California · Nonprofit
ELEPHANTVOICES
ELEPHANTVOICES (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $572,810 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($255,616). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $381k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $573k
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Elephantvoices does
Mission
To inspire wonder in the intelligence, complexity, and voices of elephants and to secure a kinder future for them through conservation, research, and sharing of knowledge.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Conservation and research: continued with the curation of our elephant calls database; held discussions with us based collaborators in the joint analysis of our elephant communication data; drafted manuscripts on elephant communication and cognition, including on possible humor and pointing behavior in elephants and in documenting further advances on elephant communication; reviewed scientific papers. Followed on from our joint discovery that elephants create and use names for one another, hired dr. Mickey pardo as senior scientist to lead upcoming continuing investigation into elephant communication; participated in the task force of iucn's african elephant specialist group, where dr. Joyce poole is a member; spoke at the mall galleries, london, in support of the uk government's bill to ban imports of wildlife trophies
$175,185 spent57% of program spendingWelfare: networked globally for elephants and their welfare; wrote letters regarding elephant welfare policy and affidavits on behalf of individual elephants and communicated with others about potential action and improvements for elephants in need; acted as an expert witness for the non-human rights project's effort to gain habeas corpus for elephants; participated in the berggruen institute's multispecies constitution project.
$30,321 spent10% of program spendingEducation: continued to promote the elephant ethogram: a library of african elephant behavior via external media; maintained Elephantvoices.org (started the process of developing a new and more modern version), fb.com/Elephantvoices, instagram.com/Elephantvoices and x.com/Elephantvoices, linkedin.com/company/Elephantvoices and communicated with those active on our social media; acted as scientific advisor for the development and filming of a pbs documentary about male elephant behavior; gave advice to other elephant documentaries; gave scores of interviews for news articles, tv segments and radio broadcasts; provided american museum of natural history with additional multimedia material for their traveling exhibit the secret world of elephants; advised and assisted students, reviewed scientific papers and wrote recommendations; communicated with international media about elephants and their behavior, conservation, and welfare.
$99,276 spent33% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $304,782.
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 2023 to 2024, from $679k to $1.1M (+57%).
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.
94% of ELEPHANTVOICES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (86% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $20k → $126k.
3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 ELEPHANTVOICES’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
ELEPHANTVOICES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
88% 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 ELEPHANTVOICES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 68% · 2018 69% · 2019 58% · 2020 43% · 2021 41% · 2022 52% · 2023 49% — 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
80% of ELEPHANTVOICES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
70% of ELEPHANTVOICES'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 $171k that is directly attributable, 58% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $401k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
ELEPHANTVOICES holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,693 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,693 animals nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like ELEPHANTVOICES
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ELEPHANTVOICES: 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 ELEPHANTVOICES?
- ELEPHANTVOICES (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $572,810 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($255,616). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ELEPHANTVOICES have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $572,810 in grants to ELEPHANTVOICES, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ELEPHANTVOICES?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $255,616 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ELEPHANTVOICES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Elephantvoices →
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 12 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