Montana · Nonprofit
POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP
POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP (Montana) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $568,554 to it, the largest being THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ($423,554). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $40k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $569k
- Net assets
- $185k
What Polar Oceans Research Group does
Mission
Environmental research to understand how polar ecosystems function; attract train and educate technicians students and future scientists and teachers; provide long-term ecological data and research findings to the general public free of cost.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Collaborative field research and data analysis; preparation of manuscripts for publication in scientific journals; graduate student mentoring; research findings outreach to the general public through museums popular articles and k-12 interactions.
$53,386 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $53,386.
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 $208k to $339k (+63%).
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.
0% of POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (92% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2021: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $187k → $10k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 75% 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 POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP’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
POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP leans on a few funders — its largest provides 74% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 72% · 2019 87% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% — growing more concentrated.
“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.
Where its funders are
74% of POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP'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 $145k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Montana, across 1 state.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $424k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP's revenue fell 72% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,152 environment nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Government funding POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $291k on record.
- National Science Foundation$291k
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 POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP
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 Montana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
99%
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 POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP: 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 POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP?
- POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP (Montana) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $568,554 to it, the largest being THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ($423,554). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 74% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $568,554 in grants to POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP?
- THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK is the largest funder on record, with $423,554 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like POLAR OCEANS RESEARCH GROUP find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Montana. 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 Polar Oceans Research Group →
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 2 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