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Colorado · Nonprofit

ELEPHANT ENERGY INC

ELEPHANT ENERGY INC (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,005 to it, the largest being BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION ($35,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2020
$11k
Funders on record
5
Grants received
$61k
Net assets
$0
0/5 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 30%
01What it does

What Elephant Energy Inc does

Mission

Elephant Energy's mission is to use the power of entrepreneurship to solve energy challenges in rural Africa.

As stated on its FY2020 Form 990.

Program

Elephant Energy worked to train entrepreneurs in market centers in rural areas of Namibia, Africa to distribute clean energy technologies, such as solar-powered lights and cell phone chargers. Elephant Energy ceased operations in 2020 as a result of a cancelled major grant payment and a lack of additional resources to continue operations.

The first program described on its most recent Form 990, which lists programs largest first by expense.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($509k) Expenses 100 ($311k) Net assets 100 ($315k)2018 Revenue 30 ($152k) Expenses 107 ($332k) Net assets 37 ($118k)2019 Revenue 17 ($84k) Expenses 50 ($155k) Net assets 15 ($48k)2020 Revenue 2 ($11k) Expenses 5 ($16k) Net assets 0 ($0)
2017201820192020
Revenue (2)Expenses (5)Net assets (0)

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 $324k to $153k (−53%).

$324k
$153k
$57k
$0
2017201820192020
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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 100% · 2018 30% · 2019 0% · 2020 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.

$198k
’17
−$181k
’18
−$70k
’19
−$5k
’20
0.5
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.

2017201820192020
Listed1010113
Joined·+0+3+0
No longer listed·028
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2020: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $45k → $5.

1 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 ELEPHANT ENERGY 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

ELEPHANT ENERGY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 57% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.

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

41% 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 ELEPHANT ENERGY INC.

57%
largest funder
98%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 78% · 2019 94% · 2020 100% — growing more concentrated.

“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.

Where its funders are

ELEPHANT ENERGY INC draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 3 states in all.

NY
CO
MD

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

’18
’19
Colorado out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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

Organizations like ELEPHANT ENERGY 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 Colorado

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

3% of spending goes to programs.

Program 3%Management 97%Fundraising 0%

Governance

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

Public support

92%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CO

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Elephant Energy Trust · disregarded

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ELEPHANT ENERGY 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 ELEPHANT ENERGY INC?
ELEPHANT ENERGY INC (Colorado) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,005 to it, the largest being BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION ($35,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ELEPHANT ENERGY INC have?
IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $61,005 in grants to ELEPHANT ENERGY INC.
Who is the largest funder of ELEPHANT ENERGY INC?
BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $35,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ELEPHANT ENERGY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. 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 Elephant Energy →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2020 (financials across 2017–2020), and the filings of 5 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