California · Nonprofit
SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC
SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC (California) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,743,499 to it, the largest being RESOURCES LEGACY FUND ($663,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 70
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Santa Barbara Channelkeeper Inc does
Mission
The organization was established to protect and restore the santa barbara channel and its watersheds through science-based advocacy, education, field work, community engagement, and citizen enforcement of environmental laws.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Advocacy - the organization advocates for science-based conservation policies that protect the santa barbara channel and its watersheds. In 2023, the organization worked to strengthen policies and deadlines to reduce nitrate and pesticide pollution from irrigated agricultrual lands that contaminate drinking water supplies, creeks, streams, rivers, and coastal waters. We led community efforts in a santa barbara city assessment of its cruise ship program and advocated for an annual cap on cruise ship visits, requirements or greater assurances that ships use advanced technology to prevent water and air pollution. We reached a legal settlement with a utility company to clean up a site near goleta slough that it used to store wooden poles treated with pentachlorophenol and is contaminated with dioxins and furans. The organization is engaged as the sole ngo party respresenting public trust resources in the ventura river watershed adjudicaton. Through this process, we are working to ensure sufficient water flows and a healthy aquatic ecosystem to support public trust resources. The organization submitted comments and encouraged public comments in support of the designation of the chumash…
$224,006 spent44% of program spendingEducation - the organization inspires local students to understand and appreciate their local environment through a combination of interactive classroom lessons and outdoor educational experiences. In 2023, we provided lessons and/or experiences to 1,400 local students through our environmental science education program. We hosted our 20th annual student art show on the theme of "what the channel means to me." more than 250 pieces of artwork were submitted by local high school students for consideration in the show. We supported southern california based researchers examining the impact of harmful algal blooms by collecting plankton and biotoxin samples in the channel in the summer of 2023.
$146,082 spent29% of program spendingCommunity engagement - the organization motivates and mobilizes community volunteers to take specific actions that protect local creeks, beaches, coastal waters, and the channel islands. We trained 60 prospective volunteers to participate in shore-based surveys of three local, coastal marine protected areas, to supplement our staff-conducted boat-based surveys. Volunteers conducted 1,016 shore based surveys. The organization conducted 15 boat-based surveys of marine protected areas in coastal areas and at the channel islands. We carried out our watershed brigade program with 572 volunteers. They removed more than 11,000 pounds of trash and marine debris in clean-up events. Our staff and watershed brigade volunteers worked with local fishermen to remove 30 derelict lobster traps along a one-mile stretch of beach between leadbetter beach and hendry's beach.
$135,854 spent27% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $505,942.
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 2018 to 2019, from $676k to $873k (+29%).
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 3% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 2% · 2021 12% · 2022 12% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC’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. 1 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
Walter Morton
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 34 funders, grant income rose $218k → $639k.
12 of 70 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 70 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
SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
49% 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 SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 25% · 2019 28% · 2020 25% · 2021 23% · 2022 15% · 2023 16% — 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
50% of SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC'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
87% of SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC
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
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC: 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 SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC?
- SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC (California) receives grants from 70 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,743,499 to it, the largest being RESOURCES LEGACY FUND ($663,000). 46 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC have?
- IRS filings report 70 organizations giving $3,743,499 in grants to SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC, 46 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC?
- RESOURCES LEGACY FUND is the largest funder on record, with $663,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC 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 Santa Barbara Channelkeeper →
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 70 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