California · Nonprofit
San Bruno Mountain Watch
San Bruno Mountain Watch (California) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $396,199 to it, the largest being SAND HILL FOUNDATION ($115,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $256k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $396k
- Net assets
- $392k
What San Bruno Mountain Watch does
Mission
The mission of San Bruno Mountain Watch is to care for San Bruno Mountain through conservation, ecological restoration, education,and advocacy in partnership with local communities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Mission Blue Nursery Program San Bruno Mountain Watch operates the Mission Blue Nursery to grow the native flora of San Bruno Mountain. In 2023, San Bruno Mountain Watch continued hosting programs at the nursery for the public to participate in plant propagation and maintenance activities. Nursery volunteers contributed 1300 hours of service at the nursery during this year. The nursery grew native plants for various restoration projects on San Bruno Mountain and propagated rare and endangered plants for plant conservation and seed amplification projects. Native plants were also provided to other urban greening projects throughout the San Francisco Peninsula. The nursery hosted four public plant sales offered plants through individual plant pick-up appointments, and donated plants to community garden partners who are beneficiaries of the Environmental Justice Fund at Mission Blue Nursery.
$94,793 spent$25,156 earned by the program66% of program spendingEcological Restoration Program San Bruno Mountain Watch leads ecological restoration efforts with community volunteers, students, corporate groups, park agencies, and local cities. Volunteers contributed 2,946 hours to community-based ecological restoration efforts in 2023. San Bruno Mountain Watch continued grassland restoration efforts as part of the San Bruno Mountain Habitat Conservation Plan, planting native host and nectar plants to improve habitat for the mountain's endangered Mission Blue and Callippe Silverspot butterflies. Invasive plant removal efforts continued in areas like the San Bruno Mountain Dunes, the Northeast Ridge, Buckeye and Owl Canyons, and the southern slopes of the mountain. The San Bruno Mountain Botanical Garden continues to expand with the planting of new sections. San Bruno Mountain Watch also continued restoration efforts within salt marsh and transitional habitats at the shoreline of Colma Creek. The creek begins on San Bruno Mountain and drains into San Francisco Bay. Through a multi-partner partnership, the organization also installed a new experimental planting area known as the San Bruno Mountain Test Plot, testing the ability of native plants…
$24,579 spent$12,048 earned by the program17% of program spendingEducation Program San Bruno Mountain Watch's education program connects the public with the cultural and natural history of San Bruno Mountain through field trips, presentations, digital resources, and service-learning opportunities. In 2023, San Bruno Mountain Watch continued distributing a book titled San Bruno Mountain: A Guide to the Flora and Fauna, authored by Doug Allshouse and David Nelson. The organization created more educational resources as part of the San Bruno Mountain Digital Learning Initiative,added new collections and materials to the San Bruno Mountain Archives, developed new interpretive zines for various projects on the mountain, hosted academic internships for high school and college students, and led multiple school field trips and public guided hikes on San Bruno Mountain. The group also grew the San Bruno Mountain Muses project, which offers opportunities to engage in environmental art activities on the mountain.
$24,131 spent$1,900 earned by the program17% of program spendingOTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: Conservation Advocacy ProgramThrough conservation advocacy, San Bruno Mountain Watch continues to seek protection for private land on and around San Bruno Mountain for public open space purposes The organization works with local landowners, donors and government officials to ensure the protection of areas of natural and cultural significance. San Bruno Mountain Watch board members contribute most of the time dedicated to conservation advocacy efforts. In 2023,the San Bruno Mountain Quarry, the properties on the Guadalupe Hills of the mountain south of Visitacion Valley and the Brisbane Acres received the most attention.
$783 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $144,286.
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 $201k to $368k (+83%).
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 27%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
77% of San Bruno Mountain Watch’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. 0 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $200 → $145k.
6 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 San Bruno Mountain Watch’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
San Bruno Mountain Watch has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
34% 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 San Bruno Mountain Watch.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2020 70% · 2021 48% · 2022 42% · 2023 52% — 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
40% of San Bruno Mountain Watch's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 35% 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
76% of San Bruno Mountain Watch's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $102k 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
San Bruno Mountain Watch holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like San Bruno Mountain Watch
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for San Bruno Mountain Watch: 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 San Bruno Mountain Watch?
- San Bruno Mountain Watch (California) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $396,199 to it, the largest being SAND HILL FOUNDATION ($115,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does San Bruno Mountain Watch have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $396,199 in grants to San Bruno Mountain Watch, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of San Bruno Mountain Watch?
- SAND HILL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $115,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like San Bruno Mountain Watch 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.
Play a game about who funds San Bruno Mountain Watch →
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 17 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing