Wisconsin · Nonprofit
FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC
FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,712,581 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($955,104). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.6M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $7.8M
What Friends of Schlitz Audubon Nature Center Inc does
Mission
Schlitz audubon nature center conserves our land's diverse habitats on lake michigan and provides meaningful experiences and environmental education for all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Environmental education: the center offers programs for people of all ages and abilities. We serve over 30,000 children and adults annually through on-site and off-site programs ranging from environmental education, summer camps, and nature art classes to our master naturalist course. The center also offers programming for special needs individuals such as the visually impaired, young cancer survivors, and older adults with cognitive challenges. In addition, we offer the most comprehensive raptor education program in the midwest, with 16 resident birds of prey who cannot be released back into the wild. Our feathered ambassadors reached over 168,000 people during the year.the raptors, especially our eagles, have been participating in sporting events such as basketball and baseball games which has really increased the reach.
$1,761,494 spent$876,713 earned by the program53% of program spendingNature school: this program gives early learners (babies to age 6) access to nature-based experiences. Our award-winning nature preschool, founded in 2003, was one of the first of its kind in the nation and is housed in the center's gold leed certified building, our school is deeply committed to environmental education and active learning for all students. Through outreach programming, our early childhood educators provide the nature learning approach to students from the most economically challenged areas of milwaukee.
$830,964 spent$780,859 earned by the program25% of program spendingLand conservation: our 185 acres of forest, wetlands, prairie, ravines, bluffs, and shoreline are at the heart of our conservation activity and nature-based community programming. The land is our outdoor classroom and the foundation for our unique educational experiences. Guided by our comprehensive land management plan, our vision is to create a biologically and visually diverse 21st century landscape on this property, which is among the most ecologically important tracts of land in greater milwaukee. In 2025, work continued on the west meadows trail enhancement project. The project has 3 goals: to move trails out of wetlands, distance trails from the noise of lake drive, and to offer better views of the west meadows.
$731,915 spent22% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,324,373.
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 $5.8M to $7.0M (+20%).
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 5% · 2021 20% · 2022 16% · 2023 1% · 2024 3% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
47% of FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC’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.
Chief executive
Helen Boomsma
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $113k → $379k.
13 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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
FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% 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
75% 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 FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 41% · 2019 40% · 2020 52% · 2021 71% · 2022 49% · 2023 48% — growing more concentrated.
“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
41% of FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
70% of FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC'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 $813k that is directly attributable, 69% of it comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $152k on record.
- Department of the Interior$152k
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 FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC
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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
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 1 related entity
- Natural Events Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC: 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 FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC?
- FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,712,581 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($955,104). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $2,712,581 in grants to FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC?
- GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $955,104 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Friends of Schlitz Audubon Nature Center →
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 46 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