Texas · Nonprofit
The Trail Conservancy
The Trail Conservancy (Texas) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,522,925 to it, the largest being AUSTIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,690,463). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.1M
- Funders on record
- 83
- Grants received
- $6.5M
- Net assets
- $8.9M
What The Trail Conservancy does
Mission
To protect, enhance and connect the Ann and Roy Butler Trail at Lady Bird Lake for the benefit of all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
In 2025, significant ecological restoration work was completed Trail-wide, including shoreline restoration and stabilization, urban forestry expansion, significant invasive species removal, and wildflower meadow seeding. In addition, the Organization hosted 118 volunteer events totaling 3,662 volunteers, established 4,506 native plants, collected 16,975 pounds of trash, and spread 320 cubic yards of mulch to protect mature trees along the trail. The Organization hosted 51 community events. Regular programming events that are free and open to the public include music and cultural events, fitness classes, education programs, and expanding partner programming in collaboration with other Austin-area and educational institutions.
$2,253,838 spent61% of program spendingThe Organization worked on the following capital projects during 2025: The Holly Fishing Pier completed construction and the project opened in mid-2025, the Comprehensive Signage Plan fabrication started in early 2025 and the first signs were installed in late 2025, the Longhorn Dam bridge benches finished fabrication and were installed in late 2025, Big Cy (Zilker retaining walls) complete site and building permitting, and Eastside Family Garden (part of the Holly Area Projects) progressed through schematic design and community engagement.
$1,430,724 spent39% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,684,562.
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 2023 to 2024, from $7.3M to $9.9M (+36%).
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 9% · 2020 23% · 2021 1% · 2022 2% · 2023 13% · 2024 12% · 2025 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of The Trail Conservancy’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Mike Shaw
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 33 funders, grant income fell $976k → $757k.
21 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 71% 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 Trail Conservancy’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 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 Trail Conservancy has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
74% 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 Trail Conservancy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 62% · 2019 56% · 2020 41% · 2021 31% · 2022 44% · 2023 31% — 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
21% of The Trail Conservancy's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
71% of The Trail 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 $1.9M that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.6M 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
The Trail Conservancy holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Trail 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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 Trail 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 Trail Conservancy?
- The Trail Conservancy (Texas) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,522,925 to it, the largest being AUSTIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($1,690,463). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Trail Conservancy have?
- IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $6,522,925 in grants to The Trail Conservancy, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Trail Conservancy?
- AUSTIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,690,463 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Trail Conservancy find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Trail 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 83 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