California · Nonprofit
MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE
MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,464,911 to it, the largest being Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc ($1,133,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE has grown faster than half of the 11,749 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,749 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
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.
- Climateworks Foundationshared funders
- National Marine Sanctuary Foundationportfolio match
- The G Unger Vetlesen Foundationportfolio match
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.
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 11% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $382k → $1.2M.
13 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% 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
49% 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 MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 43% · 2019 28% · 2020 26% · 2021 27% · 2022 14% · 2023 42% — 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
31% of MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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 55 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Climateworks Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 91 organizations that share your funders
- National Marine Sanctuary Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The G Unger Vetlesen Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Bonnell Cove Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systemsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Schmidt Ocean Instituteportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Bow Seat Creative Action for Conservationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Gulf of Mexico Allianceportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Volgenau Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Environmental Defense Fund Incorporatedshared fundersNY · backs 96 organizations that share your funders
- American Council of Learned Societiesshared fundersNY · backs 71 organizations that share your funders
- American Chemical Societyshared fundersDC · backs 75 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 MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE: 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 MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE?
- MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,464,911 to it, the largest being Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc ($1,133,000). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $6,464,911 in grants to MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE?
- Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,133,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 55funders 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