North Carolina · Nonprofit
TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC
TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,722,720 to it, the largest being TRIANGLE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($5,107,285). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $26M
- Funders on record
- 100
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $212M
What Triangle Land Conservancy Inc does
Mission
Triangle land conservancy (tlc) strives to create a healthier and more vibrant triangle region by safeguarding clean water, protecting natural habitats, supporting local farms, and connecting people with nature through land protection and (cont. On sched. O) stewardship, catalyzing community action, and collaboration. Since 1983, tlc has protected over 25,195 acres, including 170 miles of streams, through acquisitions and conservation easements in chatham, durham, johnston, lee, orange, and wake counties in north carolina. Tlc owns and manages 8 preserves with 54 miles of trail across the region open to the public daily.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Founded in 1983, triangle land conservancy (tlc) is an accredited land trust that conserves land in the six-county triangle region of north carolina through land purchases, conservation easements and community partnerships. In 2018, tlc set a goal to strategically and permanently protect and steward 25,000 acres of land across the triangle by 2025, which implied doubling the pace of our conservation work. We exceeded this goal a year early and tlc has now protected 26,557 acres. Despite land becoming more expensive and disappearing quickly, we are not slowing down our work to conserve and care for land. As the north carolina population continues to grow, tlc will continue to conserve the economic, ecological, and social benefits that our open spaces and natural lands provide. Tlc is proud to be part of the network of accredited land trusts across the county that work to conserve and protect land and make our communities more climate resilient. Conservation strategies:in fy 2025, tlc protected 1,447 acres of priority conservation land, bringing our total to 26,557 acres, surpassing our 2025 goal by 1,557 acres. Tlc now stewards over 7,800 acres across 96 owned properties and…
$1,614,957 spent$118,616 earned by the program44% of program spendingStewardship: as tlc protects more land, our stewardship responsibilities continue to increase. As of fy25 tlc holds 193 conservation easements on 11,170 acres and owns 7,873 acres of land. As an accredited land trust, all 19,043 acres must be monitored and stewarded by tlc staff annually to ensure that the easement terms are not violated and the conservation values of owned properties are being maintained. In addition to over 240 hours of staff time spent monitoring, we continue to have enlisted and trained volunteers that help to monitor properties. After completing a training program, volunteers use a monitoring and mapping app and go on at least one monitoring visit with a tlc staff member before being eligible to monitor easements on their own. In fy25 trained volunteers contributed 223 hours to monitor 53 of tlcs easements. Tlc continues to maintain 54 miles of trail (28 for hiking and 26 multi-use trails) at our public nature preserves, which were used by roughly 120,000 people in fy25. Brumley and williamson preserves continued to see increased usage, with around 75,000 and 30,000 annual visitors, respectively. Tlc's stewardship staff also work to maintain, restore and…
$1,442,582 spentof which $73,094 as grants$59,454 earned by the program40% of program spendingCommunity engagement: started as a volunteer-led organization, tlc prides itself on continuing to work with volunteers who help with essential functions for our organization. These volunteers leverage staff efforts and help us reach our goals to conserve wild and working lands, and working with them also allows us to engage more people outdoors. In fy25, we logged 553 volunteers who dedicated 4,461 hours to help us maintain our trails, lead and assist with events and trail hikes; they served on our board and multiple committees, pulled invasive plants, helped repair bridges, and so much more!tlc held 91 events in fy25, engaging 2,683 people. In addition to guided trail hikes and themed hikes (birding, plant id, etc), these included events held in tandem with community partners, like our "friday under the stars and "moth night" series held at tlc preserves with the raleigh astronomy club and backyard butterflies, respectively. In fy25 we also held a wild ideas event at the nc botanic garden, with "habitats: our home" as the theme. The wild ideas series provides an engaging venue for experts and the community to share innovative ideas to improve lives through environmental action by…
$579,189 spent16% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,636,728.
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 $166M to $194M (+17%).
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 45% · 2018 4% · 2019 8% · 2020 14% · 2021 5% · 2022 21% · 2023 28% · 2024 41% · 2025 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 0 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
Sandra Sweitzer
Executive director
Board chair
Albert Fisher
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 54 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $5.0M.
19 of 100 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 100 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
TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC 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
71% 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 TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 45% · 2019 56% · 2020 23% · 2021 33% · 2022 14% · 2023 36% — 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
58% of TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
61% of TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $7.0M that is directly attributable, 53% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M 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.
Against its field
TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 210 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.5M on record.
- Department of Defense$3.2M
- Department of Health and Human Services$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 TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY 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 TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC?
- TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,722,720 to it, the largest being TRIANGLE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($5,107,285). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC have?
- IRS filings report 100 organizations giving $17,722,720 in grants to TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC, 72 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC?
- TRIANGLE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $5,107,285 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 100 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