New York · Nonprofit
PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION
PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,340,044 to it, the largest being THE BESSEMER GIVING FUND ($567,650). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 62
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $30M
What Planting Fields Foundation does
Mission
See schedule o.through a balanced approach to preserving and creating, the foundation stewards the built and natural environment of planting fields as a public center of learning and life.- we conserve and make accessible our tangible and intangible heritage, gifted by the coe family and shaped by 20th-century visionaries.- we celebrate human ingenuity and creativity through design, horticulture, and art.- we foster research and scholarship to deepen understanding of how nature and culture intersect.- we provide a sanctuary for personal discovery and social connectedness.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Historic landscape: the foundation preserves and enhances the 409-acre historic landscape of planting fields, one of the few remaining intact gold coast estates open to the public. In 2024, with support from parks and trails new york, the foundation implemented a sitewide wayfinding and interpretive signage project. In collaboration with new york state parks, the bureau of historic sites, and international design firm wiedemann lampe, the initiative delivered 120 custom signs, 10 interpretive districts, and a new color-coded visitor map available in english, spanish, and chinese, both on-site and online. This project significantly improved navigation, broadened circulation, and enhanced visitor engagement while preserving the historic integrity of the landscape. (continued on schedule o.)in partnership with nysoprhp, in 2023, the foundation completed the restoration of the original olmsted brothers oak allee, removing diseased trees along the main entrance drive and replanting 101 native chinkapin and white oaks. This project restored a historically significant design feature while also improving biodiversity, watershed health, and carbon sequestration. The work was supported…
$716,219 spent33% of program spendingEducational and visitor experience: festivals and public events remained a cornerstone of engagement, welcoming over 7,000 visitors to celebrations such as arbor day, the camellia festival, and home for the holidays. Educational programming expanded with junior ranger field trips aligned with nys curriculum standards, as well as the inaugural sensory celebration week, which introduced tailored experiences for neurodiverse youth. Additionally, through the generous support of partners, the foundation made its annual camellia festival free of charge in 2025, reducing barriers to access and expanding public enjoy- ment of planting fields' renowned camellia collection. The foundation continues to offer guided and self-guided tours of the historic main house and introduced historic landscape tours in early 2025.
$587,116 spent$268,572 earned by the program27% of program spendingCollections, archives, and exhibits: in 2024, the foundation advanced the accessibility and stewardship of its archival holdings through improvements in collections management and storage funded by the peggy m. Gerry charitable trust. The archives were relocated to a newly designed facility that enhances preservation and supports internal research, scholarly access, and expanded digital availability. The foundation also continued its catalyst program, commissioning site-specific contemporary works in dialogue with the historic site. The 2024 commission, follies: a botanical backstory by processional arts workshop, engaged diverse audiences and reinforced the program's role in linking historic preservation with contemporary artistic practice. (continued on schedule o.)in 2025, the foundation was awarded accreditation by the american alliance of museums, a distinction achieved by only 3% of museums nationwide.
$453,726 spent21% of program spendingHistoric structure maintenance: the foundation advanced the preservation of planting fields' historic structures, most notably completing phase I of the tea house restoration. Evergreene architectural arts conserved everett shinn's two lunette murals, painted furniture, lattice millwork, fireplace, and marble floor, revitalizing a space once described as "a string of pearls in a shoebox." this marked the first major intervention since the 1980s, ensuring the tea house's artistic and historic significance for future generations. In addition, in 2025, with funding from the greater hudson heritage network, the foundation conserved an original mounted elk head in the main house's great hall. The treatment stabilized and preserved this artifact, maintaining the historic character of the mansion and integrity of its decorative arts collection.
$417,159 spent19% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,174,220.
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 2021 to 2022, from $32M to $27M (−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 5% · 2020 13% · 2021 3% · 2022 4% · 2023 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
72% of PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION’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. 7 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
Gina Wouters
President & CEO
Board chair
Duncan Sahner
Chair
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 11 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $64k → $423k.
12 of 62 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 62 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
PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
55% 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 PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 51% · 2018 29% · 2019 32% · 2020 66% · 2021 45% · 2022 61% · 2023 35% — 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
54% of PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION'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
50% of PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION'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 $1.2M that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION's revenue grew 67% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION: 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 PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION?
- PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,340,044 to it, the largest being THE BESSEMER GIVING FUND ($567,650). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 62 organizations giving $2,340,044 in grants to PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION?
- THE BESSEMER GIVING FUND is the largest funder on record, with $567,650 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION 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 Planting Fields →
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 62 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