Florida · Nonprofit
Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc
Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc (Florida) receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,736,281 to it, the largest being Richard O Jacobson Foundation ($3,000,000). 59 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $23M
- Funders on record
- 109
- Grants received
- $8.7M
- Net assets
- $74M
What Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc does
Mission
We believe in preserving our environnment while inspiring the human spirit through leadership in the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine life, environmental education, research and conservation.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Education:In FY 2024, Education Department hosted the Creepy Sea Cavern event as well as the Blizzard Bay event where we opened the Education floor to the public. The Education team taught guests about creepy sea creatures in the depths of the oceans or arctic animals and connected them back with our resident animals at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.For the summer of 2024, the department educated over 1,300 summer campers on marine conservation and stewardship in the R.O. Jacobson Education Center. The summer campers receive a hands-on, educational summer camp experience with lessons covering marine life and conservation. Students are then able to make real-world connections with the environment through offsite field trips, kayaking, and snorkeling adventures.For 2024, nearly 10,000 students and guests participated in educational programming onsite including new programming; such as, Junior Career Quest and Night at the Aquarium. In addition, the Aquarium continued to provide programming to long-standing program partners specializing in travel education.For the 11th year in a row, the "Trash to Toys" contest was conducted to celebrate Earth Day. Local Pinellas and Hillsborough County…
$860,991 spent$1,525,547 earned by the program5% of program spendingZoological Care:Clearwater Marine Aquarium's Zoological Care team had a landmark year focused on advancing animal welfare, expanding rehabilitation programs, and engaging the community through meaningful education and conservation initiatives.Animal Care specialists provided exceptional care across the collection, including developing a long-term treatment plan for Walle, a 13-year-old river otter facing mobility challenges, and successfully integrating Opie, a rescued otter, into Otter Oasis alongside Boomer and Walle. The team achieved annual revenue goals early through expanded guest programs such as Paint with a Dolphin and pelican encounters, pairing hands-on experiences with conservation messaging. Animal Care also advanced research initiatives in partnership with the National Marine Mammal Foundation to implement computerized cognitive enrichment for rough-toothed dolphins, aiming to improve welfare and contribute to marine mammal science.Rescue operations were a core focus, with CMA coordinating eight manatee rescues, transports, and releases, supporting stranding responses, and participating in a sperm whale necropsy. The Rescue team also advanced professional readiness…
$1,378,694 spent$615,833 earned by the program7% of program spendingAnimal Health:For fiscal year 2024, the animal health team released 39 sea turtles along with 392 sea turtle hatchlings, which included our very first leatherback hatchlings. In the fall, the hospital was significantly affected from Hurricane Helene which caused over almost four feet of water affecting the surgical suite, medical laboratory and rehabilitation pools. With the damage, the rehabilitation area closed temporarily for six weeks. Despite the challenges during the recovery, the veterinary team was able to continue to provide care for the 1100+ resident animals at CMA.
$1,090,206 spent$140,351 earned by the program6% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$15,640,766 spent82% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $18,970,657.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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 2018 to 2019, from $73M to $97M (+34%).
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: 2017 15% · 2018 1% · 2019 40% · 2020 2% · 2021 26% · 2022 10% · 2023 47% · 2024 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
38% of Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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
Joe Handy
President & CEO
Board chair
Eric Busch
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 34 funders, grant income fell $629k → $606k.
17 of 109 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 109 funders by total. 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
Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
32% 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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 95% · 2019 18% · 2020 61% · 2021 21% · 2022 44% · 2023 17% — 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
39% of Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside Florida, across 25 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $8.7M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 235 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.3M on record — $1.2M federal, $1.1M state.
- Department of the Interior$911k
- Department of Commerce$286k
- STATE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE - GENERAL $1.0M
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $71k
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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc
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 Florida
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Sea to Shore Alliance Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc: 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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc?
- Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc (Florida) receives grants from 109 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,736,281 to it, the largest being Richard O Jacobson Foundation ($3,000,000). 59 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc have?
- IRS filings report 109 organizations giving $8,736,281 in grants to Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc, 59 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc?
- Richard O Jacobson Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $3,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Florida. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 109 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