Wisconsin · Nonprofit
Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks
Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks (Wisconsin) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $432,808 to it, the largest being THE AMERICAN CENTER FOR PHILANTHROPY INC ($154,078). 8 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 FY2024
- $409k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $433k
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks does
Mission
Promote environmental education and stewardship of the natural resources at Willow River and Kinnickinnic State Parks.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2023, with a volunteer board of ten, and with one and three quarters full-time naturalists employed, the Friends: Offered 150 programs to 6,500 participants of all ages and backgrounds through school field trip programs, naturalist classes, weekend events, and drop-in programs focused on geology, human history, the natural environment, recreation, and other educational and seasonal topics. Including 25 school and youth field trips with1,284 field trip attendees and 8 adult outings including assisted living and dementia care groups. Staffed and kept the nature center open to visitors for 345 days, welcoming 12,000 visitors. Sought and received grant funding, donations, and volunteer support that resulted in the development of 10+ additional miles of mountain biking trails at Willow River and Kinnickinnic State Parks. Kept Willow River Nature Center staffed and open to the public daily from noon-4pm for roughly 345 days in 2023, logging 12,000 visitors. See Sched O
$170,239 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $170,239.
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 2019 to 2020, from $79k to $845k (+970%).
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: 2021 12% · 2022 24% · 2023 22% · 2024 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $17k → $63k.
6 of 12 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 Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks’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 Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
60% 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 Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 79% · 2019 100% · 2020 48% · 2021 40% · 2022 39% · 2023 40% — 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
83% of Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
60% of Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks'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 $175k that is directly attributable, 68% of it comes from funders outside Wisconsin, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $258k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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 Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
49%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks: 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 Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks?
- Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks (Wisconsin) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $432,808 to it, the largest being THE AMERICAN CENTER FOR PHILANTHROPY INC ($154,078). 8 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 Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $432,808 in grants to Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks?
- THE AMERICAN CENTER FOR PHILANTHROPY INC is the largest funder on record, with $154,078 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Friends of Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks 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 Willow River-Kinnickinnic State Parks →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 12 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