New York Botanical Garden
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 131693134
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Bronx, NY, USA
- Phone
- 718.817.8716
- Rating
- 83
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Botanical Gardens, Arboreta and Botanical Organizations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $124,690,916
- Expenses
- $105,062,647
- Assets
- $700,400,174
- Liabilities
- $47,166,389
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
79 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JENNIFER BERNSTEIN (CEO & The William C. Steer Sr. President)
Highest reported compensation
- JENNIFER BERNSTEIN (CEO & The William C. Steer Sr. President): $921,163 total reported compensation
- LAUREN TURCHIO (Chief Operating Officer): $503,591 total reported compensation
- TODD FORREST (ARTHUR ROSS VP HORTICULTURE & LIVING): $451,953 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The New York botanical garden is a museum of plants and a scientific research center devoted to the study of plants and their uses. It is the garden's mission to improve public understanding of the natural world, horticulture, and the relationships between plants and people. It is also the garden's mission to expand humanity's knowledge of plants and how they are utilized.
What it reported doing in 2024
Horticulture and living collections: preparation of research, maintenance of gardens and exhibits for public use and enjoyment. Public exhibitions and festivals to enhance the experience of the visiting public. The garden's living collections contain more than one million plants in 50 gardens and collections, including: the enid a. Haupt conservatory, the nation's preeminent victorian style glasshouse; the nolen greenhouses for living collections; the three and one half acre native plant garden; the eleven acre azalea garden, which includes nearly one mile of woodland paths meandering beneath ancient native oaks, tulip trees, and sweetgums and surrounded by more than 70,000 plants; the fifty acre thain family forest, the largest extant forest that once covered much of New York city.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and the filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 75
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 99
- Sustainability: 77
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.1%; rating input score 79
- Program expense ratio: 78.8%; rating input score 79
- Fundraising efficiency: $10.11 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.5%; rating input score 90; 5th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Fail
- Conducts field audits: Pass
- May suspend future funding: Fail
- Requires financial reports: Pass
- Conducts site visits: Fail
- Requires grant agreements: Pass
- May require repayment: Fail
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 98.3%; rating input score 98; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 15.7%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.67; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.8%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.7% per year; rating input score 100; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 79.1% of revenue deployed · 78.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 57 of 58 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $82.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $921K · 79 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $7.6M reported
- Consistency: 43 of 45 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 12 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 3 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 42/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 4 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.