American Public Gardens Association
Wilmington, DE · EIN 23-7110058. Reported 80 grants totalling $1,793,963 to 62 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For American Public Gardens Association, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C034) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 62 distinct organizations, with 5% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 7% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $20,000. Half of what it reported fell between $19,200 and $20,000; the smallest was $5,998 and the largest $70,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Foundation | Chaska, MN | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Pennsylvania Horticultural Society | Philadelphia, PA | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Queens Botanical Garden Society Inc | Flushing, NY | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Desert Botanical Garden | Phoenix, AZ | $89,800 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Regents of the University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI | $89,050 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Atlanta Botanical Garden Inc | Atlanta, GA | $75,750 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance | Chicago, IL | $68,800 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Knoxville Botanical Gardens and Arboretum | Knoxville, TN | $56,400 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Trees Atlanta Inc | Atlanta, GA | $45,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Delaware Center for Horticulture Inc | Wilmington, DE | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Earthdance | Saint Louis, MO | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center Inc | Bronx, NY | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks | Philadelphia, PA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Inc | Pittsburgh, PA | $36,800 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Missouri Botanical Garden Board of Trustees | Saint Louis, MO | $31,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| National Tropical Botanical Garden | Kalaheo, HI | $30,969 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Birmingham Botanical Society Inc | Mountain Brk, AL | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Denver Botanic Garden Inc | Denver, CO | $25,146 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Botanical Garden of the Piedmont | Charlottesvle, VA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| San Francisco Botanical Garden Society at Strybing Arboretum | San Francisco, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Alaska Botanical Garden Inc | Anchorage, AK | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Allen Centennial Garden | Madison, WI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| City Green Inc | Clifton, NJ | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Covenant House Washington DC | Washington, DC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden | Miami, FL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Friends of the Cheyenne Botanic Garden | Cheyenne, WY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Friends of the Gardens on Spring Creek | Fort Collins, CO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Friends of Zenger Farm | Portland, OR | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Georgeson Botanical Garden | Fairbank, AK | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Georgeson Botanical Garden Friends | Fairbanks, AK | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Growing Gardens | Portland, OR | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Growing Healthy Veterans | Grayslake, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Idaho Botanical Gardens Inc | Boise, ID | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ithaca Childrens Garden Inc | Ithaca, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Inc | Sarasota, FL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Michigan State University | East Lansing, MI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Morton Arboretum | Lisle, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center Inc | National City, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Randalls Island Park Alliance Inc | New York, NY | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Smith Gilbert Gardens Foundation Inc | Kennesaw, GA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Gardens on Spring Creek | Fort Collins, CO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| University of Washington Foundation | Seattle, WA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Wyck Association | Philadelphia, PA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Connecticut College | New London, CT | $19,800 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Downtown Greens Inc | Fredericksbrg, VA | $19,800 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Friends of the National Arboretum Inc | Washington, DC | $19,750 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Cleveland Botanical Garden | Cleveland, OH | $19,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ability Garden | Wilmington, NC | $19,400 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Botanical Research Institute of Texas Inc | Fort Worth, TX | $19,200 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Isaac W Bernheim Foundation Inc | Clermont, KY | $18,600 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Historic Westside Gardens Atl Inc | Atlanta, GA | $17,100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Guadalupe River Park Conservancy | San Jose, CA | $17,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Healthy Day Partners | Encinitas, CA | $16,200 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Urban Farm | Denver, CO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Utah State University | Logan, UT | $11,200 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Max and Billie Clark Foundation | Mineral Wells, TX | $11,100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Botanical Garden Society of the Ozarks Inc | Fayetteville, AR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens Society Inc | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Raleigh City Farm | Raleigh, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Cape Fear Botanical Garden | Fayetteville, NC | $8,100 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Charles Koiner Center for Urban Farming | Silver Spring, MD | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Huntsville Madison County Botanical Garden Society Inc | Huntsville, AL | $5,998 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
15 of 62 (24%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
SUPPORT URBAN AGRICULTURE, COMMUNITY GARDENING & OTHER FOOD GROWING PROGRAMS - National Tropical Botanic Garden
SUPPORT URBAN AGRICULTURE, COMMUNITY GARDENING, AND OTHER FOOD GROWING PROGRAMS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 54 of 62 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 21 | $403,450 | $20,000 |
| 2022 | 27 | $807,944 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 26 | $445,600 | $20,000 |
| 2024 | 6 | $136,969 | $25,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
10% of its giving went to organizations in Pennsylvania. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $20,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Pennsylvania.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from American Public Gardens Association's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 8 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 1207 Delaware Avenue 350, Wilmington, DE, 19806.
EIN 23-7110058 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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