California · Nonprofit
POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY
POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY (California) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,857,354 to it, the largest being ESB CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($3,188,039). 77 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $32M
- Funders on record
- 116
- Grants received
- $33M
- Net assets
- $16M
What Point Reyes Bird Observatory does
Mission
Point blue's mission is to conserve birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through science, restoration, outreach and partnerships. Point blue advances the scientific basis of conservation by providing objective information and guidance to habitat and wildlife (see sch. O) managers and decision makers. The organization's highest priority is to reduce the negative impacts of climate change, habitat loss and other environmental threats while promoting adaptation to future conditions through nature based solutions to benefit wildlife and people.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Sierra nevada group:through the design and implementation of innovative avian monitoring and research, this group helps guide forest ecology and land management decisions to improve conservation outcomes across the vast sierra nevada ecosystem. The group engages and develops conservation scientists through its robust seasonal scientist and internship programs.
$5,037,476 spent$5,100,262 earned by the program22% of program spendingWorking lands:this group works with farmers, ranchers, land stewards, and other partners to ensure that agricultural landscapes provide ecosystem services that support the needs of people and wildlife. It achieves this by conducting science that informs metrics, practices, and strategies for thriving agricultural landscapes; evaluating and guiding implementation of innovative agricultural and land stewardship strategies to achieve multiple benefits and minimize undesirable tradeoffs across scales; and leveraging the organization's climate-smart restoration strategy to amplify benefits to working landscapes.
$4,983,726 spentof which $672,731 as grants$4,842,355 earned by the program21% of program spendingEducation and outreach group:this group is responsible for scientific and conservation outreach, public education programs, and school-based education programs including the straw (students and teachers restoring a watershed) restoration program. The group also helps the organization communicate its science and conservation recommendations to a variety of audiences, including policy-makers, land owners, resource managers, and members.
$4,340,825 spentof which $37,260 as grants$4,461,734 earned by the program19% of program spendingPacific coast and central valley group:working locally, regionally, and internationally, this group provides conservation science and training to support the development of the next generation of conservation scientists, inform policy, and formulate strategies that ensure thriving ecosystems that maximize multiple benefits to wildlife and humans.california current group:this group works to conserve the integrity of the california current ecosystem. Its focus is on helping protect ocean food webs that can support both thriving and diverse marine life and the needs of human communities. Its understanding of ocean and marine terrestrial ecosystems is informed by long-term data monitoring activities both at sea and on the farallon islands. Additionally, the group trains emerging conservation scientists in its internship program.ecoinformatics group:using cutting edge models and analytical approaches, this group increases the understanding of the effects of climate change and management responses on ecosystems and communities. The focus is on science and outreach to influence shoreline and bay-land development, climate adaptation activities, ecosystem management, habitat restoration,…
$8,956,615 spentof which $222,500 as grants$7,614,222 earned by the program38% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $23,318,642.
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 2024 to 2025, from $20M to $26M (+31%).
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 19% · 2022 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
30% of POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 36 funders to 46 funders, grant income rose $3.3M → $3.5M.
25 of 116 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 116 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
POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 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 POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 22% · 2019 24% · 2020 17% · 2021 15% · 2022 15% · 2023 11% — 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
46% of POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
60% of POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY has grown faster than half of the 134 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 134 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $31.2M on record — $31.2M federal, $41k state.
- Department of the Interior$10.3M
- Department of Agriculture$6.6M
- Department of Defense$6.1M
- National Science Foundation$5.9M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$2.0M
- Department of Commerce$257k
- FACILITIES MAINTENANCE$24k
- DISTRIBUTION TO NON-PROFIT ORG$18k
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 POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
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 POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY: 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 POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY?
- POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY (California) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,857,354 to it, the largest being ESB CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($3,188,039). 77 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY have?
- IRS filings report 116 organizations giving $32,857,354 in grants to POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY, 77 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY?
- ESB CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,188,039 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 116 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