+3 grants · $1.4M
$200,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$75M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CITY OF SANTA ROSA$831,357
AUDUBON CANYON RANCH$269,440
SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS FOUNDATION$250,000
CALIFORNIA COUNCIL OF LAND TRUSTS ACTION FUND$200,000
CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS$170,400
SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS$138,641
GRATON COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT$25,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

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

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY18–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 13% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%AUDUBON CANYON RANCH: $269k → 8%LAND TRUST OF NAPA COUNTY: $11k → 9%SAN FRANCISCO ESTUARY INSTITUTE: $53k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY AGRICULTURAL PRESERVATION AND OPEN SPACE DISTRICT: $500k → 9%CALIFORNIA COUNCIL OF LAND TRUSTS ACTION FUND: $200k → 12%THE WILDLANDS CONSERVANCY: $8k → 14%REDWOOD COAST LAND CONSERVANCY: $150k → 18%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $62k → 28%SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY: $50k → 8%SAN FRANCISCO ESTUARY INSTITUTE: $34k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY AGRICULTURAL PRESERVATION AND OPEN SPACE DISTRICT: $167k → 9%DUCKS UNLIMITED: $55k → 12%THE WILDLANDS CONSERVANCY: $8k → 14%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $37k → 28%SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY: $41k → 8%SAN FRANCISCO ESTUARY INSTITUTE: $30k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY AGRICULTURAL PRESERVATION AND OPEN SPACE DISTRICT: $55k → 9%DUCKS UNLIMITED: $9k → 12%THE WILDANDS CONSERANCY: $8k → 14%SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY: $20k → 8%AUDUBON CANYON RANCH: $129k → 9%DUCKS UNLIMITED: $8k → 12%PETALUMA RIVER PARK FOUNDATION: $19k → 8%AUDUBON CANYON RANCH: $103k → 9%AUDUBON CANYON RANCH: $56k → 9%AUDUBON CANYON RANCH: $45k → 9%GRATON COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT: $25k → 9%CITY OF SANTA ROSA: $831k → 9%GOLD RIDGE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT: $12k → 9%STEWARDS OF THE COAST AND REDWOODS: $35k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS FOUNDATION: $250k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS: $139k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS: $91k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS: $89k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS: $21k → 9%SONOMA COUNTY REGIONAL PARKS: $16k → 9%FRIENDS OF SONOMA COUNTY PARKS: $10k → 9%CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS: $170k → 9%CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS DEPT OF PARKS AND RECREATION: $111k → 9%SONOMA RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT: $22k → 9%CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS DEPT OF PARKS AND RECREATION: $99k → 9%SONOMA RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT: $13k → 9%POINT BLUE CONSERVATION SCIENCE: $27k → 9%SONOMA RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT: $12k → 9%POINT BLUE CONSERVATION SCIENCE: $6k → 9%SONOMA RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT: $11k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 6% of Sonoma Land Trust’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 98% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 94%.

Sonoma Land Trustlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.6M · 10 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
6

Total granted

$2.6M
$237k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+48%
+1389%

Still filing today

60%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 31% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.3M went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentAnimalsRecreation & SportsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • SF
    San Francisco Estuary Institute
    3× · 2020–2023 · $117k · revenue +48%
  • WC
    Wildlife Conservation Society
    2× · 2018–2019 · $100k · revenue +44%
  • DU
    Ducks Unlimited Inc
    3× · 2018–2022 · $72k · revenue +97%

Funded once

  • RC
    Redwood Coast Land Conservancygraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $150k · revenue ×33
  • SO
    Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods
    one grant, 2023 · $35k · revenue -24%
  • PR
    PETALUMA RIVER PARK FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $19k · revenue ×15
How this is measured

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

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Sustainable Conservation

Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…

Environment
2
California Wildlife Foundation

The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species

Animals
3
Nature Collective

Nature collective's mission is to drive a passion for nature for all. we think inclusively and diversely when serving those devoid of nature those who remember nature and want to connect back to it and those who have an affinity with…

Environment
4
Santa Clara River Conservancy

The Santa Clara River Conservancy represents the diverse interests of the Santa Clara River, from the flood plain to the highest tributaries, and seeks to secure, sustain, and manage significant lands and waters that provide habitat for…

Environment
5
Sempervirens Fund

To ensure coast redwood forests in the santa cruz mountains thrive for generations to come. since 1900, sempervirens has protected more than 36,000 acres. learn more about our mission, vision, and strategic plan through 2030 at:…

Environment
6
Siskiyou Land Conservancy

The Siskiyou Land Conservancy is a state and federally approved non-profit organization that assists landowners who want to protect the natural values of their land, either through purchase or establishment of conservation easements.

Environment
7
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory

The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory is dedicated to promote sustainability in the Bay Area and beyond by engaging communities in avian science, habitat restoration, and education.

Environment
8
Sonoma Botanical Garden
—
9
CalWild

The California Wilderness Coalition protects the natural landscapes that make California unique, providing clean air and water, a home to wildlife, and a place for recreation and spiritual renewal.

—
10
Tuolumne River Preservation Trust dba Yosemite Rivers Alliance

At Yosemite Rivers Alliance, we unite conservation and community to protect and restore the three rivers that ?ow through the Yosemite Regionthe Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and Merced.

—
11
Environmental Action Committee of West Marin

To protect and sustain the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity of west marin.

Environment
12
The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County

To conserve natural resources, agricultural land and open spaces for present and future generations.

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods; the most unlike its peers is Wildlife Conservation Society. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

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

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 12 of the 20 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
7/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Sonoma County Regional Parks: $1,077,343 · OtherSonoma County Regional ParksCITY OF SANTA ROSA: $831,357 · OtherCITY OF SANTA ROSACALIFORNIA STATE PARKS: $379,679 · OtherCALIFORNIA STATE PARKSSAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY: $111,656 · Other+5 more: $144,269 · Other+5 moreAUDUBON CANYON RANCH INC: $601,553 · EnvironmentAUDUBON CANYON RANCH INCCALIFORNIA COUNCIL OF LAND TRUSTS ACTION FUND: $200,000 · EnvironmentCALIFORNIA COUNCIL OF LAND TRUST…Redwood Coast Land Conservancy: $150,000 · EnvironmentRedwood Coast Land ConservancySan Francisco Estuary Institute: $116,899 · EnvironmentSan Francisco Estuary InstituteDucks Unlimited Inc: $71,691 · EnvironmentDucks Unlimited Inc+2 more: $33,160 · EnvironmentSonoma County Regional Parks Foundation: $250,000 · Recreation & SportsPETALUMA RIVER PARK FOUNDATION INC: $19,426 · Recreation & SportsWildlife Conservation Society: $99,650 · AnimalsPOINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY: $32,692 · Animals
Other$2,544,304Environment$1,173,303Recreation & Sports$269,426Animals$132,342

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAUDUBON CANYON RANCH INC: $601,553 over 5y, 3.6% of budgetCALIFORNIA COUNCIL OF LAND TRUSTS ACTION FUND: $200,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetSan Francisco Estuary Institute: $116,899 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetWildlife Conservation Society: $99,650 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDucks Unlimited Inc: $71,691 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetStewards of the Coast and Redwoods: $35,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetPOINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY: $32,692 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetThe Wildlands Conservancy: $22,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetPETALUMA RIVER PARK FOUNDATION INC: $19,426 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetNAPA COUNTY LAND TRUST: $10,660 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

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

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Sonoma County Communi…Resources Legacy FundNational Fish and Wil…The San Francisco Fou…Gordon E and Betty I …East Bay Community Fo…Marin Community Found…National Philanthropi…American Endowment Fo…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Sonoma County Community FoundationCA21.7× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Sonoma County Community Foundation · Resources Legacy Fund · National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · East Bay Community Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Sonoma Land Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sonoma Land Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 20 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Sonoma Land’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home