California · Nonprofit
COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL
COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL (California) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,621,837 to it, the largest being The David and Lucile Packard Foundation ($390,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $634k
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $479k
What Coastal Watershed Council does
Mission
CWC is pursuing its mission of protecting and preserving coastal watersheds through a strategic focus on the lower San Lorenzo River, transforming the river into a treasured community asset and destination that Santa Cruz is proud of.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Coastal Watershed Council (cwc), a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation, was formed in 1995 in response to the declining health of watersheds connected to the monterey bay national marine sanctuary. Cwcs mission is to preserve and protect coastal watersheds through stewardship, education and monitoring. Over the past 30 years, cwc has educated thousands of students and trained thousands of volunteers to protect the natural resources along californias central coast. Today, cwc is using this expertise to revitalize the san lorenzo river in santa cruz, ca, by inspiring people to explore, enhance and protect it. In its 2024-25 fiscal year, cwc achieved environmental and social outcomes in the following ways:recruited 482 volunteers to help increase biodiversity by removing 4458 square feet of highly invasive species and seeding new native plants comprising 7 unique species.educated 780 youth through the watershed rangers program, where they learned about and took action to help their rivertaught 164 lessons across the school year at 8 schools with 27 teachers in kindergarten through 7th grades, including leading 630 youth on field trips to the lower san lorenzo riverengaged…
$682,049 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $682,049.
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 2024 to 2025, from $642k to $529k (−18%).
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: 2018 4% · 2019 9% · 2020 39% · 2021 41% · 2022 42% · 2023 50% · 2024 51% · 2025 65%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL’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 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.
Board chair
Eva Maria Salas De La Fuente
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 11 funders, grant income fell $157k → $130k.
8 of 37 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 COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
45% 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 COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 31% · 2019 41% · 2020 41% · 2021 44% · 2022 51% · 2023 19% — 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
21% of COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
85% of COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $462k 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
COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL's revenue grew 25% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $168k on record.
- Department of Commerce$168k
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 COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL: 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 COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL?
- COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL (California) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,621,837 to it, the largest being The David and Lucile Packard Foundation ($390,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $1,621,837 in grants to COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL?
- The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $390,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Coastal Watershed Council →
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 37 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