Minnesota · Nonprofit
PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA
PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,177,644 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($202,250). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $9.8M
What Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota does
Mission
The Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota exists to acquire, protect and enhance critical lands for the public's use and benefit.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Land protection: Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota's land acquisition program is a strategic, partnership-driven effort to protect and expand minnesota's parks and trails through timely land acquisition. At its core is a revolving land fund worth $5,377,069 million at the end of 2025 that enables rapid response when high-priority lands become available. This flexible tool allows p&tc to purchase key parcels and hold them in trust until public agencies secure funding to complete the transactionbridging a critical gap and ensuring important parkland opportunities are not lost. See schedule o for additional program language.p&tc completed seven land acquisition projects over the past 24 months, including securing three parcels that closed a key 2.5-mile gap in the swedish immigrant trail advancing a long-stalled, 20-mile connection between interstate state park and the sunrise prairie trail that will be completed in 2027-28. During the same period, 7 additional projects were added to our active project list representing 497 acres valued at $3.7 million. P&tc is also holding 113 acres valued at $2.7 million in trust for partners. You can tour some of p&tc's land projects in the…
$696,092 spent100% of program spendingResearch and public policy: p&tc's research & policy program advances data-driven decision-making that improves the planning, funding, and accessibility of parks and trails across minnesota. As a trusted, independent source of analysis, the program equips policymakers, partners, and communities with credible research to inform public investments and policy decisions. By connecting research to advocacy, the program helps secure resources, protect access to outdoor recreation, and advance long-term conservation and recreation goals.see schedule o for addtional program language. In 2025, the program translated research and policy expertise into significant state-level impacts for parks and trails. During a challenging legislative session marked by a statewide budget deficit and cuts across government, p&tc's advocacy helped secure $3 million in additional general fund appropriations for state parks over the biennium, protecting critical funding for park operations and access. The program also helped keep state parks affordable by advancing alternatives to proposed fee increases, supported efforts to replace state park land lost in 2024, and secured $2 million for state trail…
Outreach and community engagement: p&tc's community engagement program builds public support for parks and trails by connecting people to minnesota's outdoor spaces through outreach, events and partnerships. The program focuses on increasing participation and strengthening relationships between communities and the state's network of parks and trails.in 2025, the program expanded its reach through collaborations with local friends group partners. As is tradition, we hosted our popular annual shindig for members and supporters to gather, celebrate, and learn. See schedule o for additional program language.during that event in 2025, p&tc presented our most prestigious lifetime service award to former minnesota state parks director and current wilderness inquiry executive director erika rivers. We also honored the friends of minnehaha park for their exemplary work in support of their park.our multi-faceted website is a key communications tool as is our special section of minnesota trails, a quarterly magazine that reaches 20,000 people. Our organizational newsletter, special places, offers regular updates to our members. We also continue to convene friends groups for virtual learning…
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $696,092.
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 $8.4M to $9.5M (+13%).
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: 2021 2% · 2022 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Brett Feldman
President/executive director
Board chair
Kathy Bonnifield
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 12 funders, grant income fell $115k → $94k.
9 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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: $88k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota). These are real filings, and they are not money PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA raised.
From the IRS filings of PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA’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
PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
83% 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 PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 81% · 2019 25% · 2020 24% · 2021 27% · 2022 31% · 2023 25% — 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
57% of PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 83% 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
58% of PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA'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 $493k that is directly attributable, 69% of it comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $685k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA
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 Minnesota
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
75%
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 PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA: 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 PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA?
- PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,177,644 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($202,250). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $1,177,644 in grants to PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $202,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PARKS & TRAILS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 23 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