South Carolina · Nonprofit
The Charleston Parks Conservancy
The Charleston Parks Conservancy (South Carolina) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,159,967 to it, the largest being DARLA MOORE AND RICHARD RAINWATER FOUNDATION ($370,000). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $8.5M
What The Charleston Parks Conservancy does
Mission
To cultivate exceptional public gardens and experiences in Charleston's city parks.We do this by delivering meaningful and sustainable: Garden Experiences, Community Events Volunteer, and EngagementVision: Our stewardship of Charleston's city parks builds pride and enjoyment for all.Core Values: - Steward excellence in garden experiences, community events and volunteer engagement.- Lead with creativity and innovation to deliver a distinct standard.- Respect historical context while stewarding parks for future generations.- Ensure long-term organizational sustainability.- Commit to horticulture resiliency.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
GARDEN EXPERIENCES:The Charleston Parks Conservancy brings its mission to life through Garden Experiences, catalyzing horticulture and gardening for connection, learning, stewardship, and community. Through Garden in the Parks and Gather & Garden, volunteers and residents actively engage in caring for, growing in, and learning in Charleston's city parks. Our Food Forests connect productive landscapes with food access, education, and ecological health. Horticultural Renovations continually renew and enhance our parks and gardens portfolio through thoughtful, resilient, environment and ecology-based design and management.(Continued on Schedule O) Together, these efforts create beautiful, welcoming, and dynamic public landscapes while empowering the community to actively participate in their care and experience the many ways gardens enrich our city and people. Events and educational activations within these spaces only further emphasize and showcase their importance, impact, and opportunities for engagement and connection. In 2025 partnering with the City of Charleston and the community we renovated Colonial Lake, one of Charleston's most precious public parks. For 2026 and and 2027…
$2,003,926 spent$43,619 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,003,926.
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 $11M to $8.2M (−23%).
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 2% · 2019 5% · 2020 22% · 2021 12% · 2022 7% · 2023 22% · 2024 7% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of The Charleston Parks Conservancy’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. 6 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
Jessica Gibadlo
Interim Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $315k → $380k.
9 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 The Charleston Parks Conservancy’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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
The Charleston Parks Conservancy has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
53% 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 The Charleston Parks Conservancy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 88% · 2018 37% · 2019 24% · 2020 17% · 2021 38% · 2022 36% · 2023 41% — 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
54% of The Charleston Parks Conservancy's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
51% of The Charleston Parks Conservancy'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 $1.1M that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from funders outside South Carolina, across 17 states.
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
The Charleston Parks Conservancy's revenue grew 24% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding The Charleston Parks Conservancy receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $50k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$50k
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 The Charleston Parks Conservancy
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 South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
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 The Charleston Parks Conservancy: 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 The Charleston Parks Conservancy?
- The Charleston Parks Conservancy (South Carolina) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,159,967 to it, the largest being DARLA MOORE AND RICHARD RAINWATER FOUNDATION ($370,000). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Charleston Parks Conservancy have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $2,159,967 in grants to The Charleston Parks Conservancy, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Charleston Parks Conservancy?
- DARLA MOORE AND RICHARD RAINWATER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $370,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Charleston Parks Conservancy find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Carolina. 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 Charleston Parks Conservancy →
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 53 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