Hawaii · Nonprofit
FOR THE FISHES
FOR THE FISHES (Hawaii) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $844,582 to it, the largest being LAFETRA FOUNDATION ($680,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $133k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $845k
- Net assets
- $223k
What For the Fishes does
Mission
To address, educate, coordinate, and enhance enforcement capacity to end teh trade in coral reef wildlife for household and other small display aquariums. Our supply and demand side strategies are directed locally and globally to facilitate positive shifts at the fishery, distribution, policy and consumer levels.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
1.education and outreach: For the Fishes (ftf) advocates for the end of the capture, purchase, and display of wild marine life in personal saltwater aquariums. Activities include but are not limited to public engagement and advocacy, enforcement, coalition building, and efforts aimed at reducing consumer demand for wild marine life. The focus of ftfs main efforts is hawaii, which as recently as 2017, was the world's third largest source of reef fishes and other creatures for the global marine aquarium trade which supplies wildlife to hobbyists and businesses, alike. Hawaii's comparatively small coral reefs were heavily impacted by decades of over-exploitation. For example, in 2017, hawai?I aquarium collectors captured at least 490,508 marine animals, an amount several times higher than typically taken from australia's entire great barrier reef which is 300 times larger than hawaii's reef area. Heavily targeted species have been depleted by upwards of 90% in some of hawaii's most heavily impacted areas. Ftf has long advocated for the need for better management and solutions. The state's failure to enact rules or legislation to address the trades impacts led ftfs executive director…
$115,373 spent99% of program spending2. Conservation: ftf works to protect coral reef wildlife through reducing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the marine aquarium trade. Activities include, but are not limited to, advocacy, research, and citizen engagement in documenting and reporting suspected illegal activities in the marine aquarium trade. 808-no-poach/anti-poaching efforts: ftf conducted investigations stemming from information provided by concerned citizens in hawaii. Partnering with state and federal law enforcement agencies, ftf laid the groundwork that led to citations, convictions, and large fines for a number of individuals involved in three large aquarium poaching operations on hawaii island. Cyanide fish assessment: experts estimate that upwards of 90% of coral reef fishes sold in the marine aquarium trade are illegally captured with cyanide which is used to paralyze fish for easy capture. Cyanide is highly poisonous to both the vertebrate and invertebrate organisms exposed to it: at higher concentrations it is immediately lethal, and at lower concentrations it causes organ and tissue damage that are irreversible and lead to delayed mortality. Ftf is working with a leading coral expert and…
$1,515 spent1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2022 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $116,888.
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 2022 to 2023, from $122k to $192k (+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.
99% of FOR THE FISHES’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. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $81k → $166k.
3 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 FOR THE FISHES’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
FOR THE FISHES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 81% 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
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 67% · 2019 82% · 2020 77% · 2021 85% · 2022 79% · 2023 82% — 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.
Where its funders are
FOR THE FISHES draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Hawaii, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $144k 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
FOR THE FISHES runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 6,435 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,435 animals nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like FOR THE FISHES
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 Hawaii
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 FOR THE FISHES: 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 FOR THE FISHES?
- FOR THE FISHES (Hawaii) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $844,582 to it, the largest being LAFETRA FOUNDATION ($680,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOR THE FISHES have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $844,582 in grants to FOR THE FISHES, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOR THE FISHES?
- LAFETRA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $680,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOR THE FISHES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Hawaii. 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 For the Fishes →
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 6 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