Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION
THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,729,220 to it, the largest being THE JOAN SHAFRAN AND ROB HAIMES FOUNDATION INC ($303,001). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 56
- Grants received
- $1.7M
- Net assets
- $11M
What The Cultural Landscape Foundation does
Mission
A non-profit established in 1998, The Cultural Landscape Foundation (tclf) connects people to places. Tclf educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Tclf achieves this mission through the ongoing development of its four core programs:what's out there, north america's largest and most exhaustive database of cultural landscapes; pioneers of american landscape design, an in-depth multimedia library, inclusive of video oral histories, chronicling the lives of significant landscape architects and educators; landslide, an ongoing collection of important landscapes and landscape features that are threatened; the cornelia hahn oberlander international landscape architecture prize, a biennial prize in landscape architecture that includes a us $100,000 monetary award and two years of public engagement activities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Landslide: the goal of the landslide program is to draw immediate and lasting attention to threatened landscapes and unique features. The program sparks debate, reveals the value of everyday places, and encourages informed community-based stewardship decisions as it highlights and monitors at-risk landscapes and creates annual thematic listings to save this heritage for future generations. Through web-based news stories, traveling exhibitions, and print publications, landslide reveals the value of these often-forgotten landscapes. Each year tclf creates an annual report about threatened and at-risk sites; some well-known, others obscure. To bring attention to these significant places, tclf creates richly illustrated online photographic exhibitions with narrative histories of each site, the nature of the threat, and critical information for learning more and getting involved.
$741,030 spent$115,392 earned by the program70% of program spendingPioneers of american landscape design, an in-depth multimedia library, includes thoroughly researched essays and video oral histories chronicling the lives of significant landscape architects and educators. Pioneers have included luminaries like cornelia hahn oberlander, lawrence halprin, laurie olin, harriet pattison, and m. Paul friedberg.the cornelia hahn oberlander international landscape architecture prize, is a biennial prize in landscape architecture that includes a us$100,000 monetary award and two years of public engagement activities. It is bestowed on a recipient who is "exceptionally talented, creative, courageous, and visionary and has "a significant body of built work that exemplifies the art of landscape architecture." the inaugural laureate, julia bargmann, was announced in october 2021. The second laureate, kongjian yu, was announced in 2023.
$216,466 spent$25,078 earned by the program21% of program spendingWhat's out there (wot): the goal of this searchable, easy-to-navigate database is to raise public awareness of the rich diversity and interconnectedness of our shared designed landscape heritage. Spanning over two centuries of american landscape design, the what's out there database is searchable by landscape name, locale, designer, type, and sytle. It has over 2,500 entries so far with content created by academics, volunteers, and advocates, and has been vetted over the past decade by dozens of researchers and historians. We created what's out there to serve as a reference for students and teachers of design and history, enthusiasts, and professionals, provoking interest, informing stewardship decisions, and enriching our understanding of our designed landscape history. An extension of the what's out there database, what's out there weekend draws people out into their communities to experience first-hand the landscapes that they see every day but often overlook. Hosted in different cities every year, what's out there weekend brings to light the unique landscape legacy and local character of each city, defined by its publicly accessible parks, gardens, plazas, cemeteries,…
$98,067 spent$277,304 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,055,563.
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 $5.1M to $6.9M (+35%).
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 0% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 3% · 2021 11% · 2022 12% · 2023 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
70% of THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Charles Birnbaum
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $137k → $165k.
16 of 56 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 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 56 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 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% 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
38% 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 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 69% · 2019 31% · 2020 42% · 2021 30% · 2022 18% · 2023 29% — 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
32% of THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 20 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $661k arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $269k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$230k
- Department of the Interior$39k
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 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION: 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 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION?
- THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,729,220 to it, the largest being THE JOAN SHAFRAN AND ROB HAIMES FOUNDATION INC ($303,001). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 56 organizations giving $1,729,220 in grants to THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION?
- THE JOAN SHAFRAN AND ROB HAIMES FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $303,001 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Cultural Landscape →
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 56 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