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New York · Nonprofit

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC (New York) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,402,913 to it, the largest being CITY PARKS FOUNDATION INC ($489,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.2M
Funders on record
45
Grants received
$2.4M
Net assets
$207k
26/45 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 62%
01What it does

What Gowanus Canal Conservancy Inc does

Mission

Gowanus Canal Conservancy advocates and cares for ecologically sustainable parks and public spaces in the Gowanus lowlands while empowering a community of stewards. We envision a Gowanus Canal and surrounding urban environment that is clean, resilient, diverse and alive.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Through its environmental initiatives, the organizations service accomplishments include stewardship of streets trees, gardens, parks and other public spaces; volunteer engagement; youth job training; community outreach and education.

    $706,377 spent$126,713 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $706,377.

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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($594k) Expenses 100 ($526k) Net assets 100 ($115k)2018 Revenue 114 ($676k) Expenses 145 ($762k) Net assets 26 ($30k)2019 Revenue 198 ($1.2M) Expenses 150 ($791k) Net assets 362 ($417k)2020 Revenue 213 ($1.3M) Expenses 177 ($932k) Net assets 648 ($746k)2021 Revenue 101 ($598k) Expenses 188 ($991k) Net assets 307 ($353k)2022 Revenue 241 ($1.4M) Expenses 262 ($1.4M) Net assets 355 ($408k)2023 Revenue 208 ($1.2M) Expenses 266 ($1.4M) Net assets 210 ($242k)2024 Revenue 243 ($1.4M) Expenses 259 ($1.4M) Net assets 275 ($317k)2025 Revenue 208 ($1.2M) Expenses 255 ($1.3M) Net assets 179 ($207k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (208)Expenses (255)Net assets (179)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 2019 to 2020, from $494k to $893k (+81%).

$180k
$227k
$494k
$893k
$650k
$487k
$543k
$525k
$467k
'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 32% · 2018 37% · 2019 33%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

92% of GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,303 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$67k
’17
−$86k
’18
$387k
’19
$329k
’20
−$393k
’21
$55k
’22
−$166k
’23
$75k
’24
−$111k
’25
0.0
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.

Board chair

Andrew Simons

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed181820201917172022
Joined·+2+4+0+0+2+0+6+3
No longer listed·22014031
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $75k → $404k.

10 of 45 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 34% 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 GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 45 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

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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

56% 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 GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC.

20%
largest funder
40%
top three
~12
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 31% · 2019 28% · 2020 18% · 2021 40% · 2022 51% · 2023 28% — 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

50% of GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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 GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC's grant income comes from New York funders.

ME
WA
IL
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CA
CO
DE
AZ
NC
DC

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $814k 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

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC's funding base is broadening — from 8 funders to 21 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−9% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.0mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)10% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $297k on record.

Federal$297k
grants $297kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • Department of Agriculture$297k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY 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 New York

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

53% of spending goes to programs.

Program 53%Management 42%Fundraising 6%

Governance

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

Public support

92%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NY

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY 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 GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC?
GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC (New York) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,402,913 to it, the largest being CITY PARKS FOUNDATION INC ($489,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC have?
IRS filings report 45 organizations giving $2,402,913 in grants to GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC?
CITY PARKS FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $489,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Gowanus Canal Conservancy →

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 45 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