New Jersey · Nonprofit
AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY
AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY (New Jersey) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,779,229 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($9,827,502). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.9M
- Funders on record
- 57
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What American Littoral Society does
Mission
Promote the study and conservation of marine life and its habitat, defend the coast from harm, and empower others to do the same.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Conservation-American Littoral Society restores ecologically healthy and resilient coastal habitats along the atlantic coast and the delaware bay region. The society leads thousands of volunteers in coastal cleanups of the new york state beach shoreline. We plant dunes with corporations, private groups, municipalities, and school groups to protect life, limb and property from dangerous storms. We are working to restore connectivity to coastal watersheds to improve water quality as well as provide passage for migratory fish species. The society's projects include living shorlines, a method of land stabilization that protects the shoreline from erosion while preserving, enhancing, or creating habitat. The "shuck it don't chuck it" shell recycling program was created by the society to recycle oyster shells from local restaurants. The shell is returned to the water where it provides a substrate for new oysters. Oyster shells from restaurants ordinarily ends up in landfills. Oyster reefs also provide homes for other marine life and protect shorelines. The society works with communities, homeowners, and businesses to reduce storm run-off through green storm water management and water…
$5,561,420 spent$51,488 earned by the program94% of program spendingAdvocacy-everything we do at the society is about the public trust. The coast belongs to all of us and our advocacy and policy program has been protecting the average person and their stake in the coast for more than 50 years. We speak out for the coast, marine life and its habitats, and for the benefit of diverse coastal communities. Our advocacy is often community based, working on the most pressing problems with the people who are most affected. We seek opportunities to provide the public with the knowledge and tools they need to raise their voices along with us. The main areas of interest where the society advocates for better public policy to protect the littoral zone are coastal public access, coastal land use reform, and natural resource protection. A grant from the william penn foundation is providing support for a study to identify water quality improvement opportunities to reduce bacteria in the 27 mile stretch of the delaware river flowing past philadelphia, camden, chester and wilmington. Working with people representing all aspects of the river's use, our goal is to develop a "road map" to increase equitable opportunities for swimming and paddling in targeted areas as…
$122,847 spent2% of program spendingEducation-the society connects people of all ages to the coast through educational nature walks, fishing clinics, field trips, and volunteer opportunities. Our staff naturalists host public programs throughout the year including sunset seining, horseshoe crab walks, surf fishing clinics, bird walks, seal and winter waterfowl walks, and wild edible plant walks. Fish tagging-since the inception of the society's fish tagging program in 1965, more than 970,000 fish have been tagged by our volunteer taggers. Currently, the program's target species is striped bass and other fish of the littoral zone, including summer flounder, bluefish, tautog, and black seabass. The program currently has more than 450 active taggers who tag over 15,000 fish per year. Tagging is an important biological method for monitoring fish, because, unlike other animals, they spend almost all of their entire lives out of the sight of researchers. The program aids scientists too as our tagging data is transferred to the database of the national marine fisheries service laboratory.
$213,402 spent$71,038 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,897,669.
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 $708k to $1.6M (+130%).
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 50% · 2018 33% · 2019 33% · 2020 49% · 2021 60% · 2022 80% · 2023 57% · 2024 66% · 2025 79%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $1.3M.
11 of 57 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 57 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
AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
77% 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 AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 60% · 2019 66% · 2020 47% · 2021 45% · 2022 75% · 2023 61% — broadly stable.
“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
39% of AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $588k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY has grown faster than half of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $11.1M on record — $872k federal, $10.3M state.
- Department of the Interior$572k
- Department of Commerce$300k
- TRUST FUND$3.6M
- DEDICATED$3.2M
- FEDERAL$1.8M
- DIRECT STATE SERVICES - NON-SALARY$903k
- BOND FUND$766k
- GRANT IN AID$700
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 AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY
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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 5 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY: 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 AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY?
- AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY (New Jersey) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,779,229 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($9,827,502). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 57 organizations giving $14,779,229 in grants to AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $9,827,502 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 American Littoral Society →
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 57 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