Florida · Nonprofit
REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION
REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION (Florida) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,485,076 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($650,524). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.6M
- Funders on record
- 48
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $8.1M
What Reef Environmental Education Foundation does
Mission
Reef Environmental Education Foundation (reef) was established as a nonprofit organization in 1990. Reef conserves marine environments worldwide. Our mission is to protect biodiversity and ocean life by actively engaging and inspiring the public through citizen science, education, and partnerships with the scientific community. Reef connects ocean enthusiasts and the dive community with scientists and resource managers through data collection activities and education initiatives. The reef campus in key largo, fl serves as a visitors center for education and outreach to the public.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In 2023, reef continued to protect marine environments through education, service and research. Reef provides education and outreach activities to build and inspire a community of ocean stewards. The reef campus in key largo fl serves as a visitors center to educate and engage the public with marine conservation. We also conduct online programming such as webinars and other interactive content. We conduct in-person programming led by reef staff as well as the wide network of partners including dive shops and clubs, nature centers, and public aquaria. Public engagement with conservation is also fulfilled through the volunteer fish survey project, regarded as one of the most effective and powerful ocean citizen science programs. It gives divers and snorkelers an engaging and meaningful way to support marine conservation. Participants scuba dive and snorkel to collect and report information on marine fish populations as well as sea turtles and select invertebrate and algae species. This data is used to better understand and protect ocean ecosystems worldwide. Fisheries protections around the world depend on high-quality data. With reef data, submitted by citizen scientists,…
$2,458,151 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,458,151.
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 2023 to 2024, from $3.7M to $6.9M (+88%).
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 9% · 2018 1% · 2020 2% · 2021 35% · 2022 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
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.
Board chair
Marta Hilton Bonatz
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $45k → $333k.
12 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 78% 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 REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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
REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
83% 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 REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 44% · 2019 33% · 2020 25% · 2021 29% · 2022 17% · 2023 30% — 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.
How long its funders stay
35% of REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
78% of REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 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 $536k that is directly attributable, 86% of it comes from funders outside Florida, across 16 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 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 Florida
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
99%
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 REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 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 REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION?
- REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION (Florida) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,485,076 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($650,524). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $2,485,076 in grants to REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $650,524 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like REEF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Florida. 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 Reef Environmental Education →
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 48 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