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Wyoming · Nonprofit

COUGAR FUND INC

COUGAR FUND INC (Wyoming) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,139,708 to it, the largest being SPENCER WILSON CHARITABLE TRUST ($770,120). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$343k
Funders on record
10
Grants received
$1.1M
Net assets
$344k
4/10 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Cougar Fund Inc does

Mission

The cougar fund protects cougars, bears, wolves, and other native carnivores throughout the americas by educating children and adults about their essential ecological role, by supporting and promoting sound science, and by monitoring state and regional policies to help ensure a lasting place for these species alongside human communities.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Cougar fund participates in public events, providing opportunities to disseminate educational material, information, and resources promoting current science related to large carnivores. Cougar fund staff attend approximately 100 venues per year, including public presentations,community events, educational programs, and partnerships with organizations throughout wyoming and neighboring states. These events serve a variety of demographics and invite exploration of questions surrounding wildlife management while offering practical solutions promoting the safety of people, pets, livestock, and wildlife itself through prevention and non-lethal deterrence. The organization attends after-school and summer education programs and maintains a remote camera project that collects video footage for educational purposes. Some materials have been translated to increase access to educational resources within the community. The cougar fund provided a research grant to support data collection, movement monitoring, and connectivity identification to mitigate habitat loss.

    $168,352 spent$-3,997 earned by the program
    74% of program spending
  2. Research is an important resource for cougar management. The cougar fund has spent staff time examining proposals for research funding, and is developing a protocol to be able to offer assistance in the future. Our emphasis will be on the latest methods of technology, especially those including non-invasive monitoring and data collection.

    $60,000 spentof which $60,000 as grants
    26% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $228,352.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($117k) Expenses 100 ($221k) Net assets 100 ($3.1M)2018 Revenue 985 ($1.1M) Expenses 1650 ($3.6M) Net assets 15 ($452k)2019 Revenue 181 ($211k) Expenses 236 ($523k) Net assets 4 ($135k)2020 Revenue 168 ($196k) Expenses 84 ($186k) Net assets 5 ($140k)2021 Revenue 150 ($175k) Expenses 93 ($205k) Net assets 4 ($124k)2022 Revenue 194 ($227k) Expenses 82 ($181k) Net assets 5 ($169k)2023 Revenue 86 ($100k) Expenses 78 ($172k) Net assets 3 ($106k)2024 Revenue 231 ($270k) Expenses 66 ($147k) Net assets 8 ($238k)2025 Revenue 294 ($343k) Expenses 112 ($247k) Net assets 11 ($344k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (294)Expenses (112)Net assets (11)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $3.1M to $454k (−85%).

$3.1M
$454k
$137k
$170k
$128k
$170k
$112k
$241k
$348k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

101% of COUGAR FUND INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (86% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 7,042 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$104k
’17
−$2.5M
’18
−$312k
’19
$10k
’20
−$30k
’21
$45k
’22
−$71k
’23
$123k
’24
$96k
’25
13
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed988888884
Joined·+0+0+0+0+0+0+1+0
No longer listed·10000014
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $30k → $271k.

5 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 COUGAR FUND INC’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

COUGAR FUND INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

31% 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 COUGAR FUND INC.

68%
largest funder
97%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 68% · 2019 69% · 2020 76% · 2021 92% · 2022 76% · 2023 66% — broadly stable.

“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

43% of COUGAR FUND INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

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

99% of COUGAR FUND INC's grant income comes from Wyoming funders.

IL
WY

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Wyoming out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $354k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

COUGAR FUND INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,693 animals nonprofits its size.

Operating margin28% · top quartile
Months of reserve12.8mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)14% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,693 animals nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like COUGAR FUND 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 Wyoming

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

92% of spending goes to programs.

Program 92%Management 6%Fundraising 2%

Governance

3
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

99%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

WY

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Spencer Wilson Charitable Trust · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COUGAR FUND 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 COUGAR FUND INC?
COUGAR FUND INC (Wyoming) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,139,708 to it, the largest being SPENCER WILSON CHARITABLE TRUST ($770,120). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does COUGAR FUND INC have?
IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $1,139,708 in grants to COUGAR FUND INC, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of COUGAR FUND INC?
SPENCER WILSON CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $770,120 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like COUGAR FUND INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wyoming. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), 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