Washington · Nonprofit
ORCA NETWORK
ORCA NETWORK (Washington) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,413,119 to it, the largest being Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc ($1,000,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $2.4M
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Orca Network does
Mission
Public education about whales of the pacific northwest: their habitat, health, and safety needs. Data gathering and reporting to scientific researchers.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Education, events and outreach: education coordinator, staff and volunteers coordinated Orca Network events and presentations, with in-person, online and hybrid educational experiences offered. Staff educated hundreds of school students of all ages, conducted field trips, and trained pods of volunteers to do outreach through regional fairs, festivals, and events: 55 educational events,3 volunteer trainings, serving over 50,000 online and through youtube recordings in 2023, and reaching over a million people through our new website and social media sites. Staff created educational materials to raise awareness about the endangered southern resident orcas and other whales and marine mammals of the salish sea, and engaged participants in actions to help the whales and to share what they learned within their own communities across western washington. Staff also attended 45 advocacy meetings to speak on behalf of our endangered orcas. Our share the water safe boating webinars and materials educated nearly 3,000 boaters about how to be safe around whales and marine mammals when boating in the salish sea.
$165,761 spent$36,027 earned by the program25% of program spendingWhale sighting network and orcasound listening project: the whale sighting network provided researchers, government agencies, and the public with detailed whale sighting reports gathered by staff, volunteers, and the general public. Through our continued involvement with the orcasound listening project we provide researchers, government agencies, and the public with the ability to monitor whales and ship traffic noise through hydrophones using the orcasound hydrophone system and collecting and sharing whale reports via an online app, social media, emails, phone/text, and website. Our sightings outreach increased to include 16,000 on our sightings network email list, over 271,000 on our Orca Network facebook social media pages, and 1250 on our whale sighting text alert list to educate and share whale sightings and info. To people in washington state and around the world. Data from these whale sightings provides trends in habitat use, population status, and the health of endangered orcas in the pacific nw. Orca Network collected and shared over 14,847 whale reports in 2023, collected by staff and 3000 citizen scientists and volunteers. We have continued with a four person sighting…
$359,706 spentof which $180,000 as grants$14,900 earned by the program54% of program spendingLangley whale center: the langley whale center served 29,000 visitors in 2023, finally returning to pre-covid numbers. Monthly youth activities continued online, with 13 youth zoom activities held, reaching over 444 kids. Six field trips serving 152 students were carried out at the whale center, and 31 volunteers gave 1911 hours of time to help us keep the center open with no admission charge. Marine mammal specimens collected by our marine mammal stranding network were displayed along with education and displays about the work done by stranding staff and volunteers, who respond to hundreds of calls about stranded marine mammals on the beach throughout the year. Whale center and education staff are busy creating and updating displays and exhibits seasonally, and as new information and science becomes available. Several major new exhibits are in the works.
$141,875 spent21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $667,342.
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 2021 to 2022, from $687k to $1.0M (+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: 2017 4% · 2018 5% · 2019 1% · 2020 13% · 2021 7% · 2022 3% · 2023 7% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of ORCA NETWORK’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (74% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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 5 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $120k → $388k.
11 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 ORCA NETWORK’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
ORCA NETWORK leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 94% · 2019 65% · 2020 51% · 2021 52% · 2022 47% · 2023 52% — 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
39% of ORCA NETWORK's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
ORCA NETWORK draws 53% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $272k 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
ORCA NETWORK holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,559 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,559 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding ORCA NETWORK receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $307k on record.
- Department of Commerce$285k
- Department of Defense$22k
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 ORCA NETWORK
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
50%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ORCA NETWORK: 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 ORCA NETWORK?
- ORCA NETWORK (Washington) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,413,119 to it, the largest being Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc ($1,000,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ORCA NETWORK have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $2,413,119 in grants to ORCA NETWORK, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ORCA NETWORK?
- Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ORCA NETWORK find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 35 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