California · Nonprofit
GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY
GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY (California) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,587,068 to it, the largest being The David and Lucile Packard Foundation ($482,000). 21 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
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $2.6M
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Grassroots Ecology does
Mission
We restore native plants to open spaces and neighborhoods, steward creeks and watersheds, and provide hands-on nature education
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Land stewardship/habitat restoration programGrassroots Ecology stewarded 25 sites encompassing 2,324 acres, 9 different watersheds and 1.5 miles of bay and shoreline. Grassroots Ecology organized community volunteers to install 5,465 plants at these sites.
$1,779,548 spent$1,584,190 earned by the program97% of program spendingEducation Grassroots Ecology engaged 7,400 people through volunteer workdays, educational events and internships.
$34,082 spent$10,063 earned by the program2% of program spendingNursery programour nursery grows a diversity of locally native species from seeds and cuttings gathered within santa clara, san mateo and santa cruz counties. It then distributes about 20,000 plants for reintroduction within their watershed of origin. We supply plants for our own habitat restoration projects as well as those of major land managers in our region.
$22,005 spent$177,237 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,835,635.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2023 to 2024, from $1.2M to $1.5M (+27%).
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 10% · 2022 11% · 2024 11% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
32% of GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 1 of the last 7 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.
Board chair
Kit Gordon
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 12 funders, grant income rose $10k → $282k.
14 of 37 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 GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
62% 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 GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 77% · 2019 28% · 2020 40% · 2021 24% · 2022 40% · 2023 26% — 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
52% of GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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 GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY'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 $1.1M that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $771k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$771k
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 GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY: 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 GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY?
- GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY (California) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,587,068 to it, the largest being The David and Lucile Packard Foundation ($482,000). 21 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 GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $2,587,068 in grants to GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY?
- The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $482,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GRASSROOTS ECOLOGY 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 Grassroots Ecology →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 37 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