California · Nonprofit
TREEPEOPLE INC
TREEPEOPLE INC (California) receives grants from 218 organizations whose IRS filings report $24,931,386 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($3,585,235). 133 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 218
- Grants received
- $25M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Treepeople Inc does
Mission
Treepeople unites the power of trees, people, and nature-based solutions to grow more climate-resilient and water-secure communities as the region faces extreme weather, historic drought and a hotter, drier future. The organization inspires, engages and supports people to take personal responsibility for the urban environment making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable and to share the process as a model for the world. Treepeople facilitates collaboration among public agencies and local stakeholders, and promotes leadership in grassroots volunteers, youth and communities. In this way, treepeople seeks to build a powerful and diverse coalition to grow a greener, healthier and more water-secure los angeles for present and future generations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Environmental education and outdoor access: provide opportunities to youth in environmental education and outdoor learning to help students explore local environmental systems and issues such as waste, water and forestry in a fun and engaging way. This includes engaging youth at every age level, offering age-appropriate projects, field trips, and hands-on learning experiences to empower future generations. This program expands across los angeles county and prioritizes communities that have not historically been able to access nature. This program was able to serve approximately 23,500 students across 230 schools through 370 field trips and 350 in-classroom projects. This program uplifts youth to build a connection with nature and understand that they have a role to play in improving our local communities and environment.
$8,140,950 spentof which $166,037 as grants63% of program spendingUrban and mountain forestry: the forestry programs expanded tree canopy, cared for young trees, reforested mountainous areas, and restored native habitat while engaging and activating thousands of individuals to participate and learn in the process. Treepeople's urban forestry teams planted trees in historically underserved communities across los angeles county and into the inland empire. Treepeople's mountain forestry team restored numerous project sites across the local mountains that have burned in recent fires. Treepeople engaged more than 6,800 volunteers, planted more than 14,600 trees and plants in mountain forests, planted more than 3,300 trees in urban parkways, and distributed more than 3,200 fruit trees to residents. In addition, treepeople engaged and supported volunteers to ensure the survival of thousands of plants and trees across the region, including over 400 acres in the mountains. This program has directly contributed to the mitigation and adaptation of climate change, providing much-needed shade and eco-system benefits in our warming environment.
$4,128,913 spent$390,945 earned by the program32% of program spendingPolicy & research: develop cutting-edge research to advance the implementation of nature-based solutions and advocate for policies that are guided by research and community feedback. The research conducted applies to all related issues in the urban environment, such as water, soil and green infrastructure. The research team advanced the region's understanding of the use of urban soils for water capture, the feasibility for schools to capture stormwater and synthesis data related to the localized benefits of urban forests. Policies at the state and local levels were advanced and improved by treepeople's participation. This included historic funding for school greening and other policies that ensured the prioritization of historically underserved communities. This program has advanced the use and effectiveness of nature based solutions in underserved communities.
$671,940 spent5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,941,803.
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 2019 to 2020, from $11M to $14M (+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 25% · 2018 9% · 2019 15% · 2020 41% · 2021 36% · 2022 50% · 2023 47% · 2024 44%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of TREEPEOPLE INC’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 8 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
Daniel Berger
Executive director
Board chair
Philip Boesch
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 55 funders to 89 funders, grant income rose $812k → $5.4M.
27 of 218 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 TREEPEOPLE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 218 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
TREEPEOPLE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
66% 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 TREEPEOPLE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 41% · 2019 42% · 2020 36% · 2021 25% · 2022 20% · 2023 35% — growing more concentrated.
“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
49% of TREEPEOPLE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
TREEPEOPLE INC draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 25 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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
TREEPEOPLE INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 330 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 330 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding TREEPEOPLE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $11.6M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$10.2M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.1M
- Department of the Interior$300k
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 TREEPEOPLE INC
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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
- Mountains Restoration Trust Dba Treepeople Land Trust · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TREEPEOPLE INC: 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 TREEPEOPLE INC?
- TREEPEOPLE INC (California) receives grants from 218 organizations whose IRS filings report $24,931,386 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($3,585,235). 133 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TREEPEOPLE INC have?
- IRS filings report 218 organizations giving $24,931,386 in grants to TREEPEOPLE INC, 133 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TREEPEOPLE INC?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,585,235 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TREEPEOPLE INC 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 218 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