Alaska · Nonprofit
Alaska Whale Foundation
Alaska Whale Foundation (Alaska) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $159,977 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($70,550). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $331k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $160k
- Net assets
- $520k
What Alaska Whale Foundation does
Mission
Alaska Whale Foundation is dedicated to marine mammal conservation through research monitoring and education.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Research: The Alaska Whale Foundation continues to conduct research under its Ocean Health Program. The research focuses on establishing causal links between changing ocean conditions, ocean health, and whale health and is conducted in collaboration with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the University of Alaska Southeast.
$92,978 spent$29,714 earned by the program40% of program spendingEcological Monitoring: The Alaska Whale Foundation continued its long-term monitoring program to track the health and abundance of Southeast Alaskas humpback whales and their underlying marine ecosystem. The whale component of this program was launched in 2016 in collaboration with NOAAs Auke Bay Laboratory Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and the University of Alaska Southeast following the removal of the population from the Endangered Species List and subsequent observations suggesting declines in population health and abundance. Each year thereafter AWF has added additional monitoring efforts and expanded the program to include a large portion of northern Southeast Alaska every month from June through September. AWF is also part of the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network. This team of trained responders is authorized to free marine mammals from entanglement and to gather critical information that may reduce the frequency and impact of future entanglements.
$92,979 spent$29,714 earned by the program40% of program spendingEducation: Alaska Whale Foundation provides active learning opportunities and mentorship for graduate students and undergraduate interns through focused training and involvement in both field work and data analyses. Three (3) graduate students and nine (9) interns joined the Alaska Whale Foundation field team in 2024.
$46,489 spent20% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $232,446.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $414k to $616k (+49%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2019 9% · 2020 1% · 2022 26% · 2023 32% · 2024 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
81% of Alaska Whale Foundation’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Andy Szabo
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income fell $10k → $9k.
4 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Alaska Whale Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Alaska Whale Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
61% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Alaska Whale Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 50% · 2020 40% · 2021 99% · 2022 86% · 2023 77% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
29% of Alaska Whale Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
57% of Alaska Whale Foundation's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $69k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Alaska, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $91k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Alaska Whale Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding Alaska Whale Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20k on record.
- Department of Commerce$20k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Alaska Whale Foundation
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Alaska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Alaska Whale Foundation: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Alaska Whale Foundation?
- Alaska Whale Foundation (Alaska) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $159,977 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($70,550). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Alaska Whale Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $159,977 in grants to Alaska Whale Foundation, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Alaska Whale Foundation?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $70,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Alaska Whale Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alaska. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Alaska Whale →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 10 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing