California · Nonprofit
AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION
AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $828,420 to it, the largest being Sanders Tech-Ed Foundation ($104,851). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 39
- Grants received
- $828k
- Net assets
- $673k
What Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation does
Mission
The foundation's mission is to energize people through education and outreach to preserve the agua hedionda lagoon as an accessible and healthy watershed. Our vision, to be stewards of the watershed as we inspire future generations, so we all have access to a healthy lagoon.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The foundation provides educational programs in the forms of field trips, camps, after school programs, and preschool. The foundation provides grants to offset the cost of these services, and these services are offered to everyone in the community.
$449,330 spent$596,477 earned by the program35% of program spendingThe foundation runs a discovery center to serve as the corner stone for the foundation's effort to bring awareness to the lagoon and the watershed. It is a nature center that incorporates the foundation's history back to 500bc.
$381,208 spent$62,799 earned by the program30% of program spendingThe foundation maintains trails around the lagoon to allow the public to enjoy the beauty of the lagoon while conversing the natural habitat. The foundation addresses erosion, invasive plant removal, and works with the coastal commission to acquire new easements for trails and open space management.
$252,855 spent20% of program spendingThe foundation provides community-based outreach through events, volunteer programs, and collaborations that support public engagement and stewardship of the lagoon.
$202,202 spent16% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,285,595.
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 $439k to $662k (+51%).
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: 2017 14% · 2018 5% · 2019 13% · 2020 6% · 2021 19% · 2022 7% · 2023 6% · 2024 11% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (71% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Lisa Rodman
CEO
Board chair
Julie Gibbs
Chairwoman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $17k → $120k.
12 of 39 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 39 funders by total. 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
AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
39% 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 AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 87% · 2019 69% · 2020 48% · 2021 26% · 2022 36% · 2023 42% — diversifying over time.
“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.
How long its funders stay
31% of AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION draws 53% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $318k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 390 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 390 unclassified nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $269k on record.
- Department of the Interior$269k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION: 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 AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION?
- AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $828,420 to it, the largest being Sanders Tech-Ed Foundation ($104,851). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 39 organizations giving $828,420 in grants to AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION?
- Sanders Tech-Ed Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $104,851 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AGUA HEDIONDA LAGOON FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Agua Hedionda Lagoon →
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 39 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