California · Nonprofit
Ocean Voyages Institute
Ocean Voyages Institute (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,041,070 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($608,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $582k
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $4.2M
What Ocean Voyages Institute does
Mission
The mission of the institute is preservation of the maritime arts and sciences, ocean environment and island cultures. Over the last couple of years, a primary program has involved solutions.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Ocean Voyages Institute was founded in 1979 and was engaged in local and global sail-training programs until 2009 when ovi did our first major month-long expedition to the north pacific subtropical convergence zone. Since that expedition our focus has become enacting solutions to cleanup of the toxic plastic proliferation besieging our global ocean.during 2023, our major emphasis has become completing the design phase and working on funding two custom designed sailing cargo ships for the specific purpose of effectively removing plastics from our ocean.our ocean cleanup efforts in the north pacific subtropical convergence zone area, (north pacific gyre) have been very effective in removing plastic consumer debris and plastic ghostnets from this region. We have found by using both sailing ships and motor vessels, that using windpower makes the expeditions much more ecological and allows us more reasonable pricing to do the massive removal of plastics necessary for ocean remediation/cleanup. We continue our believe in using our gps satellite trackers for vessels of opportunity to tag ghostnets and other large debris allowing for extremely efficient cleanup. Our voyages have brought…
$201,505 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $201,505.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.9M to $3.3M (+74%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $50k → $167k.
8 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 Ocean Voyages Institute’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
Ocean Voyages Institute has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
65% 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 Ocean Voyages Institute.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 70% · 2019 36% · 2020 34% · 2021 30% · 2022 32% · 2023 30% — 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
19% of Ocean Voyages Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% 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
56% of Ocean Voyages Institute'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 $899k that is directly attributable, 62% of it comes from funders outside California, across 12 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.
Organizations like Ocean Voyages Institute
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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Ocean Voyages 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Ocean Voyages Institute?
- Ocean Voyages Institute (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,041,070 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($608,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Ocean Voyages Institute have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $2,041,070 in grants to Ocean Voyages Institute, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Ocean Voyages Institute?
- MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $608,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Ocean Voyages 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.
Play a game about who funds Ocean Voyages Institute →
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