Indiana · Nonprofit
MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC
MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC (Indiana) receives grants from 160 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,195,512 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,392,142). 85 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
Against its field
MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,336 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,336 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared funders
- The Maue Kay Foundationportfolio match
- Utah Zoological Societyportfolio match
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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.
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 MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 60 funders, grant income rose $9k → $908k.
18 of 160 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 160 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
MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
65% 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 MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 57% · 2019 69% · 2020 59% · 2021 29% · 2022 18% · 2023 47% — 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
26% of MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
63% of MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC'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 $2.7M that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from funders outside Indiana, across 29 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.5M 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 160 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared fundersWA · backs 109 organizations that share your funders
- The Maue Kay Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Utah Zoological Societyportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Zoological Society of Cincinnatiportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Friends of the Zoo Inc of Kansas City Missouri C/O Linda Falkportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Conservation Society of Californiaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Columbus Zoological Park Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Holtzman Wildlife Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Fort Wayne Zoological Society Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Givinga Foundation Incshared fundersMA · backs 100 organizations that share your funders
- Tiaa Charitable Incshared fundersNC · backs 142 organizations that share your funders
- Pledgeling Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 139 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Indiana
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
92%
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 MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC?
- MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC (Indiana) receives grants from 160 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,195,512 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,392,142). 85 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC have?
- IRS filings report 160 organizations giving $7,195,512 in grants to MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC, 85 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,392,142 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT USA INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Indiana. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 160funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing