Iowa · Nonprofit
TREES FOREVER INC
TREES FOREVER INC (Iowa) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,391,496 to it, the largest being THE HALL-PERRINE FOUNDATION ($1,075,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.7M
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Trees Forever Inc does
Mission
Trees forever mission is to plant and care for trees and the environment by empowering people, building community and promoting stewardship. Our philosophy has always been to involve people in projects that educate them in ways that ensure long term sustainability. For example, trees planted in participating communities have a survival rate of 91%. Trees forever achieves this through cutting-edge programs and innovative practices. Our trained and experienced staff assists and engages an average of 7,000 volunteers, community leaders and landowners across iowa and illinois with thousands of planting projects each year. We do this by engaging volunteers in thorough planning processes that result in projects with the best chance for success, by providing friendly and knowledgeable assistance to community volunteers and leaders who are interested in planting and caring for trees and natural areas, and by working with rural landowners who are committed to planting strips of land with native
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Growing community forests: trees forever helps communities grow and care for their community forests by providing grant funding with friendly and knowledgeable assistance to volunteers and leaders who are interested in planting and caring for trees and natural areas. Trees forever provides assistance with disaster preparedness planning and recovery and continues to lead the replanting effort. In 2025, trees forever partnered with 91 communities to complete 170 projects in iowa, illinois and wisconsin. Three large-scale tree distributions were held in 2,508 affordable, landscape sized trees planted on private lands in the cedar rapids and des moines metropolitan areaas. Education and volunteer outreach programs are also processing. Trees forever is helping prepare teenagers iun iowa for the future workforce through growing futures. Through this youth employment program, high school students in des moines and cedar rapids are hired to plant and care for public trees in 2025, a total of 77 students were hired with 53 students returning for consecutive seasons. They planted 859 trees, watered 92,836 times and provided maintenance to numerous trees as needed while also receiving…
$2,734,035 spentof which $502,139 as grants$915,284 earned by the program83% of program spendingIn 2025 trees forever educated individuals of all ages to care for trees: trees forever provides informative programs and hands-on learning experiences that build participants' knowledge of tree care, environmental stewardship, and conservation. In 2025 through the stewards of the beautiful land program with the iowa department of transportation's living roadway trust fund, trees forever hosted twleve webinars that engaged participants on topics related to conservation and tree planting and care. Also, through the stewards of the beautiful land educational program, various hands-on field days included plant and tree id, seed harvest, prairie walks and planting events that engaged 844 participants. The trees forever treekeepers program reaches volunteers across the nation to train and educate them in supporting urban forestry in their hometowns. In 2025, 499 people participated in the online series of trainings. Through all of trees forevers work, the group promotes the planting of diverse, native trees and prairie to build a more resilient and beneficial local ecosystem. Trees forever provides education to the public on a variety of environmental topics with in-person field days,…
$113,797 spent3% of program spendingCollaborated with illinois communities to plant new trees, maintain existing ones, and safely remove those that pose risks. The project focuses on aligning tree?care activities with neighborhood priorities, ensuring that decisions reflect local needs and environmental goals. By building community capacity and providing technical support, the initiative strengthens long?term stewardship of the urban tree canopy. In 2025, we awarded 555,431 in funding to 32 communities in illinois under the illinois dnr program.
$2,282 spent$619,166 earned by the program0% of program spendingLandscaping roads & trails: trees forever works with volunteers and leaders to make our communities better places for current and for future generations. We do this by leading planning efforts that result in successful projects. In 2025, seven communities participated in the iowa's living roadways community visioning process with 1,481 volunteers logging 2,316 hours valued at 69,380.
$440,926 spent$588,999 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,291,040.
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 2021 to 2022, from $2.9M to $4.8M (+65%).
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 32% · 2018 29% · 2019 37% · 2020 32% · 2021 19% · 2022 17% · 2023 34% · 2024 33% · 2025 28%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
41% of TREES FOREVER INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% 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.
Chief executive
Michelle Beisker
CEO
Board chair
Grant Thompson
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $115k → $696k.
10 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $52k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Trees Forever Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money TREES FOREVER INC raised.
From the IRS filings of TREES FOREVER INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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 FOREVER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
38% 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 FOREVER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 67% · 2019 43% · 2020 41% · 2021 52% · 2022 33% · 2023 51% — 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
50% of TREES FOREVER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
50% of TREES FOREVER INC's grant income comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M 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
TREES FOREVER INC is better cushioned than half of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding TREES FOREVER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.1M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$1.1M
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 TREES FOREVER 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 Iowa
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Trees Forever Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TREES FOREVER 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 TREES FOREVER INC?
- TREES FOREVER INC (Iowa) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,391,496 to it, the largest being THE HALL-PERRINE FOUNDATION ($1,075,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TREES FOREVER INC have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $4,391,496 in grants to TREES FOREVER INC, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TREES FOREVER INC?
- THE HALL-PERRINE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,075,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TREES FOREVER INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. 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 47 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