California · Nonprofit
CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY
CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY (California) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,374,261 to it, the largest being THE MARISLA FOUNDATION ($1,974,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.9M
- Funders on record
- 70
- Grants received
- $9.4M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Crystal Cove Conservancy does
Mission
To promote educational and interpretative activities of the california state park system at crystal cove state park, support scientific studies, continue restoration of the historic district buildings and presentation of these subjects to the public.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Restore:located on the historic unceded lands and waters of the acjachemen and tongva tribal nations, crystal cove state park comprises 400 acres of coastal bluff habitat, 3.2 miles of mostly undeveloped beaches, 2400 acres of backcountry habitat, an 1100-acre offshore marine protected area, and a 12-acre historic district listed on the national register of historic places. As part of its mission as the nonprofit partner to crystal cove state park, Crystal Cove Conservancy (the conservancy) has restored 41 of the 46 historic structures in the park - an enclave of 45 beach cottages and a world war ii era japanese language school in the park's historic district. The final restoration of 5 remaining unrestored beachfront cottages on the north beach of crystal cove is currently underway and primarily funded. The completion of the north beach cottages will significantly expand public access to one of california's top coastal destinations and will double the capacity of the park for overnight visitors. Crystal cove state park currently welcomes more than 2 million visitors each year. The unique partnership between california state parks district to maintain the fragile historic…
$1,478,129 spentof which $1,478,129 as grants$150,000 earned by the program44% of program spendingEducate:the conservancy's unique value proposition holds the critical importance of equipping young people for the environmental challenges of tomorrow at its core and acknowledges that the best way to learn science is by doing science: teach students while they explore real world problems in real contexts alongside real scientists and engineers. Currently, the conservancy's stem (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education programs engage more than 6,785 k-12 students from 76 schools in 2 states in real conservation work is helping further understanding of how crystal cove and protected lands and water are being impacted by accelerating climate change and human impacts. More than 65% of participants come from title 1 schools. The conservancy's education programs leverage a close partnership with california state parks' natural resources team and university of california, irvine researchers and faculty to connect classroom learning to real-world ecological investigations. Students who participate in our programs work alongside state park land managers and university scientists to analyze and solve real-world conservation problems. Conservancy programs, developed in…
$1,253,762 spent38% of program spendingProtect:crystal cove state park is part of an interconnected landscape. While the boundaries that define it are invisible to the plants and animals that live here, how we manage the land within those boundaries has impact far beyond its borders. The park is one of the last remaining undeveloped stretches along orange county's coastline and includes riparian and oak woodland habitats, as well as a rocky intertidal zone and a transient kelp forest in the offshore underwater park. These projected ecosystems are part of the larger south coast wilderness open space, which stretches to laguna coast wilderness park and city of irvine open space. Crystal cove state park is also designated as public conservation land on the orange county green vision map and is an enrolled property within the natural communities conservation plan/habitat conservation plan (nccp/hcp) for central coastal orange county. Crystal cove state park is a critically important place because it contains rare and endemic ecosystems that are not found in many other places on earth. Its backcountry is dominated by coastal sage scrub, a now-rare plant community whose range has been drastically reduced due to coastal…
$598,516 spent18% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,330,407.
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 $9.7M to $14M (+41%).
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 1% · 2018 2% · 2019 11% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 0% · 2023 80% · 2024 64% · 2025 43%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Shannon Kate Wheeler
President/CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $840k → $1.3M.
13 of 70 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 70 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
CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
39% 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 CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 41% · 2019 28% · 2020 38% · 2021 34% · 2022 28% · 2023 36% — 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
53% of CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
86% of CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CRYSTAL COVE 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Crystal Cove Managing Member LLC · disregarded
- Crystal Cove Master Tenant · partnership
- Crystal Cove Management Company · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CRYSTAL COVE 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 CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY?
- CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY (California) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,374,261 to it, the largest being THE MARISLA FOUNDATION ($1,974,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY have?
- IRS filings report 70 organizations giving $9,374,261 in grants to CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY, 46 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY?
- THE MARISLA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,974,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY 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.
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 70 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