Colorado · Nonprofit
LIGHTHAWK
LIGHTHAWK (Colorado) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,657,901 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($525,000). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $729k
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Lighthawk does
Mission
Lighthawk flies to save the earth. Lighthawk exists because we know excellent conservation work can be done with aircraft. Most conservation groups are unaware of the efficiency savings and impact to perceptions aerial views can provide. Even when they do, flights may seem unaffordable to them. Lighthawk's conservation professionals identify significant conservation issues and work with leading conservation partner organizations to co-design effective flight campaigns where aviation can quickly accelerate the work to more quickly achieve significant outcomes. Once campaigns are designed, we leverage a nationwide network of more than 350 highly-experienced volunteer pilots who make flights affordable by donating their time, aircraft, expertise and fuel. We are able provide flights to our partners without charge because of the charitable support of our pilots.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education and outreach: 34% of this fiscal year was spent working with partners like the nature conservancy, audubon, surfrider foundation, u.s. Fish and wildlife, among others, as well as legislators at all levels throughout the u.s. Lighthawk flights provided the catalytic aerial perspective that allowed data collection, surveys, monitoring, media output and critical legislative decision makers to evaluate current conditions as well as set future conservation goals and objectives.
$231,630 spent$8,506 earned by the program34% of program spendingResearch and management: land, water and wildlife: 41% of this fiscal year. Lighthawk flights supported land trust oversight and management throughout the us through easement monitoring and evaluation of land for acquisition feasibility and providing compliance and other information otherwise not accessible. Lighthawk flights informed research studies on coastal sea level changes, and other major water areas like the delaware and colorado rivers. Lighthawk flights provided otherwise unavailable data toward annual counts of salmon, various endangered bird species, algal blooms and invasive plant growth, and riparian water rights issues.
$279,319 spent41% of program spendingWildlife transport: 25% of this fiscal year. When covid shut down almost all commercial aviation, it also halted the species transport that some of the major airlines assisted in. This past year saw unprecedented need for moving endangered animals like mexican wolves, masked bobwhite quail and white abalone. For wolves, re-denning pups from conservation breeding centers to new foster mothers in the wild is a critically timed event and Lighthawk flights were crucial to the success of these relocation efforts.
$170,316 spent25% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $681,265.
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 $2.5M to $1.9M (−24%).
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: 2021 12% · 2022 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of LIGHTHAWK’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 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
James Becker
CEO
Board chair
Steve Kent
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $205k → $340k.
8 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 LIGHTHAWK’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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
LIGHTHAWK has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 34% · 2019 28% · 2020 23% · 2021 33% · 2022 32% · 2023 29% — 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
34% of LIGHTHAWK's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
LIGHTHAWK draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 24 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $304k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
LIGHTHAWK's funding base is broadening — from 11 funders to 15 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like LIGHTHAWK
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
47% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 LIGHTHAWK: 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 LIGHTHAWK?
- LIGHTHAWK (Colorado) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,657,901 to it, the largest being Walton Family Foundation Inc ($525,000). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LIGHTHAWK have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $2,657,901 in grants to LIGHTHAWK, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LIGHTHAWK?
- Walton Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $525,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LIGHTHAWK 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 Lighthawk →
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 46 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