California · Nonprofit
Environmental Traveling Companions
Environmental Traveling Companions (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,325,807 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($589,588). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $3.3M
- Net assets
- $3.3M
What Environmental Traveling Companions does
Mission
ETC provides accessible outdoor adventures including whitewater rafting, sea kayaking and leadership training, for people with disabilities, youth from under-resourced backgrounds and volunteer guides.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Youth LEAD Program- Teens from under-resourced urban areas (ages 14-18) join ETC on 14 to 21-day summer leadership expeditions. Students from diverse backgrounds live and learn together 24-7 as they build leadership and communication skills, learn about the environment, and develop a stewardship ethic. While sea kayaking, river rafting, or backpacking in the Sierra, our students are offered a supportive community to face challenges, gain confidence, and to realize their dreams, often against the odds. The program serves 48 students on five courses annually. For eight outstanding alumni, ETC offers an intensive and educational 8-month Fellowship program that provides follow-up mentorship and opportunities for students to put their new leadership skills into action. By getting young people out of the inner city and into the wilderness, we offer them opportunities to discover themselves and the natural resources that sustain our lives.
$389,435 spentof which $17,315 as grants$129,367 earned by the program32% of program spendingRiver Program- With the expertise and enthusiasm of highly trained volunteer guides and a paid core river staff, ETC annually provides accessible and educational whitewater rafting trips for over 1,500 participants with disabilities and youth from under resourced backgrounds. ETC's River Program partners with over 50 agencies and schools to serve a diverse client base including economically disadvantaged youth, people with mobility and visual impairments; people with developmental disabilities; and those with life threatening illnesses. While paddling through class lll rapids or floating through tranquil stretches of the river, ETC's participants challenge themselves and discover new strengths. They learn about the human and natural history of the watershed, riparian ecology, river conservation and how to protect our water resources. The majority of our river trips are conducted on the South Fork American River and based from ETC's beautiful, accessible, and ecologically designed River Camp in Coloma, California. ETC also offers Shared River Expeditions for people with disabilities and the general public on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, The Rogue River in Oregon, and…
$388,696 spentof which $3,388 as grants$251,676 earned by the program32% of program spendingSea Kayak Program- Paddlers of all abilities and youth from under resourced backgrounds join ETCs highly trained and enthusiastic volunteer guides to gain sea kayak paddling and safety skills before venturing out on the water to discover the diverse bay fauna from buffleheads and bat rays to harbor seals and heron. ETC's Sea Kayak Program has two main bases of operation: Schoonmaker Point Marina in Sausalito on Richardson Bay and Heart's Desire Beach at Tomales Bay State Park. Whether kayaking on San Francisco or Tomales Bay, our participants delight in sharing the adventure and learning about the natural and human history of these unique estuaries. They also are introduced to ways they can become wiser stewards of our precious water resources. ETCs accessible and educational sea kayaking adventures serve 1100 participants annually. ETC also conducts Shared Sea Kayak Expeditions for paddlers with disabilities combined with the general public. These inclusive and life-changing adventures are offered in: Baja on the Sea of Cortez, Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe, and on the Big River and Coast of Mendocino.
$339,752 spentof which $7,565 as grants$78,329 earned by the program28% of program spendingBenefit Trips & Shared Adventures- Every year ETC offers sea kayak and river trips for the general public. From full moon dinner paddles on SF Bay, to family whitewater rafting trips or a longer Baja sea kayak expedition. The goal of these adventures is to raise ETC scholarship funds, build awareness of ETC's mission and to have FUN Whenever possible we integrate paddlers and guides with disabilities on these trips to illuminate the ETC mission and message.
$100,842 spent$96,300 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,218,725.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.2M to $3.2M (+47%).
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 6% · 2019 8% · 2020 23% · 2021 13% · 2022 10% · 2023 9% · 2024 16% · 2025 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
57% of Environmental Traveling Companions’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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 15 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $228k → $670k.
20 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 Environmental Traveling Companions’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
Environmental Traveling Companions has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
67% 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 Environmental Traveling Companions.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 20% · 2019 24% · 2020 18% · 2021 72% · 2022 17% · 2023 19% — broadly stable.
“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
56% of Environmental Traveling Companions's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
62% of Environmental Traveling Companions'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 $1.3M that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M 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
Environmental Traveling Companions receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3.3M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Environmental Traveling Companions
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
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 Environmental Traveling Companions: 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 Environmental Traveling Companions?
- Environmental Traveling Companions (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,325,807 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($589,588). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Environmental Traveling Companions have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $3,325,807 in grants to Environmental Traveling Companions, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Environmental Traveling Companions?
- MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $589,588 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Environmental Traveling Companions 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 Environmental Traveling Companions →
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 55 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