Hawaii · Nonprofit
Malama Kai Foundation
Malama Kai Foundation (Hawaii) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $133,139 to it, the largest being NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION ($28,800). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $544k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $133k
- Net assets
- $342k
What Malama Kai Foundation does
Mission
The purpose of the organization is to foster ocean stewardship for current and future generations through community involvement and public education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Working together with our partners, we enhance marine and coastal protection in Hawaii through education, outreach, and community-based resource management. MKF works with the State to maintain the statewide system of day-use mooring buoys as a way to prevent anchor damage in Hawaiis nearshore waters. We offer a Ridge-to-Reef education program focused on science, outdoor skills and mentorship experiences through regular school visits and watershed-based field trips. MKF also hosts a monthly lecture series on ocean conservation.
$496,995 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $496,995.
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 $200k to $358k (+79%).
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: 2020 94% · 2022 25% · 2023 23% · 2024 55% · 2025 58%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of Malama Kai Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (73% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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 narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $33k → $13k.
3 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 Malama Kai Foundation’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
Malama Kai Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
62% 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 Malama Kai Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 60% · 2021 85% · 2022 100% · 2023 77% — 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
25% of Malama Kai Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 10% 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
Malama Kai Foundation draws 78% of its grant income from funders outside Hawaii, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $44k 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
Malama Kai Foundation has grown faster than three-quarters of the 850 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 850 unclassified nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding Malama Kai Foundation receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $550k on record.
- Department of Commerce$550k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Malama Kai Foundation
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.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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 Malama Kai Foundation: 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 Malama Kai Foundation?
- Malama Kai Foundation (Hawaii) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $133,139 to it, the largest being NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION ($28,800). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Malama Kai Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $133,139 in grants to Malama Kai Foundation, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Malama Kai Foundation?
- NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $28,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Malama Kai Foundation 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 Malama Kai →
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 10 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