California · Nonprofit
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $765,126 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($352,594). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $765k
- Net assets
- $959k
What San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory does
Mission
The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory is dedicated to promote sustainability in the Bay Area and beyond by engaging communities in avian science, habitat restoration, and education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Our science programs are the Snowy Plover and Least Tern Program, Waterbird Program, Landbird Program, Climate Change Program, Habitats Program. The Snowy Plover and Least Tern Recovery Program works toward the recovery of the federally threatened Western snowy plover and endangered California least tern. Biologists monitor breeding snowy plovers and least terns by surveying former salt ponds, stormwater retention ponds, and other suitable habitat of the San Francisco Bay where the birds breed. Program biologists work closely with local land managers and restoration projects to implement management practices to help recover the populations of these sensitive species in the Bay. The Waterbirds Program collects crucial data on the ecology and management ecosystems at a landscape-scale across California. Program biologists and over 100 volunteers collect and analyze large-scale data on waterbird abundance, distribution, foraging, breeding, and disease ecology from across the Bay Area. These data inform management of the largest tidal marsh restoration on the Pacific Coast of North America. In 2025 we continued new initiatives on Oakland Herons, phalarope foraging, and North Bay…
$904,985 spent$457,532 earned by the program58% of program spendingThe Habitats Program is a science-based restoration program focused on sustainable restoration of tidal marsh-upland transition zone habitats. In 2025, we added another 5 acres of restoration work at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, grew and planted over 40,000 native plants, and continued managing 27 acres of restored habitat around the Bay. We started work planting and managing 17 acres of newly constructed levee slopes in North San Jose, which will continue for the next 3 years. Restoring tidal marsh-upland transition zones provides critical high tide refugia for tidal marsh fauna, including the federally endangered Ridgway's rail and salt marsh harvest mouse. Healthy marsh vegetation also protects bayside communities from flooding by absorbing energy from incoming storm surges and accelerating sediment accumulation. Ecologists use applied research to find innovative methods for restoration, and work with land managers to integrate transition zone habitat into larger restoration projects. We expanded our successful partnership with Valley Water, Santa Clara County Parks, and educational nonprofit Marshmallow Minds to teach 6th - 8th graders from Title I schools about San…
$616,522 spent40% of program spendingOur Education & Outreach Program connects people with our mission to promote sustainability in the Bay Area and beyond by engaging communities in avian science, habitat restoration, and education. We offer youth and adults activities virtually and in the field to teach them about birds, conservation, and science. We also participate in region-wide efforts to compile long term datasets to guide restoration and conservation planning efforts, and offer opportunities for the general public to be involved in scientific research by participating as volunteer community scientists in our scientific and habitat programs.
$38,293 spent2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,559,800.
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 2023 to 2024, from $420k to $917k (+119%).
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 67% · 2018 44% · 2019 48% · 2020 31% · 2021 40% · 2022 25% · 2023 27% · 2024 19% · 2025 57%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
77% of San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory’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. 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.
Chief executive
Chris Overington
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $49k → $178k.
7 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 Francisco Bay Bird Observatory’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 Francisco Bay Bird Observatory leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
86% 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 Francisco Bay Bird Observatory.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 85% · 2018 53% · 2019 76% · 2020 42% · 2021 62% · 2022 60% · 2023 90% — growing more concentrated.
“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
55% of San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory draws 82% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $290k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 Francisco Bay Bird Observatory's funding base is broadening — from 4 funders to 6 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $197k on record.
- Department of the Interior$197k
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 San Francisco Bay 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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 San Francisco Bay 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 San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory?
- San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $765,126 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($352,594). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $765,126 in grants to San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $352,594 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like San Francisco Bay 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 19 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