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New York · Nonprofit

THE GOWANUS DREDGERS

THE GOWANUS DREDGERS (New York) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $77,691 to it, the largest being PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND ($40,904). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$76k
Funders on record
8
Grants received
$78k
Net assets
$47k
3/8 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 41%
01What it does

What The Gowanus Dredgers does

Mission

The Gowanus Dredgers' mission is to assemble and educate a diverse group of individuals, businesses and organizations to improve the gowanus waterfront in brooklyn and foster awareness of issues affecting the new york - new jersey harbor. They intend to contribute to transforming a dilapidated, historically significant estuary into a self-sustaining, environmentally friendly and healthy waterfront to be enjoyed and treasured by current and future generations.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. Providing waterfront access & education about our estuary & shoreline neighborhoods

    $52,668 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $52,668.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($16k) Expenses 100 ($26k) Net assets 100 ($31k)2018 Revenue 227 ($37k) Expenses 100 ($26k) Net assets 138 ($42k)2019 Revenue 303 ($50k) Expenses 101 ($26k) Net assets 216 ($66k)2020 Revenue 192 ($31k) Expenses 125 ($32k) Net assets 215 ($66k)2021 Revenue 487 ($80k) Expenses 126 ($32k) Net assets 371 ($113k)2022 Revenue 292 ($48k) Expenses 91 ($23k) Net assets 338 ($103k)2024 Revenue 366 ($60k) Expenses 217 ($55k) Net assets 116 ($35k)2025 Revenue 464 ($76k) Expenses 251 ($64k) Net assets 154 ($47k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'24'25
Revenue (464)Expenses (251)Net assets (154)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $66k to $113k (+73%).

$31k
$42k
$66k
$66k
$113k
$103k
$35k
$53k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

100% of THE GOWANUS DREDGERS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (85% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 3,818 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$9k
’17
$12k
’18
$24k
’19
−$431
’20
$48k
’21
$25k
’22
$5k
’24
$12k
’25
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $6k → $9k.

2 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 GOWANUS DREDGERS’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

THE GOWANUS DREDGERS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 90%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

98% 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 GOWANUS DREDGERS.

53%
largest funder
90%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 54% · 2020 90% · 2021 95% · 2022 51% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.

“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

40% of THE GOWANUS DREDGERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

53% of THE GOWANUS DREDGERS'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 $37k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from New York funders.

NY

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
New York out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $41k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

THE GOWANUS DREDGERS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,045 public safety & disaster nonprofits its size.

Operating margin16% · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)21% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,045 public safety & disaster nonprofits under $100k, FY2025

Organizations like THE GOWANUS DREDGERS

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 New York

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NY

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE GOWANUS DREDGERS: 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.

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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 GOWANUS DREDGERS?
THE GOWANUS DREDGERS (New York) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $77,691 to it, the largest being PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND ($40,904). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does THE GOWANUS DREDGERS have?
IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $77,691 in grants to THE GOWANUS DREDGERS, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of THE GOWANUS DREDGERS?
PAYPAL CHARITABLE GIVING FUND is the largest funder on record, with $40,904 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like THE GOWANUS DREDGERS find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Gowanus Dredgers →

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 8 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