Skip to content

Connecticut · Nonprofit

Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc

Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc (Connecticut) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $899,023 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($178,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$583k
Funders on record
32
Grants received
$899k
Net assets
$653k
15/32 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 33%
01What it does

What Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc does

Mission

The mission of the nrvt is to facilitate the design, construction and maintenance of a regionally significant, safe, multipurpose trail linking norwalk, wilton, redding, ridgefield and danbury. The trail will reflect the needs and desires of these communities and will foster increased recreational opportunities, alternative transportation options, and a healthy lifestyle.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Facilitating the design, construction and maintenance of a regionally significant, safe, multipurpose trail linking Norwalk, Wilton, Redding, Ridgefield and Danbury.

    $171,699 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $171,699.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($227k) Expenses 100 ($265k) Net assets 100 ($247k)2019 Revenue 87 ($198k) Expenses 48 ($126k) Net assets 129 ($319k)2020 Revenue 94 ($213k) Expenses 40 ($105k) Net assets 175 ($431k)2021 Revenue 275 ($625k) Expenses 76 ($200k) Net assets 347 ($856k)2022 Revenue 142 ($323k) Expenses 235 ($622k) Net assets 226 ($556k)2023 Revenue 133 ($302k) Expenses 101 ($267k) Net assets 240 ($592k)2024 Revenue 123 ($279k) Expenses 128 ($340k) Net assets 215 ($531k)2025 Revenue 257 ($583k) Expenses 174 ($461k) Net assets 265 ($653k)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (257)Expenses (174)Net assets (265)Peer revenue range

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 $431k to $856k (+99%).

$247k
$319k
$431k
$856k
$558k
$592k
$531k
$653k
'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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 4% · 2022 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

98% of Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,629 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$38k
’18
$72k
’19
$108k
’20
$424k
’21
−$299k
’22
$35k
’23
−$61k
’24
$122k
’25
17
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.

Chief executive

Andrea Gartner

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed77131313141615
Joined·+0+6+0+3+5+3+2
No longer listed·0003413
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $3k → $50k.

8 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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 Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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

65% 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 Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc.

20%
largest funder
53%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 88% · 2018 80% · 2019 35% · 2020 30% · 2021 49% · 2022 36% · 2023 69% — 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 Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

60% of Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail 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 $361k that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from Connecticut funders.

WA
IL
NY
CT
CO
DE
NC
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $538k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin21% · above the median
Months of reserve17.0mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)14% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail 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 Connecticut

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

63% of spending goes to programs.

Program 63%Management 25%Fundraising 12%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

99%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CT

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc?
Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc (Connecticut) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $899,023 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($178,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc have?
IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $899,023 in grants to Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc?
VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $178,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Norwalk River Valley Trail →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 32 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