Arizona · Nonprofit
Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection
Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection (Arizona) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,343,016 to it, the largest being MET FOUNDATION INC ($473,794). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $555k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $686k
What Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection does
Mission
The Coalition's mission is to protect the biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert in Southern Arizona through science-based advocacy, education, and collaboration.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
We continued advocating for protected open spaces, both on public and private lands, including educating our supporters about open space protection efforts in Pima County through our website, e-newsletters, and print newsletter. We worked to re-connect our threatened open space preserves, facilitated the management and monitoring of the Oracle Road wildlife crossings, and consulted on plans for new wildlife crossings such as a future wildlife bridge over Interstate 10 connecting the Tucson and Tortolita Mountains. We advocated for the passage of the RTANext Plan. And we continued our collaboration with the Desert Fence Busters, which seeks to remove outdated barbed wire fencing that impedes wildlife movement across the landscape We strenuously opposed the proposed Interstate 11 route in Avra Valley west of the Tucson Mountains through ongoing meetings with community partners and community outreach. We improved and refined our Community Science projects and continued to provide an educational, enriching experience for our volunteers and paid interns. We maintained productive working relationships with local governments, state and federal agencies, community partners, and landowners…
$289,539 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $289,539.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2024 to 2025, from $530k to $701k (+32%).
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: 2020 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection’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. 2 of the last 7 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 8 funders, grant income rose $46k → $133k.
3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection’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
Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
28% 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 Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 89% · 2019 55% · 2020 44% · 2021 39% · 2022 41% · 2023 49% — 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
75% of Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Arizona, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $24k 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
Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection
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 Arizona
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
60%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection: 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 Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection?
- Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection (Arizona) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,343,016 to it, the largest being MET FOUNDATION INC ($473,794). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $1,343,016 in grants to Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection?
- MET FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $473,794 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 12 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