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Illinois · Nonprofit

LIVING LANDS & WATERS

LIVING LANDS & WATERS (Illinois) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,842,708 to it, the largest being RAY & KAY ECKSTEIN CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,296,000). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.8M
Funders on record
83
Grants received
$4.8M
Net assets
$5.0M
47/83 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 40%
01What it does

What Living Lands & Waters does

Mission

To aid in the protection, preservation and restoration of the natural environment of the nations major rivers and their watersheds.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Community river clean-up projects covering several waterways in various states-expenses see schedule o

    $1,437,973 spent
    65% of program spending
  2. Reforestation project consisting of growing and replanting trees and reforestation of areas along waterways. See schedule o

    $393,161 spent
    18% of program spending
  3. Interstate 80 cleanup - invasive species removal and reforestation along I-80 corridor. See schedule o

    $51,478 spent
    2% of program spending
  4. Education of the public about the environment/ecology through river cleanups, educational workshops and reforestation. See schedule o

    $329,292 spent
    15% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,211,904.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($1.8M) Expenses 100 ($1.9M) Net assets 100 ($3.4M)2021 Revenue 132 ($2.3M) Expenses 114 ($2.1M) Net assets 106 ($3.6M)2022 Revenue 182 ($3.2M) Expenses 124 ($2.3M) Net assets 131 ($4.5M)2023 Revenue 147 ($2.6M) Expenses 135 ($2.5M) Net assets 134 ($4.6M)2024 Revenue 145 ($2.5M) Expenses 124 ($2.3M) Net assets 141 ($4.8M)2025 Revenue 162 ($2.8M) Expenses 143 ($2.7M) Net assets 146 ($5.0M)
202020212022202320242025
Revenue (162)Expenses (143)Net assets (146)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 2021 to 2022, from $3.7M to $4.6M (+23%).

$3.7M
$3.7M
$4.6M
$4.7M
$5.0M
$5.4M
202020212022202320242025
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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 0% · 2021 0% · 2022 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

97% of LIVING LANDS & WATERS’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. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

−$107k
’20
$200k
’21
$871k
’22
$80k
’23
$238k
’24
$176k
’25
11
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

Rick Calhoun

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

202020212022202320242025
Listed131313101111
Joined·+3+1+2+1+3
No longer listed·31503
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 37 funders, grant income rose $276k → $1.0M.

15 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 LIVING LANDS & WATERS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 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

LIVING LANDS & WATERS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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

31% 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 LIVING LANDS & WATERS.

27%
largest funder
42%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 17% · 2019 48% · 2020 41% · 2021 38% · 2022 28% · 2023 49% — 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 LIVING LANDS & WATERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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

LIVING LANDS & WATERS draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 26 states in all.

WA
MN
IL
WI
NY
OR
SD
IA
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
NE
MO
KY
MD
DE
NM
TN
NC
DC
MS
GA
TX
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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

LIVING LANDS & WATERS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin6% · below the median
Months of reserve11.2mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)10% · below the median

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

Organizations like LIVING LANDS & WATERS

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 Illinois

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

83% of spending goes to programs.

Program 83%Management 11%Fundraising 6%

Governance

11
board members
91%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

89%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

IL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LIVING LANDS & WATERS: 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 LIVING LANDS & WATERS?
LIVING LANDS & WATERS (Illinois) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,842,708 to it, the largest being RAY & KAY ECKSTEIN CHARITABLE TRUST ($1,296,000). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does LIVING LANDS & WATERS have?
IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $4,842,708 in grants to LIVING LANDS & WATERS, 47 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LIVING LANDS & WATERS?
RAY & KAY ECKSTEIN CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $1,296,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LIVING LANDS & WATERS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Living Lands & Waters →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 83 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