Hawaii · Nonprofit
REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII
REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII (Hawaii) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $350,041 to it, the largest being MANITOU FUND ($130,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $201k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $350k
- Net assets
- $190k
What Reef Guardians Hawaii does
Mission
Reef Guardians' mission is reef preservation through research, restoration, and education.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Education - reef guardians educates the community and builds awareness about coral reef threats and the importance of protecting the reef, wetlands and nearshore environments. Reef camp, reef guardians unique youth environmental education program, operates school field study and school break programs. Serving over 300 children ages 8-13 in 2024, the weekly camps provided instruction in science, arts, hawaiian cultural knowledge and wisdom, and direct learning experiences in the ocean environment. Reef Guardians Hawaii developed and is distributing the "hawaii sealife" app, a free ios/android tool designed for children and families to raise environmental awareness and promote respectful, protective interactions with hawaiis shorelines and reefs. This animal identification app offers engaging educational content to help users to appreciate and safeguard the natural environment.reef guardians launched an extensive environmental education initiative in 2024 called the "ke kula kai online sea school." this program builds on our reef camp curriculum, covering 15 key topics to deepen understanding of ocean ecology and the hawaiian islands. Each topic combines ocean science, conservation,…
$83,381 spent$102,417 earned by the program74% of program spendingResearch and monitoring:- four areas of research and monitoring conducted during this year: study of land-based ocean pollution on kaua?I focused on water quality in anini lagoon, waile?ia stream (princeville), and moloa?a bay. In 2023, Reef Guardians Hawaii published an extensive report with recommended actions. In 2024, we initited a collaborative community-based water quality testing program to continue research and inform remediation and restoration.our monitoring of juvenile white sharks in california led to an extended community/government partnership protecting sharks in their natural near-shore feeding areas. Our drone monitoring of leaking off-shore oil wells in california contributed to a partnership planning study with a multi-agency team funded to address the leaking oil well heads in the santa barbara area. Our monitoring of kaua?I's ocean reefs assisted the hawaii state division of aquatic resources in removing non-native species identified as potentially newly introduced invasive species of high concern.
$29,211 spent$48,679 earned by the program26% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $112,592.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $127k to $190k (+49%).
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: 2020 56%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
84% of REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $36k → $41k.
5 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% 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 GUARDIANS HAWAII’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
REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
32% 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 GUARDIANS HAWAII.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 56% · 2020 50% · 2021 41% · 2022 45% · 2023 61% — 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
33% of REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII draws 68% of its grant income from funders outside Hawaii, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $112k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 GUARDIANS HAWAII runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII
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 Hawaii
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
44%
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 GUARDIANS HAWAII: 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 GUARDIANS HAWAII?
- REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII (Hawaii) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $350,041 to it, the largest being MANITOU FUND ($130,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $350,041 in grants to REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII?
- MANITOU FUND is the largest funder on record, with $130,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like REEF GUARDIANS HAWAII find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Hawaii. 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 Guardians Hawaii →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 14 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