California · Nonprofit
Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship
Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,414,642 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($966,713). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.2M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $3.4M
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship does
Mission
Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship is creating and maintaining world-class trails responsibly, sustainably, and collectively.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2023, we continued building and maintaining sustainable trails across the Santa Cruz Mountains region and engaging the public in stewardship events. Our professional SCMTS Trail Crew completed five miles of new trail construction out at Cotoni-Coast Dairies, wrapped up fire restoration work in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, and opened the Glorya Jean Tate Park Pump Track to the public in Marina, CA. They also completed essential storm recovery work in Soquel Demonstration State Forest, Wilder Ranch State Park, Pogonip Open Space Preserve, and Seacliff State Beach. Stewardship programming engaged 914 volunteers in trail stewardship, 747 of whom joined us for trail work for the very first time. Together, we completed 5,254 hours of trail work in open spaces throughout the region, expanded trail-building skills amongst community members, and educated many volunteers about the importance of sustainable trail maintenance and development. New programs aimed at teens and LGBTQIA+ communities engaged under served groups.
$1,603,884 spent$1,350,710 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,603,884.
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 2019 to 2020, from $290k to $1.3M (+335%).
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: 2020 5% · 2023 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
37% of Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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 15 funders, grant income rose $10k → $670k.
14 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% 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 Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship’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
Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% 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
82% 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 Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 74% · 2019 82% · 2020 37% · 2021 55% · 2022 45% · 2023 37% — 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
58% of Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
81% of Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $660k that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship has grown faster 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
Government funding Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $417k on record.
- Department of the Interior$417k
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 Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship
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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship: 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 Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship?
- Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,414,642 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($966,713). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $3,414,642 in grants to Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $966,713 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship 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 Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship →
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 30 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