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Texas · Nonprofit

FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC

FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC (Texas) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,195,137 to it, the largest being THOMAS M HELEN MCKEE & JOHN P RYAN FO JOHN P RYAN FOUNDATION INC ($540,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$563k
Funders on record
18
Grants received
$1.2M
Net assets
$658k
8/18 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 84%
01What it does

What Friends of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge Inc does

Mission

To preserve, protect, and conserve in perpetuity the fort worth nature center and refuge.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The friends of the fort worth nature center & refuge ("friends") helps to protect, preserve, and provide financial support for the nature center. The friends organize a variety of annual fundraising events and offer nature center memberships. The friends provided funding for major capital improvement projects and research-based education programs. The friends provided care for the nature center's bison herd and prairie dog colony and other wildlife ambassadors, and the friends acquired conservation equipment.

    $372,258 spent$3,130 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $372,258.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($315k) Expenses 100 ($255k) Net assets 100 ($516k)2018 Revenue 154 ($484k) Expenses 135 ($344k) Net assets 127 ($657k)2019 Revenue 153 ($484k) Expenses 140 ($359k) Net assets 86 ($444k)2020 Revenue 64 ($202k) Expenses 209 ($535k) Net assets 89 ($462k)2021 Revenue 259 ($815k) Expenses 243 ($620k) Net assets 127 ($656k)2022 Revenue 97 ($306k) Expenses 97 ($247k) Net assets 140 ($721k)2023 Revenue 109 ($344k) Expenses 284 ($725k) Net assets 66 ($340k)2024 Revenue 155 ($489k) Expenses 96 ($245k) Net assets 113 ($584k)2025 Revenue 178 ($563k) Expenses 191 ($488k) Net assets 127 ($658k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (178)Expenses (191)Net assets (127)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $736k to $351k (−52%).

$519k
$661k
$447k
$479k
$676k
$736k
$351k
$598k
$692k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 14% · 2018 5% · 2021 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$60k
’17
$140k
’18
$125k
’19
−$333k
’20
$195k
’21
$60k
’22
−$381k
’23
$244k
’24
$75k
’25
13
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed232223212219182520
Joined·+6+3+0+7+1+2+7+1
No longer listed·72264306
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $265k → $12k.

3 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC’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

FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

41% 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 FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC.

45%
largest funder
86%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 76% · 2019 73% · 2020 46% · 2021 94% · 2022 75% · 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

38% of FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

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

98% of FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC's grant income comes from Texas funders.

IL
RI
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Texas out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $492k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE 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 Texas

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 15%Fundraising 9%

Governance

20
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

90%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE 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.

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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 FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC?
FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC (Texas) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,195,137 to it, the largest being THOMAS M HELEN MCKEE & JOHN P RYAN FO JOHN P RYAN FOUNDATION INC ($540,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC have?
IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $1,195,137 in grants to FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC?
THOMAS M HELEN MCKEE & JOHN P RYAN FO JOHN P RYAN FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $540,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FRIENDS OF THE FORT WORTH NATURE CENTER & REFUGE INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 18 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