California · Nonprofit
SONOMA LAND TRUST
SONOMA LAND TRUST (California) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,433,438 to it, the largest being GORDON E AND BETTY I MOORE FOUNDATION ($8,031,500). 79 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $27M
- Funders on record
- 116
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $72M
What Sonoma Land Trust does
Mission
Protect the scenic, natural, cultural, agricultural and open landscapes of sonoma county for the benefit of the community and future generations by developing long-term land protection strategies; (continued on schedule o) promoting private and public funding for land conservation; acquiring land and conservation easements; practicing stewardship, including the restoration of conservation properties; promoting a sense of place and a land ethic through activities, education and outreach.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Land acquisitions: we work with landowners to assess and understand goals for their properties, which can lead to an acquisition of property or conservation easement, or a transfer of property to the public. Transactions are negotiated to provide the best outcome for the landowner with the ultimate goal of permanently preserving land whether the final ownership is private or public. Land stewardship: we work with the land and community to restore and protect native habitats, creeks, wildlife corridors, productive farms and ranches, and other permanently protected private lands under our care. The program currently stewards 24 conservation properties totaling more than 6,900 acres and actively (continued on schedule o) monitors 47 conservation easement properties totaling more than 8,100 acres. Community programs: we offer a variety of activities, education and outreach aimed at engaging audiences as diverse as the lands and communities we represent. Offerings include on-the-land, virtual and volunteer experiences in addition to education programs, including school field trips and teen educational programs.
$7,684,005 spentof which $1,924,696 as grants$1,131,988 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $7,684,005.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $62M to $75M (+21%).
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: 2018 6% · 2019 6% · 2020 7% · 2021 13% · 2022 34% · 2023 22% · 2024 36% · 2025 46%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
90% of SONOMA LAND TRUST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Eamon O'Byrne
Executive director
Board chair
Scott Hafner
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 35 funders to 51 funders, grant income fell $3.3M → $1.6M.
25 of 116 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 SONOMA LAND TRUST’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 116 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
SONOMA LAND TRUST has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 37% 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
46% 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 SONOMA LAND TRUST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 24% · 2019 47% · 2020 40% · 2021 46% · 2022 24% · 2023 15% — 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
51% of SONOMA LAND TRUST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
84% of SONOMA LAND TRUST's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
SONOMA LAND TRUST runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 210 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like SONOMA LAND TRUST
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
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
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 SONOMA LAND TRUST: 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 SONOMA LAND TRUST?
- SONOMA LAND TRUST (California) receives grants from 116 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,433,438 to it, the largest being GORDON E AND BETTY I MOORE FOUNDATION ($8,031,500). 79 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SONOMA LAND TRUST have?
- IRS filings report 116 organizations giving $21,433,438 in grants to SONOMA LAND TRUST, 79 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SONOMA LAND TRUST?
- GORDON E AND BETTY I MOORE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $8,031,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SONOMA LAND TRUST 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 116 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