Texas · Nonprofit
Mercy Ships Foundation
Mercy Ships Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,565,288 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($17,234,104). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 96% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.2M
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $19M
- Net assets
- $268M
What Mercy Ships Foundation does
Mission
The foundation supports the operations of mercy ships international, a qualified 501(c)(3) organization, in the furtherance of its mission.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The foundation is operated as a supporting organization for the support and furtherance of the religious, charitable, and educational tax-exempt purposes of mercy ships international. The foundation is operated exclusively for religious, charitable and educational purposes.
$550 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $550.
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 2020 to 2021, from $100M to $197M (+97%).
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.
43% of Mercy Ships Foundation’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Mike Cowan
Chair, director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $27k → $11M.
15 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 96% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $122M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Mercy Ships International). These are real filings, and they are not money Mercy Ships Foundation raised.
From the IRS filings of Mercy Ships 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
Mercy Ships Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 93% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 Mercy Ships Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 61% · 2019 91% · 2020 38% · 2021 76% · 2022 96% · 2023 97% — 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
14% of Mercy Ships Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
96% of Mercy Ships Foundation'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 $702k that is directly attributable, 70% of it comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M 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.
Against its field
Mercy Ships Foundation holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Mercy Ships 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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
3% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Mercy Ships International · exempt
- Glm Mi Ltd · corp_trust
- Afm Mi Ltd · corp_trust
- Enm Mi Ltd · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Mercy Ships 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 Mercy Ships Foundation?
- Mercy Ships Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,565,288 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($17,234,104). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 96% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Mercy Ships Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $18,565,288 in grants to Mercy Ships Foundation, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Mercy Ships Foundation?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $17,234,104 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Mercy Ships Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 29 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