California · Nonprofit
FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST
FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST (California) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,693,275 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($712,474). 49 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
- $5.1M
- Funders on record
- 77
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What Friends of the Urban Forest does
Mission
Friends of the Urban Forest connects people with nature and each other by planting and caring for san francisco's trees and gardens.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Involve city residents in providing technical and practical assistance with tree planting. Perform under a series of contracts that provide for tree planting and ongoing maintenance.
$3,984,632 spent$64,832 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,984,632.
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 2017 to 2018, from $2.0M to $2.9M (+40%).
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 28% · 2018 45% · 2019 62% · 2020 56% · 2021 53% · 2022 71% · 2023 69% · 2024 68% · 2025 73%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 4 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
Brian Wiedenmeier
Executive director
Board chair
Ray Schreiber
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 36 funders, grant income rose $181k → $525k.
18 of 77 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 URBAN FOREST’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 77 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 URBAN FOREST has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% 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
69% 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 URBAN FOREST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 16% · 2019 23% · 2020 15% · 2021 21% · 2022 17% · 2023 20% — 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
42% of FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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 URBAN FOREST'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 $1.5M that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M 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
FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST's revenue grew 92% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST
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
100%
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 FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST: 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 URBAN FOREST?
- FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST (California) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,693,275 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($712,474). 49 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 URBAN FOREST have?
- IRS filings report 77 organizations giving $3,693,275 in grants to FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $712,474 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST 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 Friends of the Urban Forest →
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 77 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