Massachusetts · Nonprofit
THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS
THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS (Massachusetts) receives grants from 501 organizations whose IRS filings report $123,598,919 to it, the largest being FIDELITY FOUNDATION ($37,465,000). 318 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $58M
- Funders on record
- 501
- Grants received
- $124M
- Net assets
- $386M
What The Trustees of Reservations does
Mission
Overview - founded in boston by pioneering landscape architect and open space visionary charles eliot in 1891, the trustees is the nation's first and the commonwealth's largest conservation and preservation nonprofit.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Stewardship - as the forever stewards of the special places the trustees are responsible for ensuring these natural landscapes, unique buildings, and cherished properties are here for generations to come and to create a world-class, highly accessible visitor experience. Trustees properties include over 120 properties, 375 miles of trails, 76 miles of accessible shoreline, 113 parks and woodlands, 12 public gardens, and 250 buildings. The care of these properties is handled by employees skilled in landscape management, horticulture, arboriculture, and historic resources. Historical resource staff members are responsible for the stewardship and presentation of the trustee's historic properties including 6 national landmarks, historic house museums, archival object collections, gardens, and designed landscapes.
$27,549,685 spent$6,844,155 earned by the program71% of program spendingWelcoming and connection - each year, the trustees welcomes over 1.8 million visitors to explore our treasured landscapes and experience thousands of programs and events. Our 80,000 trustees member households also experience these special places while enjoying exclusive benefits. Since 1891, support from members has made it possible to care for our special places, ensuring they remain vibrant and accessible for everyone, forever. The trustees connects visitors of all ages through thousands of programs and educational programming including outdoor, community, and culture through dynamic and engaging experiences. This includes summer and youth camps, walks, talks, cooking classes, concerts, farm share programs, and special events. The trustees inspire massachusetts residents and visitors to lead healthy, active lifestyles while forming a deeper connection to nature.
$10,310,217 spent$2,561,347 earned by the program27% of program spendingConservation - together with our partners, the trustees cares for nearly 52,000 acres of land across the commonwealth, including more than 27,000 acres of publicly accessible, treasured landscapes. Most massachusetts residents live just a few miles from a trustees property, where countless memories are made and shared. The trustees also protect 20,700 acres of land through conservation restrictions, making the trustees the largest private owner of conservation restrictions in massachusetts.
$855,778 spentof which $557,994 as grants$212,559 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $38,715,680.
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 2020 to 2021, from $265M to $337M (+27%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 0% · 2021 5% · 2022 3% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
57% of THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as 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.
Chief executive
Katie Theoharides
President and CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 93 funders to 235 funders, grant income rose $2.7M → $20M.
40 of 501 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 TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 501 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 TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
31% 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 TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 46% · 2019 42% · 2020 46% · 2021 27% · 2022 58% · 2023 41% — 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
60% of THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
83% of THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $32M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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 TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 210 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.8M on record — $4.8M federal, $4.0M state.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$2.0M
- Department of the Interior$1.9M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$345k
- Department of Agriculture$254k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$229k
- National Endowment for the Arts$30k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$3.3M
- (NN) INFRASTRUCTURE:$398k
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$191k
- (JJ) OPERATIONAL SERVICES$35k
- (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$2k
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 TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS
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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 12 states
Part of a family of 8 related entities
- Hilltown Land Trust Inc · exempt
- Fruitlands Museum Inc · exempt
- Decordova and Dana Museum and Park · exempt
- Massachusetts Land Conservation Trust · exempt
- Charitable Remainder Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS: 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 TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS?
- THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS (Massachusetts) receives grants from 501 organizations whose IRS filings report $123,598,919 to it, the largest being FIDELITY FOUNDATION ($37,465,000). 318 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS have?
- IRS filings report 501 organizations giving $123,598,919 in grants to THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS, 318 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS?
- FIDELITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $37,465,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 501 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