California · Nonprofit
QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION
QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,908,890 to it, the largest being HARRY AND JUDITH COLLINS FOUNDATION ($1,000,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $3.9M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Quail Botanical Gardens Foundation does
Mission
The mission of san diego botanic garden: we garden to create, share, and apply plant wisdom in our world. The organization's diverse topography and wide variety of microclimates provides visitors with the varied sensations of strolling through a tropical rainforest to hiking in the high-desert. Four miles of trails wind through 29 uniquely themed gardens.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Visitor experience - san diego botanic garden (sdbg) spans 37-acres overlooking the pacific ocean and serves as a peaceful urban oasis in the heart of encinitas, california. During fiscal year 2025 116,139 visitors enjoyed the garden's 4 miles of trails and 29 uniquely-themed gardens and plant collections which provide an immersive educational experience of various plant families, flowers, and trees from all over the world. Gardens range from the largest bamboo collection in north america to the award-winning hamilton children's garden. Sdbg was named one of the" top 10 botanic gardens" by usa today and one of the "top 10 north american gardens worth traveling for" by the canadian garden council and american public garden association. Sdbg maintains over 5,200 different plant species in its living collections, including hundreds of species not represented at other botanic gardens. The dickinson family education conservatory houses botanic-themed events and exhibits.the seeds of wonder and hamilton children's gardens invite young children and their families to safely play outdoors and explore nature. Over 285 volunteers serve to enhance the programming in areas such as education,…
$3,099,954 spent$2,068,761 earned by the program43% of program spendingLightscape is an illuminated walking trail through the san diego botanical garden featuring a holiday experience that combines art, nature, and technology through a one-mile walking trail with international artistic installations and returning favorites, all coming to life after dark with color, imagination, and sound. The lightscape welcomed 116,165 visitors during the fiscal year.
$3,138,720 spent$3,807,737 earned by the program44% of program spendingScience & conservation - sdbg's science & conservation programs work to conserve threatened plants and habitats, including san diego's native flora as well as rare plants from around the world. The programs conduct and communicate science & conservation to enhance the persistence of and access to plant diversity within and beyond the garden. The programs also serve to address the most pressing challenges - from biodiversity loss to climate change to food insecurity due to environmental degradation. The work of the programming continues in ever more ambitious and urgent forms. The science and conservation department collaborates with community, nonprofit, academic, government and industry partners to maximize a combined impact. Major activities include conservation horticulture, seed banking, rare plant and habitat surveying, monitoring and collecting, characterizing, evaluating and distributing useful plants, environmental restoration, conservation planning and science outreach and education.
$957,231 spent13% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,195,905.
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 $14M to $15M (+12%).
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: 2022 23% · 2023 3% · 2024 4% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
40% of QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (87% 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
Ari Novy Phd
President & CEO
Board chair
Randi Coopersmith
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 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 9 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $206k → $220k.
10 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 34% 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 QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
35% 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 QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 48% · 2019 62% · 2020 56% · 2021 58% · 2022 16% · 2023 24% — 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
52% of QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
96% of QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 210 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Department of the Interior$700k
- Environmental Protection Agency$500k
- Department of Agriculture$201k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$76k
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 QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS 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 QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION?
- QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,908,890 to it, the largest being HARRY AND JUDITH COLLINS FOUNDATION ($1,000,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $3,908,890 in grants to QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION?
- HARRY AND JUDITH COLLINS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like QUAIL BOTANICAL GARDENS FOUNDATION 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 35 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