California · Nonprofit
OCEANELDERS INC
OCEANELDERS INC (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $520,589 to it, the largest being VIRGIN UNITE USA INC ($250,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $34k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $521k
- Net assets
- $877k
What Oceanelders Inc does
Mission
The primary mission is to protect and value the ocean and its wildlife. We include the protection of all wildlife, land and sea. Activities include a focus on the high seas, marine protected areas, prevention of deep sea mining, and species protection, including coral reefs around the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Regulations of high seas, with a particular focus on deep sea mining. Developed other avenues with other ocean organizations and several social media experts in an effort to educate the public of the long-term damages of deep sea mining. Ocean Elder Victor Vescovo has been active in presenting globally the economic reasons why deep sea mining will not work financially.
$20,000 spent27% of program spendingMarine Protected Areas - efforts continue in the US and with other countries. Ocean Elders continues to support efforts in maintaining existing MPAs, such as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii, and others around the world.
$21,000 spentof which $5,000 as grants28% of program spendingSpecies protection - Ocean Elders has been working to protect species around the world since its inception. We continue to work with other NGOs in the protection of sharks, rays, turtles, corals, tuna, whales, and their habitats as ecosystems are increasingly threatened by human activity. Ocean Elders increased its focus on the protection of coral reefs within the Philippines and the Coral Triangle. We supported local efforts to study the effects of warming seas on corals and to protect those in the region. We worked with Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan, Director of the Br. Alfred Shields FSC Ocean Research Center, of De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. Dr. Licuanan's work is critical to the health and protection of coral reefs, primarily in this region which is in the coral triangle. Ocean Elders was able to secure $34000 for his work this year through the US-based arm of De La Salle University.
$34,000 spentof which $34,000 as grants$34,000 earned by the program45% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $75,000.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $962k to $819k (−15%).
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.
100% of OCEANELDERS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (92% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 6 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
Gigi Brisson
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $127k → $86k.
2 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 OCEANELDERS INC’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
OCEANELDERS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
92% 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 OCEANELDERS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 75% · 2019 93% · 2020 50% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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
13% of OCEANELDERS INC'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
OCEANELDERS INC draws 56% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
OCEANELDERS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,195 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,195 environment nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like OCEANELDERS 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
64% 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 OCEANELDERS 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 OCEANELDERS INC?
- OCEANELDERS INC (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $520,589 to it, the largest being VIRGIN UNITE USA INC ($250,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OCEANELDERS INC have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $520,589 in grants to OCEANELDERS INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OCEANELDERS INC?
- VIRGIN UNITE USA INC is the largest funder on record, with $250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OCEANELDERS INC 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 8 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