California · Nonprofit
THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND
THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND (California) receives grants from 956 organizations whose IRS filings report $374,040,466 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($29,642,000). 563 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $301M
- Funders on record
- 956
- Grants received
- $374M
- Net assets
- $263M
What The Trust for Public Land does
Mission
The Trust for Public Land creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. In the past year, we helped communities to plan for parks and conservation, fund parks and conservation, protect land, and create new parks.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Land - we completed 58 conservation transactions that protected 100,060 acres.
$174,155,705 spentof which $145,972,899 as grants$15,148,635 earned by the program73% of program spendingPark and schoolyard - we completed 13 new schoolyards and 2 new parks.
$61,957,430 spentof which $4,109,745 as grants$32,662,186 earned by the program26% of program spendingFund - we helped pass 24 state and local ballot measures--a 100 percent success rate-- that generated $16,110,864,240 in public funds for parks and natural spaces.
$2,850,514 spentof which $1,509,674 as grants$57,310 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $238,963,649.
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 $324M to $397M (+22%).
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 13% · 2018 9% · 2019 16% · 2020 16% · 2021 12% · 2022 14% · 2023 21% · 2024 15% · 2025 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (90% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Lucas St Clair
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 225 funders to 371 funders, grant income rose $24M → $72M.
112 of 956 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 TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 956 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 TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 8% of grant income, and it takes 18 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 18 funders to its left
46% 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 TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 15% · 2019 17% · 2020 14% · 2021 13% · 2022 16% · 2023 21% — 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
43% of THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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 TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND draws 75% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 46 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $98M arriving through sponsors registered in 31 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 TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 15 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15 environment nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $147.4M on record — $103.2M federal, $44.2M state.
- Department of Agriculture$33.7M
- Environmental Protection Agency$24.4M
- Department of Defense$18.4M
- Appalachian Regional Commission$10.0M
- Department of the Interior$8.3M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$7.8M
- NJ$35.9M
- VT$4.0M
- FL$3.0M
- OR$700k
- CT$566k
- MA$88k
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 TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 42 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (30) · corp_trust
- Pooled Income Fund (2) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND: 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 TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND?
- THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND (California) receives grants from 956 organizations whose IRS filings report $374,040,466 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($29,642,000). 563 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND have?
- IRS filings report 956 organizations giving $374,040,466 in grants to THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND, 563 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND?
- FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $29,642,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND 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 956 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