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Maryland · Nonprofit

TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC

TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC (Maryland) receives grants from 86 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,050,069 to it, the largest being The Essex Avenue Foundation ($1,050,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$9.9M
Funders on record
86
Grants received
$7.1M
Net assets
$4.9M
50/86 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 13%
01What it does

What Trees for the Future Inc does

Mission

Our mission is to improve the livelihoods of impoverished farmers by revitalizing degraded lands.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Trees for the future (trees) partners with small holder farmers in sub-saharan africa to restore land and unlock prosperity. Our approach aims to transform farming for the next generation of africa's farming families. This farmer-led agroforestry approach is focused on supporting farmers to design their own farms and improve food security, dietary diversity, economic livelihoods, and climate resilience. Over four years, we partner with farmers to build their knowledge in agroforestry, perma-gardening, soil health, composting, and livelihoods. Support is provided by trees officers, many of whom have grown up in the same local community and after tertiary education, return to their communities to share their knowledge. Trees teams work with farmers to design farms that meet the individual needs of the family, community, and ecosystem in which they live. In recent years, trees has incorporated carbon sequestration programs into this work, including smallholder farmers into the global carbon marketplace.

    $10,589,942 spentof which $23,698 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $10,589,942.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($2.5M) Expenses 100 ($2.0M) Net assets 100 ($1.2M)2018 Revenue 146 ($3.6M) Expenses 133 ($2.7M) Net assets 178 ($2.1M)2019 Revenue 214 ($5.3M) Expenses 251 ($5.1M) Net assets 196 ($2.3M)2020 Revenue 460 ($11M) Expenses 375 ($7.6M) Net assets 517 ($6.1M)2021 Revenue 350 ($8.6M) Expenses 578 ($12M) Net assets 259 ($3.0M)2022 Revenue 573 ($14M) Expenses 597 ($12M) Net assets 433 ($5.1M)2023 Revenue 528 ($13M) Expenses 548 ($11M) Net assets 598 ($7.0M)2024 Revenue 633 ($16M) Expenses 658 ($13M) Net assets 793 ($9.3M)2025 Revenue 402 ($9.9M) Expenses 711 ($14M) Net assets 415 ($4.9M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (402)Expenses (711)Net assets (415)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $10.0M to $5.4M (−46%).

$1.2M
$2.2M
$2.4M
$6.5M
$3.6M
$7.5M
$8.0M
$10.0M
$5.4M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

98% of TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,303 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$445k
’17
$921k
’18
$213k
’19
$3.8M
’20
−$3.0M
’21
$2.0M
’22
$1.9M
’23
$2.3M
’24
−$4.4M
’25
2.1
months of
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

Timothy Mclellan

CEO

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed121113121719212322
Joined·+1+2+3+6+4+9+6+1
No longer listed·20412742
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $251k → $1.7M.

21 of 86 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 86 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

TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 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 TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC.

15%
largest funder
36%
top three
~14
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 76% · 2019 49% · 2020 55% · 2021 24% · 2022 23% · 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

38% of TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Maryland, across 27 states in all.

ID
MT
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
NV
SD
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
TN
NC
DC
LA
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Maryland out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC has grown faster than half of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−45% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.1mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)19% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like TREES FOR THE FUTURE 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 Maryland

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

74% of spending goes to programs.

Program 74%Management 17%Fundraising 9%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

72%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 28 states

NH
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
PA
NJ
RI
CA
UT
KY
WV
VA
MD
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
HI
MS
AL
GA
FL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TREES FOR THE FUTURE 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.

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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 TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC?
TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC (Maryland) receives grants from 86 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,050,069 to it, the largest being The Essex Avenue Foundation ($1,050,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC have?
IRS filings report 86 organizations giving $7,050,069 in grants to TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC, 50 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC?
The Essex Avenue Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,050,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TREES FOR THE FUTURE INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 86 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