· Public charity
Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation
The mission of the monterey bay aquarium is to inspire conservation of the ocean.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 5 grants below total $587,365 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $733,951 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $146,586 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k1 grant · $7k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $80k
- $250k+1 grant · $500k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute | $500,000 |
| UC Regents of San Diego | $39,552 |
| Planet Women | $25,000 |
| University of California Santa Cruz | $15,813 |
| Resources Legacy Fund | $7,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 94% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Grants abroad, by region — $80k on the FY2024 return
Schedule F, as filed: 4 regions, $47k to organizations and $33k to individuals. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.
Stated purpose: BUILD BRIDGE
Stated purpose: TO SUPPORT PARTICIPATION IN THE CAPTIVE AND FIELD RESEARCH ON MHI SYMPOSIUM
Stated purpose: TRAVEL TO CONFERENCE
Stated purpose: TRAVEL COSTS TO INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +67% since the first grant, against +49% for the ones you funded once.
6 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2023, 3 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $32k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- MBMonterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute4× · 2017–2023 · $1.3M · revenue +67%
- MBMONTEREY BAY FISHERIES TRUST3× · 2017–2019 · $133k · revenue +87%
- SJSAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION3× · 2019–2022 · $25k · revenue +55%
Funded once
- COCITY OF MONTEREYone grant, 2017 · $62k
- MMMARINE MAMMAL CENTERone grant, 2017 · $54k
OREGON COAST AQUARIUM INCone grant, 2022 · $54k · revenue +16%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…
The resource renewal institute facilitates the creation, development and implementation of practical strategies to solve the entire complex environmental problem by addressing it comprehensively.
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
The academy is a renowned scientific and educational institution with a mission to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration. based in san francisco's golden gate park, it is home to a world-class aquarium,…
Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.
The advancement of marine and environmental sciences through scientific research, education and public outreach, leading new discoveries, revitalization and sustainability of our oceans and greater public understanding of our marine…
The program mission of the quebec-labrador foundation u.s. is defined by a regional component (new england and eastern canada), and an international component, which ties our regional model to a global conservation network. qlf's program…
The mission of lowell observatory is to pursue the study of astronomy, especially the study of our solar system and its evolution; to conduct pure research in astronomical phenomena; and to maintain quality public education and outreach…
Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)
The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Jose State University Research Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
10 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 16 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ↗
- Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds MONTEREY BAY FISHERIES TRUST ↗
- Who funds OREGON COAST AQUARIUM INC ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA COUNCIL OF LAND TRUSTS ACTION FUND ↗
- Who funds SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Cornell University ↗
- Who funds PLANET WOMEN ↗
- Who funds The President and Trustees of Colby College ↗
- Who funds RESOURCES LEGACY FUND ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Nature Conservancy · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Oregon Coast Aquarium Inc — 24% of income from government
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.