California · Nonprofit
HEAL THE BAY
HEAL THE BAY (California) receives grants from 211 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,300,316 to it, the largest being ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC ($688,810). 117 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.3M
- Funders on record
- 211
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What Heal the Bay does
Mission
Heal the Bay is dedicated to making southern california coastal waters and watersheds, including santa monica bay, safe, healthy and clean. The organization uses research, education, community action and advocacy to pursue its mission.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Membership and educationHeal the Bay is dedicated to educating the public about making southern california coastal waters and watersheds, including santa monica bay, safe, healthy and clean.
$1,822,754 spent42% of program spendingSanta monica pier aquariumHeal the Bay operates the santa monica pier aquarium, which is located beach level at the east end of the santa monica pier. The santa monica pier aquarium provides a unique, hands-on way to interact with local marine life in a safe and educational environment. The aquarium features live exhibits, including a shark tank, eels and tide-pool touch tanks, while promoting the conservation and protection of california coastal habitats. The Heal the Bay aquarium attracts over 20,000 school children and 60,000 public visitors each year.
$1,534,304 spent$360,189 earned by the program35% of program spendingResearch and advocacyHeal the Bay's unique approach of expert research combined with volunteer action and public education programs has been tremendously successful in working with local and federal government, industry and the public to clean up santa monica bay and southern california coastal waters. There is a clear track record of scientific evidence that the overall health of the bay has improved due to Heal the Bay's actions.
$839,510 spent19% of program spendingAdvocacy and lobbyingHeal the Bay campaigns for tough legislation that keeps harmful plastic out of the pacific ocean and the environment, advocates for the end of fossil fuel extraction offshore and in our neighborhoods, and raises awareness about sea level rise, global warming, coastal erosion, and other local impacts of climate change and presses local and state regulators to take action.
$178,894 spent4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,375,462.
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 2018 to 2019, from $2.1M to $4.5M (+122%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 9% · 2018 14% · 2019 8% · 2020 9% · 2021 19% · 2022 34% · 2023 14% · 2024 13% · 2025 17%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of HEAL THE BAY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Tracy Quinn
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 62 funders to 78 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $1.2M.
22 of 211 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 HEAL THE BAY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 211 funders by total. 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
HEAL THE BAY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 7% of grant income, and it takes 11 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 11 funders to its left
43% 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 HEAL THE BAY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 11% · 2018 14% · 2019 37% · 2020 12% · 2021 16% · 2022 12% · 2023 15% — 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.
How long its funders stay
39% of HEAL THE BAY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
74% of HEAL THE BAY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
HEAL THE BAY's funding base is broadening — from 62 funders to 78 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like HEAL THE BAY
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 HEAL THE BAY: 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 HEAL THE BAY?
- HEAL THE BAY (California) receives grants from 211 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,300,316 to it, the largest being ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC ($688,810). 117 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HEAL THE BAY have?
- IRS filings report 211 organizations giving $10,300,316 in grants to HEAL THE BAY, 117 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HEAL THE BAY?
- ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC is the largest funder on record, with $688,810 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HEAL THE BAY 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 Heal the Bay →
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 211 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing