Texas · Nonprofit
Mercy Ships International
Mercy Ships International (Texas) receives grants from 1008 organizations whose IRS filings report $122,308,368 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($17,258,003). 609 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $250M
- Funders on record
- 1,008
- Grants received
- $122M
- Net assets
- $430M
What Mercy Ships International does
Mission
Mercy ships operates hospital ships in developing countries through professional volunteer medical and non-medical crew, providing free surgical care to patients and training and education for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Mercy ships also partners with the countries we serve to help create medical infrastructure improvement projects furthering our reach of hope and healing.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Mercy ships follows the 2,000-year-old model of jesus, bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor. In 2025, mercy ships continued providing medical services at no cost, including, but not limited to: - specialty surgeries performed 5,019 - patients evaluated during field consultation for surgery 7,093 - healthcare professionals trained and mentored 1,061 - total number of participant training hours 305,400 - dental procedures 31,863 - volunteer crew 2,152 - crew nationalities represented 75 - trained in nutritional agriculture 12
$149,634,312 spentof which $12,315,701 as grants$32,856 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $149,634,312.
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 $252M to $383M (+52%).
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 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of Mercy Ships International’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Board chair
Gary Brown
CHAIRMAN/ Interim CEO
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 115 funders to 442 funders, grant income rose $4.0M → $18M.
88 of 1008 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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: $195M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Mercy Ships Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Mercy Ships International raised.
From the IRS filings of Mercy Ships International’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 1008 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
Mercy Ships International has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
60% 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 International.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 49% · 2019 23% · 2020 19% · 2021 25% · 2022 14% · 2023 14% — 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
48% of Mercy Ships International'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
57% of Mercy Ships International'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 $52M that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from funders outside Texas, across 49 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $70M arriving through sponsors registered in 30 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 International runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 59 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 59 international nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Organizations like Mercy Ships International
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 24 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Mercy Ships Community of Faith LLC · disregarded
- Mercy Ships Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Mercy Ships International: 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 International?
- Mercy Ships International (Texas) receives grants from 1008 organizations whose IRS filings report $122,308,368 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($17,258,003). 609 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Mercy Ships International have?
- IRS filings report 1008 organizations giving $122,308,368 in grants to Mercy Ships International, 609 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Mercy Ships International?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $17,258,003 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Mercy Ships International 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 1008 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing