Skip to content
Plinth
← FundingAlso makes grants — grantmaker profile →

New York · Nonprofit

BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC

BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC (New York) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,374,008 to it, the largest being THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION ($9,420,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$3.7M
Revenue FY2024
48
Funders on record
$14M
Grants received
$1.9M
Net assets
32/48 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year

Against its field

BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,184 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin2% · below the median
Months of reserve26.7mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,184 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($3.8M) Expenses 100 ($4.0M) Net assets 100 ($182k)2019 Revenue 122 ($4.7M) Expenses 110 ($4.4M) Net assets 243 ($442k)2020 Revenue 67 ($2.6M) Expenses 72 ($2.9M) Net assets 69 ($126k)2021 Revenue 154 ($5.9M) Expenses 112 ($4.5M) Net assets 839 ($1.5M)2022 Revenue 101 ($3.9M) Expenses 105 ($4.2M) Net assets 648 ($1.2M)2023 Revenue 323 ($12M) Expenses 292 ($12M) Net assets 986 ($1.8M)2024 Revenue 97 ($3.7M) Expenses 90 ($3.7M) Net assets 1029 ($1.9M)
2018201920202021202220232024
Revenue (97)Expenses (90)Net assets (1029)Peer revenue range

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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 37% · 2019 16% · 2020 24% · 2021 21% · 2022 28% · 2023 18% · 2024 35%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

96% of BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,285 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$197k
18
$260k
19
$317k
20
$1.4M
21
$359k
22
$625k
23
$72k
24
27
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $467k → $1.3M.

6 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)13% 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 BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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

BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

66%
largest funder
82%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 82% · 2018 32% · 2019 42% · 2020 27% · 2021 27% · 2022 86% · 2023 30%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

41% of BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC draws 88% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 8 states in all.

MI
NY
OR
CA
NC
SC
DC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
New York out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 48 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $6.6M on record.

Federal$6.6M
grants $6.6Mcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
26
Top agencies
  • Environmental Protection Agency$4.5M
  • Department of Commerce$1.5M
  • Department of the Interior$413k
  • Department of Agriculture$175k

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 BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In New York

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

65% of spending goes to programs.

Program 65%Management 28%Fundraising 7%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

96%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NY

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC?
BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC (New York) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,374,008 to it, the largest being THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION ($9,420,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC have?
IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $14,374,008 in grants to BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC?
THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $9,420,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 48funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing