California · Nonprofit
The Wildlands Conservancy
The Wildlands Conservancy (California) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,011,011 to it, the largest being CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC ($2,590,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $14M
- Funders on record
- 48
- Grants received
- $9.0M
- Net assets
- $225M
What The Wildlands Conservancy does
Mission
The Wildlands Conservancy's dual mission is to preserve the beauty and biodiversity of the earth and to provide programs so that children may know the wonder and joy of nature.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
See Schedule OPreserve Stewardship: Managing the largest nonprofit nature preserve system on the West Coast, comprising 25 preserves encompassing nearly 210,000 acres of diverse landscapes that are held in fee. The Conservancy believes that access to nature is a birthright and preserves, which host more than 1.5 million visitors annually, are open to the public free of charge for passive recreation, including camping, hiking, picnicking, birding, field studies, and more.The Conservancy employs a staff of friendly and knowledgeable rangers and stewards who engage with visitors while stewarding the land and maintaining outdoor education sites. Each year, they work side-by-side with hundreds of volunteers who log thousands of hours restoring and maintaining these unique and important properties.
$7,772,988 spentof which $379,755 as grants72% of program spendingProviding outdoor environmental education: Since 1998, the Conservancy has been Southern California's nonprofit leader in providing free outdoor education programs to more than 1.3 million youth from underserved and economically disadvantaged communities. An educational journey begins the moment a child connects with nature, exploring the outdoors and beginning to wonder and think far beyond the textbook. After a quality outdoor learning experience, children return home with a new understanding and indelible memory of their place in the world.Annually, more than 80,000 youth participate in educational opportunities at a Conservancy preserve, from self-guided exploration through interactive interpretive signage to naturalist-guided field trips and family programs
$1,347,039 spentof which $4,500 as grants12% of program spendingSee Schedule OLand Conservation and Rewilding: Since its founding in 1995, The Wildlands Conservancy has protected more than 2.3 million acres of public and private lands through advocacy and acquisition, safeguarding ecological connectivity and preserving vast natural landscapes across the American West. Owning land in fee allows the Conservancy to pursue its deepest conservation vision: free outdoor education and public access, active restoration of native habitats, re-wilding species, and stewarding these lands in ways that allow forests, grasslands, and other ecosystems to regenerate naturally. This approach not only supports biodiversity but also strengthens the ability of these landscapes to store carbon, improve watershed health, and be resilient in the face of a rapidly changing climate.
$1,735,553 spent16% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $10,855,580.
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 $181M to $243M (+34%).
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 6% · 2018 19% · 2019 0% · 2020 5% · 2021 5% · 2022 2% · 2023 4% · 2024 1% · 2025 27%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
45% of The Wildlands Conservancy’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (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
Frazier Haney
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $212k → $1.9M.
12 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 Wildlands Conservancy’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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 Wildlands Conservancy has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
72% 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 Wildlands Conservancy.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 93% · 2018 89% · 2019 60% · 2020 25% · 2021 53% · 2022 44% · 2023 53% — 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
43% of The Wildlands Conservancy's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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 Wildlands Conservancy draws 59% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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 Wildlands Conservancy has grown faster 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 Wildlands Conservancy receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $140k on record.
- Department of the Interior$140k
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 Wildlands 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 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
82%
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
- Remnant Ranch LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Wildlands 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 Wildlands Conservancy?
- The Wildlands Conservancy (California) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,011,011 to it, the largest being CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC ($2,590,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Wildlands Conservancy have?
- IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $9,011,011 in grants to The Wildlands Conservancy, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Wildlands Conservancy?
- CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,590,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Wildlands Conservancy 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 48 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