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The Watershed Institute Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

The Watershed Institute Inc

Keeping water clean, safe and healthy is the heart of our mission.

$502k
Granted FY2023
7
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$358k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2023.

Housing & Shelter$1.9MEnvironment$725kRecreation & Sports$50kOther$0
02FY2023 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k1 grant · $10k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $81k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
  • $250k+1 grant · $358k
$19,566
Median grant
2
States reached
$34M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MUNICIPALITY OF PRINCETON$358,333
FREINDS OF HOPEWELL QUARRY$50,000
DELAWARE RIVER KEEPER NETWORK$28,142
ASSOC OF NJ ENVIRONMENTAL COM$19,566
AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY$18,779
PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE$14,549
Individual grant recipient$9,750
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 (FY18–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 91% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 6%DELAWARE RIVER KEEPER NETWORK: $32k → 6%NATURAL RESOURCE DEFENSE COUN: $25k → 17%MUSCONETCONG WATERSHED ASSOCIATION: $8k → 4%ASSOC OF NJ ENVIRONMENTAL COM: $24k → 4%WATERSPIRIT: $8k → 6%PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIAN: $28k → 7%SOUTH JERSEY LAND AND WATER TRUST: $7k → 8%LOWER RARITAN WATERSHED PARTN: $9k → 8%FREINDS OF HOPEWELL QUARRY: $50k → 11%TROUT UNLIMITED INC: $10k → 7%DELAWARE RIVER KEEPER NETWORK: $28k → 6%NATURAL RESOURCE DEFENSE COUN: $13k → 17%MUSCONETCONG WATERSHED ASSOCIATION: $7k → 4%ASSOC OF NJ ENVIRONMENTAL COM: $20k → 4%AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $24k → 6%PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE: $15k → 7%LOWER RARITAN WATERSHED PARTN: $9k → 8%SOURLAND CONSERVANCY: $23k → 11%DELAWARE RIVER KEEPER NETWORK: $19k → 6%ASSOC OF NJ ENVIRONMENTAL COM: $20k → 4%AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $20k → 6%PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE: $15k → 7%SOWSIAN'S LANDSCAPES: $10k → 11%DELAWARE RIVER KEEPER NETWORK: $16k → 6%ASSOC OF NJ ENVIRONMENTAL COM: $20k → 4%AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $19k → 6%PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIAN: $15k → 7%SOURLAND CONSERVANCY: $8k → 11%DELAWARE RIVER KEEPER NETWORK: $9k → 6%ASSOC OF NJ ENVIRONMENTAL COM: $12k → 4%AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $19k → 6%PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIAN: $9k → 7%GREAT SWAMP WATERSHED ASSOCIATION: $11k → 4%AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $16k → 6%MUNICIPALITY OF PRINCETON: $893k → 11%great swamp watershed assoc: $9k → 4%AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $12k → 6%MUNICIPALITY OF PRINCETON: $600k → 11%great swamp watershed assoc: $7k → 4%MUNICIPALITY OF PRINCETON: $358k → 11%D&R GREENWAY LAND TRUST: $8k → 11%D&R GREENWAY LAND TRUST: $8k → 11%VARIOUS GRANTS UNDER 5000: $31k → 11%VARIOUS GRANTS UNDER 5000: $30k → 11%MERCER COUNTY PARK COMMISSION: $19k → 11%MERCER COUNTY PARK COMMISSION: $8k → 11%MERCER COUNTY PARK COMMISSION: $7k → 11%URBAN PROMISE: $9k → 11%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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.6M · 15 repeat orgs$116k to everyone else

15 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2023, 10 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
7

Total granted

$2.6M
$56k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+37%
+133%

Still filing today

80%
43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $60k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
EnvironmentCommunity ImprovementAnimalsRecreation & 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

  • AL
    AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY
    5× · 2019–2023 · $110k · revenue +129%
  • DR
    DELAWARE RIVER CITY CORPORATION
    5× · 2019–2023 · $104k · revenue +31%
  • AO
    ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONS
    5× · 2019–2023 · $94k · revenue +3%

Funded once

  • MC
    MORRIS COUNTY PARK COMMISSION
    one grant, 2019 · $12k
  • TU
    TROUT UNLIMITED INCgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +133%
  • UP
    URBAN PROMISE
    one grant, 2022 · $9k
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
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
Canal Society of New Jersey
—
3
The Land Conservancy of New Jersey

The land conservancy of new jersey preserves land and water resources, conserves open space, and inspires and empowers individuals and communities to protect land and the environment.

Environment
4
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
5
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
6
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
7
Wetlands Foundation
Environment
8
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
9
New Jersey Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership

The New Jersey Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership Inc. NJCWRP facilitates public and private partnerships for the restoration and preservation of ecosystems in New Jersey and surrounding areas. The NJCWRP also educates the public…

Human Services
10
Clean Ocean Action Inc

Clean ocean action's goal is to improve and protect the waters off the new jersey/new york coast from pollution, plastics, industrialization and climate change with research, education and citizen action.

Environment
11
Pleasant River Wildlife Foundation

Pleasant river wildlife foundation's mission is to protect scarce, high value wildlife habitat in coastal washington county on the downeast coast of maine. our highest priority is the protection of intertidal and freshwater wetlands and…

Philanthropy
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Great Swamp Watershed Association; the most unlike its peers is Trout Unlimited Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

16 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. 16 of the 24 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
16/16
Grantees still filing
12/16
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MUNICIPALITY OF PRINCETON: $1,851,107 · OtherMUNICIPALITY OF PRINCETON+8 more: $193,369 · Other+8 moreAMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $110,471 · EnvironmentAMERICAN LITTORAL SOCI…ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONS: $94,259 · EnvironmentASSOCIATION OF NEW JER…PINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE: $79,801 · EnvironmentPINELANDS PRESERVATION…CLEAN WATER FUND: $74,000 · EnvironmentCLEAN WATER FUNDNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $38,629 · EnvironmentNATURAL RESOURCES DEFE…SOURLAND CONSERVANCY: $36,563 · EnvironmentSOURLAND CONSERVANCYGreat Swamp Watershed Association: $26,350 · Environment+5 more: $67,634 · Environment+5 moreDELAWARE RIVER CITY CORPORATION: $103,782 · Community ImprovementTROUT UNLIMITED INC: $9,742 · AnimalsTEANECK CREEK CONSERVANCY INC: $5,500 · Recreation & Sports
Other$2,044,476Environment$527,707Community Improvement$103,782Animals$9,742Recreation & Sports$5,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: $110,471 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetDELAWARE RIVER CITY CORPORATION: $103,782 over 5y, 3.8% of budgetASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONS: $94,259 over 5y, 2.8% of budgetPINELANDS PRESERVATION ALLIANCE: $79,801 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetCLEAN WATER FUND: $74,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetFriends of Hopewell Quarry: $50,000 over 1y, 9.2% of budgetNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $38,629 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSOURLAND CONSERVANCY: $36,563 over 3y, 5.8% of budgetGreat Swamp Watershed Association: $26,350 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetLOWER RARITAN WATERSHED PARTNERSHIP CORP: $17,000 over 2y, 27% of budgetD&R GREENWAY LAND TRUST INC: $16,273 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMUSCONETCONG WATERSHED ASSOCIATION: $15,372 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetCAMDEN CITY GARDEN CLUB INC: $11,719 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetSouth Jersey Land & Water Trust Inc: $7,270 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetTEANECK CREEK CONSERVANCY INC: $5,500 over 1y, 4.2% 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.

The William Penn Foun…Pseg Foundation IncCommunity Foundation …Bristol-Myers Squibb …National Fish and Wil…Environmental Endowme…Geraldine R Dodge Fou…Citizens Philanthropi…The Hyde and Watson F…The Robert Wood Johns…Duke Farms FoundationNew Jersey Conservati…
The William Penn FoundationPA21.4× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The William Penn Foundation · Pseg Foundation Inc · Community Foundation of New Jersey · Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Inc · National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · Environmental Endowment for New Jersey Inc · Geraldine R Dodge Foundation Inc · Citizens Philanthropic Foundation Inc · The Hyde and Watson Foundation · The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation · Duke Farms Foundation · New Jersey Conservation 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 The Watershed Institute Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Watershed Institute Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 40%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 14%
  • Pinelands Preservation Alliance: 35% of income from government
  • Musconetcong Watershed Association: 14% of income from government
  • D&r Greenway Land Trust Inc: 9% of income from government
  • American Littoral Society: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
4report 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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Watershed Institute Inc?

Find your warmest path to The Watershed Institute Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

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 24 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $608k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Watershed Institute’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