GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

Partnership for the National Trails

Washington, DC · EIN 39-2015324. Reported 44 grants totalling $412,990 to 20 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

20organizations funded
$9,285median reported grant
$412,990granted, 2021-2024
64%of grantees funded again the next year
9%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Partnership for the National Trails, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C30) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 20 distinct organizations, with 9% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 64% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $9,285. Half of what it reported fell between $9,285 and $10,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $10,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
33 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
11 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
El Camino Real De Los Tejasnational Historic Trail AssociationAustin, TX$39,185442024
Oregon-California Trails AssociationIndependence, MO$39,085442024
Ice Age Trail AllianceCross Plains, WI$37,685442024
Continental Divide Trail CoalitionGolden, CO$37,635442024
Florida Trail Association IncGainesville, FL$33,385442024
Pacific Northwest Trail AssociationSedro Woolley, WA$28,885332023
North Country Trail Association IncorporatedLowell, MI$27,985332023
Appalachian Mountain ClubCharlestown, MA$27,685332023
Arizona Trail AssociationTucson, AZ$27,135332023
National Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route AssociationBaltimore, MD$19,185222023
American Hiking SocietySilver Spring, MD$10,000112024
Bitter Root Cultural Heritage Trust IncBillings, MT$10,000112023
Bureau of Land Management - WyomingCheyenne, WY$10,000112024
Pacific Crest Trail AssociationSacramento, CA$10,000112024
Anza Trail FoundationCarpinteria, CA$9,285112021
Appalachian Trail ConservancyHarpers Ferry, WV$9,285112021
Eastern Sierra Conservation CorpsBishop, CA$9,285112021
Living Classrooms Foundation IncBaltimore, MD$9,285112021
Bchc Education Fund IncBakersfield, CA$9,000112023
National Historic California Trail Interpretive Center FoundationElko, NV$9,000112023

10 of 20 (50%) 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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 12 of 20 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.

Environment
5 orgs
Arts & Culture
3 orgs
Recreation & Sports
2 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org
Education
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202114$129,990$9,285
20229$82,000$9,000
202313$125,000$9,800
20248$76,000$10,000

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

9% of its giving went to organizations in Texas. 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.

Texas
$39K
Missouri
$39K
Maryland
$38K
Wisconsin
$38K
Colorado
$38K
California
$38K
Florida
$33K
Washington
$29K

Down to the city

Austin, TX
$39K
Independence, MO
$39K
Cross Plains, WI
$38K
Golden, CO
$38K
Gainesville, FL
$33K
Sedro Woolley, WA
$29K

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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.

National Park Foundation11 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund11 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc11 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc10 shared recipientsNational Park Trust Inc8 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program6 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $9,285 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Texas.
  4. 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.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Partnership for the National Trails'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: Po Box 75024, Washington, DC, 20013.

EIN 39-2015324 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.