New York · Nonprofit
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN (New York) receives grants from 482 organizations whose IRS filings report $120,220,063 to it, the largest being LUESTHER T MERTZ CHARITABLE TRUST ($34,962,500). 310 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $125M
- Funders on record
- 482
- Grants received
- $120M
- Net assets
- $653M
What New York Botanical Garden does
Mission
The New York Botanical Garden is a museum of plants and a scientific research center devoted to the study of plants and their uses. It is the garden's mission to improve public understanding of the natural world, horticulture, and the relationships between plants and people. It is also the garden's mission to expand humanity's knowledge of plants and how they are utilized.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Horticulture and living collections: preparation of research, maintenance of gardens and exhibits for public use and enjoyment. Public exhibitions and festivals to enhance the experience of the visiting public. The garden's living collections contain more than one million plants in 50 gardens and collections, including: the enid a. Haupt conservatory, the nation's preeminent victorian style glasshouse; the nolen greenhouses for living collections; the three and one half acre native plant garden; the eleven acre azalea garden, which includes nearly one mile of woodland paths meandering beneath ancient native oaks, tulip trees, and sweetgums and surrounded by more than 70,000 plants; the fifty acre thain family forest, the largest extant forest that once covered much of new york city.
$24,880,962 spent$16,334,657 earned by the program30% of program spendingEducation and outreach development, organization, and presentation of educational courses. The garden's adult education program offers 750 classes at the botanical garden, online, and at the midtown education center in manhattan. Certificates are offered in eight program areas: botanical art & illustration, botany, floral design, gardening, horticultural therapy, horticulture, landscape design and urban nature. Three annual lecture programs, landscape design portfolios lecture series, winter lecture series, and andrew carnegie distinguished lecture, feature internationally recognized speakers.
$23,611,255 spent$2,830,716 earned by the program29% of program spendingPlant science collecting for and maintaining the garden herbarium for public use, including research. The botanical garden's scientists, librarians, staff, graduate students, honorary research associates, and curators perform fieldwork and conduct cutting-edge research in plant systematics, economic botany, ecology, molecular systematics, and plant genomics.
$22,067,616 spentof which $58,719 as grants27% of program spendingAuxiliary services provide services and amenities for the convenience of the visiting public.
$12,263,120 spent$8,438,763 earned by the program15% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $82,822,953.
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 2020 to 2021, from $606M to $699M (+15%).
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 22% · 2018 21% · 2019 20% · 2020 34% · 2021 21% · 2022 23% · 2023 19% · 2024 17% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (90% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Jennifer Bernstein
CEO & The William C. Steer Sr. President
Board chair
J Barclay Collins Ii
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 116 funders to 195 funders, grant income rose $9.6M → $11M.
24 of 482 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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: $2.4M from 12 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Jewish Communal Fund). These are real filings, and they are not money NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN raised.
From the IRS filings of NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 482 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
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 40% · 2019 48% · 2020 38% · 2021 51% · 2022 8% · 2023 12% — 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
44% of NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
73% of NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 15 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15 environment nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $13.9M on record — $13.9M federal, $13k state.
- National Science Foundation$9.2M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$1.9M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$1.3M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$790k
- Department of Commerce$500k
- National Endowment for the Arts$175k
- FEDERAL$13k
- DEDICATED$706
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 NEW YORK 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- North Central Bronx Real Estate LLC · disregarded
- Bedford Garden Bronx LLC · disregarded
- The Luesther T Mertz Legacy Trust for the New York Botanical Garden · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NEW YORK 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 NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN?
- NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN (New York) receives grants from 482 organizations whose IRS filings report $120,220,063 to it, the largest being LUESTHER T MERTZ CHARITABLE TRUST ($34,962,500). 310 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN have?
- IRS filings report 482 organizations giving $120,220,063 in grants to NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN, 310 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN?
- LUESTHER T MERTZ CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $34,962,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 New York Botanical Garden →
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 482 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