How do I find funders for a large animals nonprofit?

Start with the funders most focused on large animals organizations, currently Omaha Zoo Foundation, Ahimsa Foundation, Michelson Medical Research Foundation Inc. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.

How much grant money goes to large animals organizations?

$6.1B reached 781 large animals organizations from 13,441 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.

How recent is this data?

It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Causes · Animals · large

Who funds large animals organizations

The funders that back large animals organizations are specialists, not generalists: Omaha Zoo Foundation gives them 116.1× the national rate, with 100% of its grants going here. Large animals institutions draw a deep funder base, 17 on average, so the competition for their attention is intense.

$6.1B

granted

781

organizations

13,441

funders

The short version

13,441 funders gave $6.1B to 781 large animals organizations (large ($10M and up)) across recent IRS filings.
The most focused funder is Omaha Zoo Foundation, giving 116.1× the national rate to large animals organizations.
The largest non-DAF funder is The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, at $483M.
The large animals organization drawing the most is Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, at $446M.

Funders most focused on large animals organizations

Not the biggest checks, the most committed: each gives this size and cause an outsized share of its budget against the national rate, shrunk toward that rate so a small specialist needs real volume to rank.

Omaha Zoo Foundation116.1×$133M · 100% of its giving Ahimsa Foundation111×$47M · 99% of its giving Michelson Medical Research Foundation Inc103.1×$48M · 92% of its giving The Friends of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Inc95.9×$12M · 100% of its giving Resource Partners Foundation93×$11M · 100% of its giving The Sheth Sangreal Foundation88.6×$32M · 80% of its giving Birdlife International88.2×$10M · 96% of its giving Foundation for California University of Pennsylvania86.5×$18M · 83% of its giving

Largest funders by dollars

Real grantmakers giving the most to large animals organizations (donor-advised and mega-funds excluded).

1The David and Lucile Packard Foundation$483M 2Omaha Zoo Foundation$133M 3Margaret a Cargill Foundation$83M 4Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation$70M 5The Sidney E Frank Foundation$69M 6National Fish and Wildlife Foundation$68M 7Walter Scott Family Foundation$67M 8The Rachael Ray Foundation$56M

Large animals organizations that draw the most

Sized by grant dollars received. Pick one to see exactly who funds it.

771 other large animals organizations$4.3B

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute$446M Wildlife Conservation Society$324M

Questions and answers

How do I find funders for a large animals nonprofit?: Start with the funders most focused on large animals organizations, currently Omaha Zoo Foundation, Ahimsa Foundation, Michelson Medical Research Foundation Inc. Donor-advised funds and mega-funds are excluded, so these are funders that genuinely back organizations your size, not pass-through accounts.
What counts as a large organization here?: Size is the organization's median total revenue across its filings: large ($10M and up). Cause is where each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear.
How much grant money goes to large animals organizations?: $6.1B reached 781 large animals organizations from 13,441 funders. Money parked in the regranting layer is netted out.
How recent is this data?: It is read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file filings across recent fiscal years. US charity filings lag 12 to 24 months.

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home

Size is median total revenue; each grant is placed by its stated purpose and the recipient's mission, falling back to the recipient's IRS activity category where that is unclear. Read from IRS Form 990 and 990-PF e-file XML across recent fiscal years, among (c)(3) funders and recipients resolved by EIN, with the regranting layer netted out. Source: IRS Form 990 downloads.