New York · Nonprofit
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN (New York) receives grants from 454 organizations whose IRS filings report $116,675,932 to it, the largest being LUESTHER T MERTZ CHARITABLE TRUST ($34,962,500). 290 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 13 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13 environment nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Gray Foundationshared funderslocal
- American Public Gardens Associationportfolio match
- Center for Plant Conservation Incportfolio match
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.
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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 116 funders to 195 funders, grant income rose $9.6M → $11M.
23 of 454 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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: $2.3M 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 454 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 30% 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 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 454 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Gray Foundationshared funderslocalNY · backs 71 organizations that share your funders · funds 138 organizations near you
- American Public Gardens Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Center for Plant Conservation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Mayer Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Elizabeth & Robert Rosenman Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 69 organizations that share your funders
- Marty and Dorothy Silverman Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 65 organizations that share your funders
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared fundersWA · backs 119 organizations that share your funders
- Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 84 organizations that share your funders
- Freedom Together Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 89 organizations that share your funders
- The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New Yorkshared fundersNY · backs 105 organizations that share your funders
- Give Lively Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 151 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
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
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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. 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 454 organizations whose IRS filings report $116,675,932 to it, the largest being LUESTHER T MERTZ CHARITABLE TRUST ($34,962,500). 290 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN have?
- IRS filings report 454 organizations giving $116,675,932 in grants to NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN, 290 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.
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 454funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing