Ohio · Nonprofit
CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY
CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY (Ohio) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,306,380 to it, the largest being THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ($468,617). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.0M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $26M
What Cardinal Land Conservancy does
Mission
To benefit the general public by preserving natural lands and significant habits, lands suitable for the production of food, timber, or other cultivated or natural products, lands creating scenic vistas for public enjoyment, lands with water resources such as rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands, bogs and aquifers, and any of the above lands that include important historic or cultural resources. Our primary service area is adams, brown, clermont, clinton, hamilton, highland and warren counties in southwest ohio.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Land stewardship: we are responsible to protect conservation values and to be a good neighbor and community member for all our properties. We evaluate every property for its conservation value, the threats to these values, and for opportunities to enhance conservation values through responsible management. A formal stewardship plan is developed and implemented based on this analysis to include annual monitoring and assessment as part of an adaptive management framework. Some conservation properties include restoration work to replace lost functions and to increase the conservation value of the property. Our volunteers are a vital and growing resource for our stewardship program with individuals and groups of all ages participating in planning and providing service. Stewarding conserved lands. A stewardship funding strategy, including gift donations during the acquisition process, is an integral part of every new conservation project. Stewardship funds are used to provide for future expenses of restoration, monitoring, enforcing compliance with easement restrictions, and underwriting legal defense of conservation protections for all our properties. We insure the conservation…
$555,165 spent$44,000 earned by the program89% of program spendingConservation land and easement acquisition: we conserve important and threatened land using all the tools of private, voluntary land conservation. We work exclusively with willing landowners to find ways to conserve, forever, the scenic and natural values of the land and water. Landowners donate or sell their land for conservation or a conservation easement. In either case, the conversion of the land to development uses is restricted or eliminated. We manage the land under a stewardship plan and, if necessary, legally defend the terms of the conservation easement or the conservation values of our fee lands. We also identify priority conservation lands to purchase, often working with governmental and other funding partners. Further, we conserve working forests and agricultural land for the purpose of keeping the land in resource production.
$67,131 spent$4,685,520 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $622,296.
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 2023 to 2024, from $9.2M to $21M (+126%).
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 68% · 2019 30% · 2020 51% · 2021 38% · 2022 28% · 2024 45% · 2025 66%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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 4 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $41k → $196k.
8 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
47% 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 CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 94% · 2019 92% · 2020 56% · 2021 43% · 2022 22% · 2023 25% — 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
60% of CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
80% of CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $597k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
52% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY: 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 CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY?
- CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY (Ohio) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,306,380 to it, the largest being THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ($468,617). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $1,306,380 in grants to CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY?
- THE NATURE CONSERVANCY is the largest funder on record, with $468,617 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CARDINAL LAND CONSERVANCY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 Cardinal Land Conservancy →
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 36 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