North Carolina · Nonprofit
Catawba Lands Conservancy
Catawba Lands Conservancy (North Carolina) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,447,092 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($5,808,699). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.3M
- Funders on record
- 62
- Grants received
- $9.4M
- Net assets
- $52M
What Catawba Lands Conservancy does
Mission
As a nationally accredited land trust, we conserve and manage land for public benefit in North Carolinas Southern Piedmont. We have conserved 235 properties, totaling 17,786 acres of land. We also facilitate the creation of a 1600 mile network of greenways, trails and blueways.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Land Stewardship: The Conservancy intentionally stewards its conservation assets. Staff monitors activities on fee owned land through site visits. Current conditions are evaluated against the reference conditions established by the Baseline Documentation Report. Photographs may be taken and a monitoring report is generated and archived or the site visit is documented on a site visit report. As part of perpetual due diligence, the Conservancy ensures the plant, wildlife, and other conservation values remain undisturbed and protected. Where appropriate on fee owned property, the Conservancy provides public access opportunities, including both blueways and hiking trails, independently and through Carolina Thread Trail. Facilities for public access include a canoe/kayak launch (Spencer Mt. River Access and Pharr Family Preserve access), the Adam Springs Portage Trail, and canoe/kayak take-out (R.Y. McAden Access); and natural surface or paved hiking trails at the South Fork Trail, South Fork Rail Trail, Long Creek Preserve, Seven Oaks Preserve, Pharr Family Preserve, Buffalo Creek Preserve, Sallys Y Preserve, Catawba Springs Preserve, Girl Scouts, and Eastover Ridge Preserve. The…
$3,257,184 spent66% of program spendingThe Carolina Thread Trail is an initiative to develop a regional network of greenways, trails and blueways (river paddling trails) that covers 1,600 miles and reaches 15 counties in both North and South Carolina,centered on the Greater Charlotte metropolitan area. It is a unique collaboration that will connect communities and conserved land via a network of trails developed through the implementation of locally adopted trail master plans. The development of the network is predicated on cultivating partnerships with a variety of entities such as local governments, other non-profits and foundations, and private landowners.This long-term project will permanently protect the region's history, natural beauty, and social diversity, while conserving local lands and fostering free and equitable accessibility for residents and visitors. This includes enhancing bicycle and pedestrian transportation as a viable and convenient choice. The Thread Trail will connect more than 2.5 million citizens in North and South Carolina. It will connect points of regional and local significance. It provides multiple public benefits including economic development, conservation of land, enhancement of water…
$1,419,581 spentof which $162,375 as grants29% of program spendingLand Acquisition: Catawba Lands Conservancy (Conservancy) protected six (6) new properties in 2023, totaling 203 acres in four (4) counties. The Conservancy works with willing landowners and communities to conserve land in perpetuity by placing voluntary conservation easements on land, accepting donations of land, and occasionally purchasing land. CLC serves a seven-county region in North Carolina that includes: Catawba, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Union, and parts of Cabarrus counties. Our conservation efforts focus on four areas: local farms, wildlife/plant habitat, water quality and connecting people to nature. Additionally, many of our properties have important species and habitat that the state of North Carolina designated as Natural Heritage Areas. Further, some of the properties provide critical habitat for state or federally listed threatened or endangered plants or animals.
$225,845 spent5% of program spendingOTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: Other - Other program expenses relate primarily to community education, outreach, and public programming.
$44,222 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,946,832.
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 2021 to 2022, from $42M to $50M (+20%).
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 7% · 2018 25% · 2019 12% · 2020 21% · 2021 2% · 2022 4% · 2023 11% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of Catawba Lands Conservancy’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. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $138k → $4.7M.
15 of 62 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $284k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Carolina Thread Trail). These are real filings, and they are not money Catawba Lands Conservancy raised.
From the IRS filings of Catawba Lands Conservancy’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 62 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
Catawba Lands Conservancy leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
86% 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 Catawba Lands Conservancy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 25% · 2019 35% · 2020 41% · 2021 42% · 2022 42% · 2023 91% — growing more concentrated.
“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
44% of Catawba Lands Conservancy'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
81% of Catawba Lands Conservancy's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.8M that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.6M 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
Catawba Lands Conservancy holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding Catawba Lands Conservancy receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $30k on record.
- Department of the Interior$30k
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 Catawba Lands 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Hickory Grove LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Catawba Lands 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 Catawba Lands Conservancy?
- Catawba Lands Conservancy (North Carolina) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,447,092 to it, the largest being FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS ($5,808,699). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Catawba Lands Conservancy have?
- IRS filings report 62 organizations giving $9,447,092 in grants to Catawba Lands Conservancy, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Catawba Lands Conservancy?
- FOUNDATION FOR THE CAROLINAS is the largest funder on record, with $5,808,699 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Catawba Lands Conservancy find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 62 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing