Oregon · Nonprofit
Friends of the Columbia Gorge
Friends of the Columbia Gorge (Oregon) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,574,706 to it, the largest being THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,498,997). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 82
- Grants received
- $5.6M
- Net assets
- $7.9M
What Friends of the Columbia Gorge does
Mission
Ensuring the gorge remains a vibrant, living place wondrous, wild, and accessible for all is at the core of what we do. Friends of the Columbia Gorge works to protect, preserve, and steward the columbia gorge for future generations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Public engagement - a large cross section of public support is critical to preserve the columbia gorge for future generations. To meet this challenge, friends seeks to strengthen community support for key conservation initiatives, expose local youth to the gorges wonders, and illustrate the gorges significance as an icon of the pacific nw and national treasure.
$573,436 spent33% of program spendingConservation - friends works to protect the scenic and natural resources of the gorge by protecting the air quality, limiting sprawl, and protecting forest and farmlands. An essential element to friends' success has been the ability to effectively build a diverse network of community partners and mobilize thousands of dedicated friends activists and allies across the region.
$476,062 spent27% of program spendingMember services - friends staff dedicates time, experience, and knowledge to provide our membership with a well-rounded understanding in the history, landscapes, biodiversity, flora, fauna, and trails within the columbia gorge national scenic area. Spending time with members and creating experiences to help them grasp the depth and breadth of the work the organization does to preserve, protect, and steward the gorge.
$327,856 spent19% of program spendingLegal - when gorge resources are threatened by unlawful decisions and violations, friends exercises its right to implement sophisticated legal strategies and cutting-edge public education tools to protect gorge resources and keep watch on reckless land development.
$313,898 spent18% of program spendingLobbying friends conducts lobby activities to support laws that protect the gorges scenic, natural, cultural, and recreational resources.
$50,052 spent3% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,741,304.
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.
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 $7.1M to $9.0M (+27%).
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: 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Board chair
Pleschette Fontenet
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 22 funders to 38 funders, grant income rose $435k → $947k.
18 of 82 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 the Columbia Gorge’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 82 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 the Columbia Gorge has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
64% 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 the Columbia Gorge.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 38% · 2019 42% · 2020 42% · 2021 33% · 2022 27% · 2023 22% — 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
42% of Friends of the Columbia Gorge's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
59% of Friends of the Columbia Gorge'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 $2.3M that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from funders outside Oregon, across 18 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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.
Organizations like Friends of the Columbia Gorge
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 Oregon
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
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
- Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Friends of the Columbia Gorge: 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 the Columbia Gorge?
- Friends of the Columbia Gorge (Oregon) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,574,706 to it, the largest being THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,498,997). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Friends of the Columbia Gorge have?
- IRS filings report 82 organizations giving $5,574,706 in grants to Friends of the Columbia Gorge, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Friends of the Columbia Gorge?
- THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,498,997 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Friends of the Columbia Gorge find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 the Columbia Gorge →
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 82 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