Maryland · Nonprofit
LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC
LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC (Maryland) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,581,486 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($492,870). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What Lower Shore Land Trust Inc does
Mission
Lower Shore Land Trust protects and restores natural resources, wildlife habitat and working lands to support and connect healthy and vibrant communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
RESTORATION: In 2025, LSLT expanded habitat restoration work across the Lower Shore, helping establish and advance more than 60 acres of pollinator, grassland, and native habitat projects. Restoration work included projects at Bay Club, Pirates Wharf, private lands, community sites, and congregational properties. LSLT also launched the first Yards for Creation demonstration projects and supported youth-led conservation landscaping through its partnership with Fenix Youth Project and the New Ground program. These projects improved wildlife habitat, water quality, climate resilience, and public awareness of native landscaping practices.
$486,085 spent68% of program spendingShared program costs
$197,177 spent28% of program spendingCOMMUNITY OUTREACH: LSLT hosted and supported outreach and education programs focused on native plants, pollinator habitat, birding, land stewardship, sustainable land management, and conservation opportunities for landowners. Programs included bird walks, native landscaping workshops, stewardship volunteer training, restoration outreach, and public events such as the Pollinator Garden Tour. LSLT also developed public-facing education materials, including a birding brochure, to connect residents and visitors with conservation, habitat, and outdoor recreation opportunities on the Lower Shore.
$26,155 spent4% of program spendingGENERAL PROGRAMMING: Beyond direct land protection, stewardship, and restoration work, LSLT continued to serve as a regional conservation leader and convener. The organization played an active role in the Delmarva Restoration and Conservation Network, the Newport Bay Whole Watershed Project, the One Water Partnership, and other regional collaborations. Through these efforts, LSLT helped coordinate partners, pursue shared funding opportunities, advance landscape-scale restoration, and strengthen conservation capacity across the Delmarva Peninsula. These partnerships support long-term outcomes for habitat, water quality, climate resilience, and rural landscape conservation.
$3,791 spent1% of program spendingSTEWARDSHIP: LSLTs stewardship program continued to ensure the long-term integrity of conserved lands across its portfolio of more than 140 conservation easements and over 24,000 protected acres. Staff and trained volunteers conducted annual monitoring visits, documented property conditions, communicated with landowners, and supported compliance with easement terms. LSLT also continued strengthening stewardship systems through volunteer training, improved property record management, and continued use of Landscape Conservation Software to track monitoring, landowner communication, and stewardship activities.
$3,155 spent0% of program spendingLAND PROTECTION: In 2025, Lower Shore Land Trust completed two conservation easement projects, permanently protecting approximately 410 acres of farmland, forest, wildlife habitat, and rural landscape. These projects included the Tracey/Hickory Mill easement, totaling approximately 310 acres, and the Layfield Farms easement, totaling approximately 100 acres. LSLT also assisted with one in-fee acquisition, the Hodgens/Swank property, totaling more than 41 acres. This property will be added to the Bay Club property, expand the holdings of the Maryland Forest Service, and provide pedestrian access to the grounds from the Town of Berlin. All land protection activities were conducted in alignment with Land Trust Alliance Standards and Practices, with an emphasis on collaborative, voluntary conservation with private landowners and public partners.
$467 spent0% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $716,830.
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 2018 to 2019, from $606k to $2.8M (+357%).
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: 2019 4% · 2020 31% · 2022 4% · 2024 40% · 2025 41%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Matthew Heim
Executive director
Board chair
Mike Lewis
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $65k → $323k.
4 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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 LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC’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
LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
71% 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 LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 39% · 2019 38% · 2020 40% · 2021 26% · 2022 50% · 2023 52% — 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
67% of LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside Maryland, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $218k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC has grown faster than three-quarters 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 LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.8M on record.
- Grant$1.8M
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 LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST 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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST 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.
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 LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC?
- LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC (Maryland) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,581,486 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($492,870). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $1,581,486 in grants to LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $492,870 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LOWER SHORE LAND TRUST INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Lower Shore 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 19 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