Washington · Nonprofit
HERON'S KEY
HERON'S KEY (Washington) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $6,000 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($6,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $6k
- Net assets
- $-37707890
What Heron's Key does
Mission
Heron's Key is a not-for-profit non-denominational life plan retirement community providing a continuum of living accommodations, supportive services, and health care for residents 55 years of age and older. (continued in schedule o)as a life plan retirement community in gig harbor, the organization offers a wide range of quality programs, services, and facilities to meet the health, social, spiritual, and intellectual needs of its residents and to serve the broader community. Heron's Key is operated to fulfill its mission of service while remaining true to its core values of integrity, stewardship, empowerment, faith, change, and choice. The association's board of directors is comprised of local community members and Heron's Key residents, all dedicated to the mission of Heron's Key and to ensure it continues to maintain its high standards of excellence and remains financially sound.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Heron's Key provides safe and secure senior housing and services to approximately 307 independent living residents in the organization's 194 apartments. The organization provides many support services, including meal services provided in a central dining room, fitness and exercise classes, equipment, an on-site clinic, wellness programs, social programs, a wide variety of resident activities, both on site and other locations, and transportation to medical appointments and grocery stores, banks, and special activities. All life plan residents have unlimited access to assisted living and skilled nursing health care. (continued in schedule o)Heron's Key was financed with bonds issued by the washington state housing finance commission. As a type a facility in the state of washington, no resident of Heron's Key may utilize tax-payer funded public assistance programs such as medicaid. Heron's Key provides financial assistance to residents who, for reasons beyond their control, become unable to pay their monthly service fees. As a not-for-profit, mission-driven organization, revenues generated in excess of expenses are invested and held as reserves to ensure all current and future…
$12,256,818 spentof which $35,000 as grants$15,921,442 earned by the program61% of program spendingHeron's Key has 30 skilled nursing beds in private rooms that provide housing, care and nursing services to residents that need this higher level of care. Services in this area may be short term to provide needed care to rehabilitate after an illness or injury. The skilled nursing facility also provides long-term custodial care for those residents needing this higher level of health care. For life plan residents these additional services and support are provided at the rate the resident would pay if they remained in their independent living residential unit plus the cost of receiving additional meals. A wide variety of health care, support services, social and program activities are available to assist and care for residents.
$5,526,956 spent$7,179,442 earned by the program28% of program spendingHeron's Key has 49 assisted living apartments that provide long-term housing and services to residents that need more care than independent living residents. For life plan residents these additional services and support are provided at the rate the resident would pay if they remained in their private residential unit plus the cost of receiving additional meals. A wide variety of support services are available to assist with activities of daily living and memory care for those residents with dementia. Social and program activities are provided.
$2,297,019 spent$2,983,796 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $20,080,793.
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 $187M to $156M (−17%).
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: 2020 8% · 2021 0% · 2022 3% · 2023 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
6% of HERON'S KEY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Board chair
Dwight Whiting
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 HERON'S KEY’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.
Where its funders are
100% of HERON'S KEY'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
HERON'S KEY has grown faster than three-quarters of the 488 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 488 housing & shelter nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like HERON'S KEY
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Emerald Communities · exempt
- Eastside Retirement Association (Dba Emerald Heights) · exempt
- Luana Kai a Life Plan Community · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for HERON'S KEY: 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 HERON'S KEY?
- HERON'S KEY (Washington) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $6,000 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($6,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does HERON'S KEY have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $6,000 in grants to HERON'S KEY.
- Who is the largest funder of HERON'S KEY?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $6,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HERON'S KEY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 1 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