Hawaii · Nonprofit
NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN
NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN (Hawaii) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,226,441 to it, the largest being JOHN T WATERHOUSE TE CO-TR TROPICAL ($2,722,535). 68 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 111
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $97M
What National Tropical Botanical Garden does
Mission
To enrich life by perpetuating tropical plants, ecosystems and cultural heritage through discovery, scientific research, conservation, and education.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Living collections: ntbgs gardens & preserves are safe havens for at-risk species that otherwise might disappear forever. 140 acres are formally maintained. The garden currently holds 117,332 living plant taxa made up of 1923 species. A horticultural center is used to propogate and maintain living collections of threatened & endangered species of hawaii & other pacific islands. Many species that are almost extinct in nature have been reintroduced to their habitat by ntbgs botanists. Ntbgs collections are studied by visiting scholars, rearchers and students from around the world. Ntbgs garden in florida, the kampong, is the former estate of dr. David fairchild, the famed botanical explorer. Our garden in maui, kahanu garden, is home to the piilanihale heiau, believed to be the largest ancient man-made structure in polynesia.
$5,330,684 spent$752,333 earned by the program48% of program spendingScience & conservation: this program is focused on protecting & conserving tropical plants. Our field botanists survey many areas in hawaii to assess threats to native species & collect seeds & cuttings for propogation, & are either outplanted,preserved in the herbarium or placed in seed storage. Contains almost 17 million seeds of more than 900 taxa. The botanical research center which is the home for the gardens herbarium & seed bank also contains a rare book library that is temperature & humidity controlled & holds over 1,200 volumes of books-some that date back to the 1500s. These collections are crucial for our research, publications and educational programs. The gardens breadfruit institute manages the largest & most diverse collection of breadfruit species & varieties in the world, with over 120 varieties conserved in field gene banks. The institute promotes the conservation & use of breadfruit for food security, agricultural sustainability & economic development. Ntbg is also a collaborative partner with fiu in the development of the international center for tropical botany in florida. The center is designed to educate & bring together botanists from around the world to…
$2,941,325 spent$661,960 earned by the program26% of program spendingEducation: ntbg believes that education is key for preservation of tropical plants & ecosystems. Educational tours are offered through its gardens to educate the general public about the need to preserve tropical forests rich with native biodiversity and to protect our ecosystems & resources that we rely on for our own well-being. In 2022, our botanical gardens had 105,985 visitors from around the world. Other educational activities include formal and informal lectures for the general public, botanical illustrators courses, internships, & workshops for college professors, high school teachers & environmental journalists. Science staff regularly provide articles in scientific publications and have published several books on tropical flora. The loy mccandless marks botanical library currently holds over 20,000 volumes, 3,000 original botanical artworks and prints, 6,000 photographs & 16,000 color slides. The library comprises one of the finest collections of tropical botanical & horticultural reference collections in the pacific basin. The kampong, in coconut grove, fl is home to the former residence of dr. David fairchild, an american botanist who was responsible for the…
$2,903,342 spent$4,047,870 earned by the program26% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $11,175,351.
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 2023 to 2024, from $82M to $99M (+21%).
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: 2017 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 5% · 2020 19% · 2021 13% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
67% of NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Janet L Mayfield
CEO & director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 52 funders, grant income rose $351k → $2.0M.
21 of 111 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 111 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
NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
48% 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 NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 46% · 2019 15% · 2020 23% · 2021 22% · 2022 25% · 2023 23% — 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 NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN draws 60% of its grant income from funders outside Hawaii, across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 330 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 330 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.6M on record.
- Department of the Interior$921k
- National Science Foundation$375k
- Department of Agriculture$341k
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 NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN
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 Hawaii
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
58%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- John T Waterhouse Trust · exempt
- Charitable Remainder Trust · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trust · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN: 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 NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN?
- NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN (Hawaii) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,226,441 to it, the largest being JOHN T WATERHOUSE TE CO-TR TROPICAL ($2,722,535). 68 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN have?
- IRS filings report 111 organizations giving $15,226,441 in grants to NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN, 68 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN?
- JOHN T WATERHOUSE TE CO-TR TROPICAL is the largest funder on record, with $2,722,535 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Hawaii. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 111 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