California · Nonprofit
THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY (California) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,290,761 to it, the largest being PATRICIA BRAGG FOUNDATION ($4,100,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 61
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $29M
What The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County does
Mission
To conserve natural resources, agricultural land and open spaces for present and future generations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Acquisition: We engage in the acquisition of conservation land and easement interests. We conduct general outreach within the county to potential transaction partners and landowners. We respond to landowner and agency inquiries and partner with other conservation organizations in furtherance of our mission. We seek conservation funding and match conservation transactions to appropriate funding sources. We follow the land trust alliance standards and practices for our transactions.
$2,249,041 spent56% of program spendingEducation & Outreach: We engage in public education, land use, and interpretive programs in service to our mission. The Arroyo Hondo preserve hosts school and community group trips and is open to the public for free two weekends a month. We offer educational programs at Arroyo Hondo on topics such as birding, wildflowers, fire & stream ecology. We offer free community nature hikes and other guided activities at locations around the county year-round. We also offer opportunities to volunteer with the land trust in roles including preserve docent, hike guide, and restoration crew. We engage in collaborative efforts to understand community values and use a science-based landscape-scale approach to identify land conservation, stewardship, restoration, and open space access opportunities.
$732,790 spent$9,990 earned by the program18% of program spendingPreserves: We conserve land in perpetuity for natural resource protection, preservation, of agriculture, and for recreation through conservation easement and fee title transactions. We own the following nature preserves: Carpinteria Salt Marsh Preserve, Arroyo Hondo Preserve, Coronado Butterfly Preserve and Hot Springs Canyon. In 2022, we purchased the Gaviota Overlook Property which has been added to the Arroyo Hondo Preserve.
$524,194 spent13% of program spendingStewardship: We maintain a perpetual obligation to ensure the public benefits of resource protection are upheld for each of our conservation easements and fee title properties. We conduct annual monitoring and compliance activities on all of our fee title and conservation easement properties to ensure the conservation values are preserved. We undertake restoration work on properties to repair or enhance habitat value.
$480,579 spent12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,986,604.
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 2024 to 2025, from $23M to $29M (+25%).
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 4% · 2018 1% · 2020 37% · 2021 26% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 79% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY’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. 1 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 23 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $663k → $2.2M.
16 of 61 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 61 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 LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
33% 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 LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 32% · 2019 46% · 2020 46% · 2021 46% · 2022 22% · 2023 26% — 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
57% of THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 79% 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
82% of THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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 LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 195 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 195 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $148k on record.
- Department of the Interior$148k
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 LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Hartnell Ranch LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY: 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 LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY?
- THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY (California) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,290,761 to it, the largest being PATRICIA BRAGG FOUNDATION ($4,100,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY have?
- IRS filings report 61 organizations giving $15,290,761 in grants to THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY?
- PATRICIA BRAGG FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE LAND TRUST FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 61 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