Georgia · Nonprofit
BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC
BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC (Georgia) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $571,427 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($107,815). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $456k
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $571k
- Net assets
- $735k
What Blue Heron Nature Preserve Inc does
Mission
We create personal experiences with nature for people of all ages through innovative environmental education programs, conservation projects, and nature-inspired art exhibitions at our 30-acre preserve and in communities across Atlanta to advance environmental stewardship.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Conservation: as an ecological treasure filled with woodlands, wetlands, riparian creek areas over 30-acres, a meadow, blue heron nature preserve is committed to tap the beauty and wonder of our greenspace regionally as a dynamic outdoor classroom and research hub for metropolitan atlanta and beyond. In 2023, we continued a partnership with georgia tech and the city of atlanta to leverage the use of drone and apps for our ongoing tree canopy work. Our native plant garden has grown in size and appreciation with the help of volunteers.
$423,907 spent76% of program spendingEducation: blue heron nature preserve, inc. Enhanced the quality and reach of our environmental education programs in 2023. Understanding that our curriculum should be dynamic like our 30-acre greenspace, blue heron educators complemented our reggio emilia curriculum with art activities for the 930 students and families in our summer and school break camps, scout programs, and after school programs, and counselor-in-training programs. Through partnerships with organizations serving underserved families, we were honored to inspire children and adults of diverse backgrounds about the nature beauty at our 30-acre preserve and the greenspaces in their communities.
$117,307 spent21% of program spendingPublic art:2023 witnessed the blossoming of our nature-themed art programs. A record 11 visual artists and 3 performing artists from the atlanta region and the southeast participated in our art of nature outdoor art exhibition, curated by the blue heron artist-in-residence. The fertile ground exhibition and partnership with zucot gallery and atlanta public schools (aps) expanded appreciation of the natural beauty of our preserve to 70 aps art educators and 150 aps students. Art lovers were also feted with three exhibitions from emerging and established artists from atlanta to dallas, texas. Our arts program stands out as one of the few community-based nonprofit organizations to provide free, environmental arts programs in the southeast.
$15,536 spent3% of program spendingPartnerships:reflecting the importance of partnerships to established our organization in 2000, blue heron nature preserve, inc. Understands the power of partnerships to advance conservation, environmental education, and nature-inspired arts in atlanta and beyond. We initiated partnerships with greening youth foundation for environmental education outreach programs, trees atlanta for critical tree plantings along our stream buffer, and georgia tech and the city of atlanta for our tree canopy work. Honoring our founders role as an atlanta public school (aps) educator, our longstanding aps partnership deepened from the fertile ground initiative with zucot gallery. Partnerships with corporate and civic partners helped us to beautify and enhance the environmental health of our greenspace. Working with respected partners on impactful initiatives in 2022 positions blue heron nature preserve, inc. Well for a successful 2023.
Blueway trail: with the addition of railing and boardwalk to our 3-mile earth-friendly blueway trail in 2020, blue heron nature preserve took advantage of this improved access to the preserve to develop well-received public programming in 2023. We resumed year-round environmental education programs and outreach programs at our city of atlanta park for children in surrounding neighborhoods and beyond. Our organization launched volunteer saturdays to promote exploration and environmental stewardship in the spaces adjoining the blueway trail. These initiatives were complemented with our fertile ground partnership with atlanta public schools and zucot gallery, partnership with the greening youth foundation to serve unrepresented youths, the art of nature outdoor exhibition, and august health and wellness programs.
The 5 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $556,750.
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 2017 to 2018, from $304k to $719k (+137%).
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: 2021 46%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
41% of BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $36k → $44k.
3 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
46% 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 BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 57% · 2019 65% · 2020 28% · 2021 35% · 2022 41% · 2023 54% — 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
25% of BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
83% of BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC's grant income comes from Georgia funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $159k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 7 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,266 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC
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 Georgia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
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 BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC: 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 BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC?
- BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC (Georgia) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $571,427 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($107,815). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $571,427 in grants to BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $107,815 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BLUE HERON NATURE PRESERVE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Georgia. 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 Blue Heron Nature Preserve →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 23 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