California · Nonprofit
EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST
EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST (California) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $966,347 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($321,679). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $966k
- Net assets
- $16M
What Eastern Sierra Land Trust does
Mission
Established in 2001, Eastern Sierra Land Trust (eslt) works with willing landownersto preserve vital lands in the eastern sierra region for their scenic, agricultural,natural, recreational, historical, and watershed values. Eslt recognizes that theland we share has long been used in a variety of ways, and we work to preserve ahealthy balance of uses from ranching to hiking, wildlife habitats to favoritefishing spots that can be sustained forever, ensuring a strong local economy andhealthy environment for generations to come. Eslt works to help families in the faceof pressures to subdivide their working farms and ranches. We work with landownersto protect the regions critical habitats. We work to offer the entire eastern sierra community, residents and visitors, the opportunity to connect with our treasured lands, wildlife and a rural heritage.as a nationally accredited land trust, eslt meets the highest standards for excellence, trust and permanence.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Founded in 2001 and nationally accredited as a land trust in 2010with accreditation renewed in 2022the Eastern Sierra Land Trust (ESLT) upholds rigorous standards of excellence to ensure lasting conservation and public trust. ESLT works to permanently protect the Eastern Sierras iconic landscapes through voluntary partnerships with landowners, preserving lands for their scenic, agricultural, ecological, recreational, historic, and watershed values. To date, ESLT has safeguarded over 23,000 acres of vital wildlife habitat, working farms and ranches, and other irreplaceable resources from the threat of development through its conservation easements and stewardship programs.
$1,211,042 spentof which $17,938 as grants100% of program spendingLand Conservation: In 2025, Eastern Sierra Land Trusts Land Conservation Program continued to advance its mission in close partnership with federal, state, local, and Tribal conservation partners to protect private lands with significant agricultural, ecological, historical, and cultural value.This year, ESLT completed two major conservation projects: the protection of a 240-acre conservation easement safeguarding important wetlands and wildlife habitat, and a fee title land return to the Mono Lake Kootzadukaa Tribe, supporting Tribal stewardship and cultural reconnection to ancestral lands.In addition, ESLT developed its Priority Investment Areas framework, a key planning tool that identifies the highest-value landscapes within our service area for conservation and agricultural protection. This science-based framework will guide future conservation investments and help ensure that limited resources are directed toward the most impactful opportunities.Together, these accomplishments reflect ESLTs continued commitment to protecting working lands, strengthening partnerships, and supporting long-term ecological and community resilience across the Eastern Sierra.
Stewardship: In 2025, Eastern Sierra Land Trusts Stewardship Program continued to provide long-term care and oversight for its growing portfolio of conserved lands, monitoring 23,470 acres in accordance with Land Trust Alliance Standards and Practices. Through ongoing site visits, landowner engagement, and data collection, ESLT ensured that conservation values across its easements and fee properties are upheld in perpetuity.The organization engaged community members through volunteer Stewardship Days at Conway Ranch, supporting invasive weed removal and habitat restoration. ESLT also built upon prior efforts in Swall Meadows by continuing to map and assess noxious weed populations on conservation easements to improve habitat conditions for the Round Valley mule deer herd.In 2025, ESLT advanced the Huntoon Meadow Restoration Project on the Ullman Ranch Conservation Easement by completing an existing conditions report, collecting baseline pre-restoration data, and developing restoration designs to 30%. The project aims to restore hydrologic function, reduce erosion and sedimentation, improve water quality, and enhance meadow and riparian habitatsupporting long-term,…
Community Connections: ESLTs Community Connections Program provides people of all ages with opportunities to connect with the land and cultivate a spirit of stewardship. In 2025, the program hosted 38 events and reached 2,480 people across Inyo and Mono Counties, including more than 300 youth participants. Nearly 1,000 people were reached through community events and outreach efforts, while more than 1,200 people participated in ESLT-hosted events and field trips. Programming also reached youth through participation in Ag Days in Dyer, Nevada.Public events included GardenFest, World Migratory Bird Day, the annual Mule Deer Migration Corridor Field Trip, and a variety of educational workshops, tours, and volunteer opportunities. A major highlight of the year was the expansion of GardenFest into a larger community celebration featuring live music, food, educational booths, and native plant sales. The event was highly successful and demonstrated growing community enthusiasm for native plants, pollinator habitat, and stewardship initiatives. ESLT also collaborated with numerous partner organizations and nonprofits throughout the year to broaden community engagement and expand program…
Tribal Partnership: ESLTs Tribal Partnership Program aims to build long-term partnerships between ESLT and Tribal Nations throughout the Eastern Sierra by advancing meaningful collaboration, capacity-building, and inclusion of traditional ecological knowledge in ESLTs conservation and stewardship efforts. In 2025, a major milestone of the program was the development of the Commitment to Tribal Engagement and Collaboration guidelines, which established a framework for respectful, consistent, and culturally informed engagement with Tribal governments, leadership, staff, and community members. These guidelines have helped institute best practices and support long-term relationship building across ESLT's conservation efforts.The program also successfully launched three Tribal Subgrants, providing resources directly to Tribal partners to support projects that align with cultural stewardship, conservation, education, and community priorities. Through ongoing coordination, technical assistance, and project support, the subgrants have fostered Tribal-led initiatives and strengthened partnerships between ESLT and Tribal communities and supported Californias broader 30x30 and climate…
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,211,042.
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 2017 to 2018, from $4.0M to $9.4M (+134%).
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 22% · 2018 3% · 2019 1% · 2020 4% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
70% of EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST’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 6 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $51k → $77k.
9 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 74% 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 EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST’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
EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
77% 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 EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 62% · 2019 87% · 2020 46% · 2021 32% · 2022 36% · 2023 30% — 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
44% of EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST'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
74% of EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST'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 $247k that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from funders outside California, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $719k 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
EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $75k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$75k
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 EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
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 EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST: 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 EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST?
- EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST (California) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $966,347 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($321,679). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $966,347 in grants to EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $321,679 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EASTERN SIERRA LAND TRUST 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 26 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