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North Carolina · Nonprofit

GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY

GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY (North Carolina) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $278,430 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($140,580). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$360k
Funders on record
7
Grants received
$278k
Net assets
$485k
3/7 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 40%
01What it does

What Great Whale Conservancy does

Mission

Protecting whales and their habitats

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Educational outreach and conservation efforts, increasing public awareness and supporting the protection of large whales and their habitats.

    $235,486 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $235,486.

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 ($50) Expenses 100 ($30k) Net assets 0 ($0)2018 Revenue 111112 ($56k) Expenses 131 ($39k) Net assets 100 ($97k)2019 Revenue 110804 ($55k) Expenses 200 ($60k) Net assets 69 ($67k)2020 Revenue 151166 ($76k) Expenses 226 ($67k) Net assets 78 ($76k)2021 Revenue 156140 ($78k) Expenses 281 ($84k) Net assets 72 ($70k)2022 Revenue 431672 ($216k) Expenses 189 ($56k) Net assets 209 ($203k)2023 Revenue 419472 ($210k) Expenses 490 ($146k) Net assets 293 ($285k)2024 Revenue 565120 ($283k) Expenses 626 ($187k) Net assets 392 ($381k)2025 Revenue 719176 ($360k) Expenses 856 ($255k) Net assets 500 ($485k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (719176)Expenses (856)Net assets (500)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 2021 to 2022, from $75k to $203k (+170%).

$0
$97k
$72k
$81k
$75k
$203k
$290k
$381k
$486k
'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: 2025 78%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

100% of GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY’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. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$30k
’17
$17k
’18
−$4k
’19
$8k
’20
−$6k
’21
$160k
’22
$64k
’23
$96k
’24
$105k
’25
23
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.

2022202320242025
Listed1111
Joined····
No longer listed····
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $15k → $26k.

2 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY’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

GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.

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

59% 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 GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY.

50%
largest funder
94%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 98% · 2019 51% · 2020 67% · 2021 98% · 2022 82% · 2023 98% — 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.

Where its funders are

58% of GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY'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 $118k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside North Carolina, across 4 states.

NY
MA
CA
FL

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

’18
’19
’21
’22
’23
North Carolina out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $161k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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

GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,693 animals nonprofits its size.

Operating margin29% · top quartile
Months of reserve22.9mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)203% · top quartile

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

Organizations like GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY

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 North Carolina

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 7%Fundraising 0%

Governance

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

Public support

100%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY: 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.

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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 GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY?
GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY (North Carolina) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $278,430 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($140,580). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY have?
IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $278,430 in grants to GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $140,580 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Great Whale Conservancy →

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 7 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