California · Nonprofit
Mountain Lion Foundation
Mountain Lion Foundation (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $520,435 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($97,381). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $725k
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $520k
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What Mountain Lion Foundation does
Mission
The Mountain Lion Foundation's mission is to ensure that mountain lions survive and flourish in the wild. We do this work by championing broad protections for mountain lions and their habitats across the United States, fostering appreciation of mountain lions and the ecological significance, and cultivating proactive, community-based co-existence for people and lions.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Coexistence - the Mountain Lion Foundation cultivates proactive, community-based coexistence for the protection of both people and lions. We work in communities across the united states to highlight the fact that living with lions is not just possible, but simple. The Mountain Lion Foundation provides information, tools, and advice about protecting lions to a range of people - families, farmers and ranchers, state agency personnel, journalists, rural decision makers, and more - to help communities live peacefully among lions, address cougar encounters as they occur, and give mountain lions everything they need to flourish. In fiscal year 2023-2024, the Mountain Lion Foundation responded with pro-protection information and advice to many dozens of incidents across the country such as lion sightings, suspected depredations, and lion mortalities. We also disseminated information to hobby farmers and other members of the producer community that helped them coexist peacefully with their lion neighbors.
$137,209 spentof which $99 as grants17% of program spendingOutreach and education - the Mountain Lion Foundation fosters appreciation of mountain lions and their ecological significance. Mountain lions are an indispensable keystone species. However, like many top carnivores, mountain lions suffer from some widely held, but false and harmful misconceptions. Our educational outreach dispels those myths and misinformation and helps people to see mountain lions as a vital apex species deserving preservation rather than exploitation. In fiscal year 2023-2024, the Mountain Lion Foundation reached more people across the country than ever before through its strategic engagement of audiences via in-person presentations, refocused social media, the website, revamped emails, new webinar content, and publications. A highlight new publication was the essential guide to recent scientific research on mountain lions.
$406,528 spentof which $100,102 as grants51% of program spendingProtection and advocacy - the Mountain Lion Foundation champions broad protections for mountain lions across the united states. Working with policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels, we empower our members and partners to advocate for strong protection for mountain lions and their habitats. From supporting measures that reduce human-wildlife conflict to pushing for stronger, more science-based regulations on hunting and trapping, we are on the front lines, making pro-lion voices heard. In fiscal year 2023-2024, the Mountain Lion Foundation and its members and partners advocated for proactive, science-based protections for mountain lions in almost every western state. For example, in california, we joined with partners to protect the habitat conservation fund; in utah, we continued our lawsuit to overturn hb469; in washington, we successfully won reductions in the amount on lion hunting allowed in that state; and in texas, we supported a coalition to win the first-ever restrictions on hunting and trapping of texas's mountain lions.
$242,938 spentof which $15,099 as grants30% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$17,985 spentof which $5,000 as grants2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $804,660.
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 2019 to 2020, from $1.7M to $2.5M (+50%).
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 6% · 2022 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of Mountain Lion Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (86% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $27k → $73k.
8 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 Mountain Lion 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
Mountain Lion Foundation 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
70% 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 Mountain Lion Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 53% · 2019 37% · 2020 27% · 2021 49% · 2022 20% · 2023 27% — 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
33% of Mountain Lion Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
54% of Mountain Lion 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 $242k that is directly attributable, 64% of it comes from funders outside California, across 9 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $279k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
Mountain Lion Foundation receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $520k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,693 animals nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Mountain Lion 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 California
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
87%
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 Mountain Lion 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 Mountain Lion Foundation?
- Mountain Lion Foundation (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $520,435 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($97,381). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Mountain Lion Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $520,435 in grants to Mountain Lion Foundation, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Mountain Lion Foundation?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $97,381 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Mountain Lion Foundation 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 28 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