Florida · Nonprofit
MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC
MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC (Florida) receives grants from 298 organizations whose IRS filings report $75,730,049 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($18,639,291). 186 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $83M
- Funders on record
- 298
- Grants received
- $76M
- Net assets
- $181M
What Mote Marine Laboratory Inc does
Mission
The advancement of marine and environmental sciences through scientific research, education and public outreach, leading new discoveries, revitalization and sustainability of our oceans and greater public understanding of our marine resources.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Research mote is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)3 marine research organization based in sarasota, florida, with seven total research and education locations from sarasota to key west. Mote has 22 diverse research programs working in our home community of southwest florida and in oceans around the world. Mote's mission is to advance marine and environmental science through world-class research, education and public outreach leading to new discoveries, revitalization and sustainability of earth's ocean resources and to a greater public understanding of our marine ecosystems. We emphasize conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity, healthy habitats and natural resources. Mote is one of the few independent marine labs in the world having a global impact. As such, we nurture the scientific innovation and flexibility needed to address the most pressing ocean issues of our time. Mote is also unique because we translate our scientific discoveries through a public aquarium and structured education programs. Our vision also includes positively impacting public policy by building a more ocean-literate society. Mote features a 10.5-acre campus on sarasota bay in sarasota,…
$22,611,703 spent$23,599,831 earned by the program64% of program spendingAquarium mote marine aquarium in sarasota, florida, is the public education and outreach facility for mote marine laboratory and is dedicated to translating and transferring mote's cutting-edge science to the public. This rare combination of research and dedicated outreach make mote an international destination and a southwest florida gem. Typically open 365 days per year, mote marine aquarium features hundreds of marine species from local to international ocean ecosystems which enhance public ocean literacy to support conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. In fy2025, visitors neared 220,000. Established in 1980, the aquarium has grown to feature several species of sharks and numerous species of bony fishes, sea turtles and terrapins; a florida watershed exhibit featuring native species including manatees, north american river otters, alligators, roseate spoonbills and a gopher tortoise; invertebrates including multiple species of reef-building corals, mollusks and crustaceans, and related displays of science, technology and conservation content. Mote aquarium biologists undertake multiple efforts to breed and raise marine organisms such as gobies and seahorses…
$8,060,699 spent$4,547,860 earned by the program23% of program spendingEducation mote marine laboratory's commitment to sharing ocean literacy begins with pre-k children and extends to people of all ages and societal backgrounds. Mote operates more than 60 stem (science, technology, engineering and math) education and outreach programs, including in-school programs and field trips, public programs throughout the year, year-round camps, community outreach programs that reach students historically underrepresented in science, teacher professional development workshops, digital learning programs that reach audiences far and wide, adult lifelong learning courses, educational events such as lectures and science cafes, scout programs, homeschool programs and more. In fy2025, mote's education programs reached nearly 44,000 people. Mote programs are designed to instill essential stem concepts, help participants discover careers in marine science and better understand ocean ecosystems, the scientific method, conservation issues, ocean technology, the importance of environmental stewardship and other key concepts. Mote leads the multi-partner louis stokes alliance for minority participation (lsamp): marine science laboratory alliance center of excellence…
$1,805,075 spentof which $579,098 as grants$584,042 earned by the program5% of program spendingProtect our reefsflorida's coral reef is the third-largest barrier coral reef system in the world. It provides essential ecological services, protects coastlines from major storm impacts and is crucial to florida's economy, with an asset value of $8.5 billion.this natural treasure has declined drastically over the past few decades due to major coral disease outbreaks, local to regional human impacts, heat-driven coral bleaching, and long-term climate change that is stressing corals in florida and around the world.mote marine laboratory's protect our reefs program focuses on addressing these and other challenges by supporting coral reef research, restoration, conservation and education in florida. The protect our reefs (por) specialty license plate was approved by the florida legislature in july 2003 and is available to florida-licensed drivers. Each plate sale provides $25 for reef research, restoration, conservation and education in florida, including a special protect our reefs grants program. 37.5% of revenues support grants and an additional 37.5% of revenues supports mote's coral reef research and restoration. In general, por grant priorities are similar to those outlined by…
$2,800,044 spentof which $124,192 as grants$2,717,602 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $35,277,521.
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.
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 $138M to $201M (+46%).
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 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Chief executive
Michael P Crosby Phd
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 67 funders to 146 funders, grant income rose $3.4M → $8.3M.
43 of 298 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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: $13M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Mote Marine Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC raised.
From the IRS filings of MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 298 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
MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
72% 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 MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 21% · 2019 23% · 2020 17% · 2021 15% · 2022 11% · 2023 12% — 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
52% of MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
58% of MOTE MARINE LABORATORY 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 $32M that is directly attributable, 70% of it comes from funders outside Florida, across 31 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $44M arriving through sponsors registered in 20 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.
Government funding MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $35.3M on record — $29.7M federal, $5.5M state.
- Department of Commerce$20.4M
- National Science Foundation$5.2M
- Environmental Protection Agency$1.4M
- Department of the Interior$1.4M
- Department of Agriculture$1.3M
- STATE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE - GENERAL $4.9M
- FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE - GENERAL $459k
- CONTRACTED SERVICES - OTHER $124k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $17k
- TRAVEL - IN STATE - LODGING $160
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 MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC
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 Florida
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Mote Marine Foundation Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MOTE MARINE LABORATORY 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC?
- MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC (Florida) receives grants from 298 organizations whose IRS filings report $75,730,049 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($18,639,291). 186 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC have?
- IRS filings report 298 organizations giving $75,730,049 in grants to MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC, 186 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $18,639,291 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MOTE MARINE LABORATORY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Florida. 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 298 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