California · Nonprofit
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust (California) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $665,155 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($398,500). 6 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 FY2025
- $526k
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $665k
- Net assets
- $2.1M
What Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust does
Mission
The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust of Long Beach and Seal Beach seeks to acquire, restore, preserve and provide education about the former estuary of the Lower San Gabriel River, its tidal salt marsh, riparian habitats, and buffer of coastal sage scrub habitats.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
ADVOCACY: The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust has advocated for the protection of Los Cerritos Wetlands and the surrounding San Gabriel River estuary since 2001. In 2025, the Land Trust conducted environmental advocacy campaigns and provided oversight, collaboration, expertise, and defense of the wetlands in the following areas: We engaged experts to review a plan to use pumps to circulate water in Alamitos Bay, with the goal of demonstrating that more environmentally friendly pollution abatement alternatives are viable. We organized opposition to a proposal to construct environmentally damaging solar panels (intended to power oil operations) adjacent to sensitive publicly owned lands that are habitat for threatened species. We are monitoring proposed development projects within the Los Cerritos Wetlands Complex. We publicized and attended workshops on restoration designs to ensure the public is aware of the increased habitat protection this plan will provide.
$141,031 spentof which $25,000 as grants38% of program spendingCOMMUNITY OUTREACH & PUBLIC EDUCATION: The Land Trust offers numerous education programs. Among these is the unique community service of free monthly guided nature walks through the wetlands led by trained ecologists and naturalists. These experts provide an immersive experience in our local wetlands while educating attendees about their history and importance. Due to the ongoing restoration of the Southern Area, we redirected our Raptor Ramble nature walk through Gum Grove Park. We host educational kayak tours of Steamshovel Slough, the most pristine part of the wetlands, led by a trained naturalist. The Land Trust also offers field trips for elementary classrooms, with an emphasis on students from Title I schools. We collaborate with the Long Beach parks district on their hands-on Be S.A.F.E. summer youth program by hosting youth from some of Long Beachs most urban neighborhoods at Zedler Marsh so they can learn about and explore the tidal salt marsh ecosystem.
$116,258 spentof which $20,000 as grants31% of program spendingRESTORATION, STEWARDSHIP & GENERAL MISSION: In 2025, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust supported activities to advance the mission of preserving, protecting, and stewarding Los Cerritos Wetlands as a healthy, natural open space, with an emphasis on restoring habitat for the Beldings Savannah Sparrow. We sponsored extensive habitat restoration, including efforts to improve wetland water quality. We sponsored the removal of invasive plants, maintained a robust native plant demonstration garden, and publicized community-based restoration events.
$112,165 spentof which $62,500 as grants30% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $369,454.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.8M to $2.1M (+19%).
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: 2023 15% · 2024 12% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Elizabeth Lambe
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $55k → $76k.
2 of 9 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.
Left out of every figure on this page: $8k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Los Cerritos Wetlands Fund). These are real filings, and they are not money Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust raised.
From the IRS filings of Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust’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
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust leans on a few funders — its largest provides 60% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
85% 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 Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 100% · 2019 87% · 2020 34% · 2021 55% · 2022 41% · 2023 66% — 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
50% of Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust'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 Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust'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 $267k that is directly attributable, 58% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $399k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
51%
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 Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust: 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 Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust?
- Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust (California) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $665,155 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($398,500). 6 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 Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $665,155 in grants to Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust?
- ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $398,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust 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 Los Cerritos Wetlands Land →
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 9 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