California · Nonprofit
The Gorilla Foundation
The Gorilla Foundation (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $243,826 to it, the largest being The White Pine Fund ($44,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $-339439
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $244k
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What The Gorilla Foundation does
Mission
To bring interspecies communication to the public, in order to save gorillas from extinction, and inspire our children to create a sustainable future for all great apes.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
EDUCATION: (aka KokoConnects) a) We continued to create and post weekly videos from our 5-decade archive featuring Koko, Ndume, Michael, and their caregivers, thereby educating the public about the true cognitive and emotional capacities of gorillas.b) We created Koko Signs pre/post surveys to help increase and evaluate the conservation impact of the app in shifting knowledge and behaviors toward gorilla protection.
$232,429 spent31% of program spendingRESEARCH: (aka KokoConnects)a) We continued to analyze our 2,000-hour research video collection for interspecies communication topics that make strong subjects for further analysis and public discussion.b) We added new signs, conversations, and interviews (KokoCasts) to the Koko Signs app, enhancing its value for conservation-education curriculum development.c) We created Koko Signs pre/post surveys to help measure the apps impact on changing attitudes toward, and actions on behalf of, gorillas.
$215,266 spent28% of program spendingWELFARE: (aka KokoCares)In FYE2025 we began a partnership with The Aspinall Foundation to design a state-of-the-art gorilla sanctuary in the Republic of Congo. Borrowing design concepts from the earlier 71-acre Maui Gorilla Sanctuary, we began planning a 300-acre, scalable site capable of accommodating both zoo-born gorillas seeking a more natural life and wild-born orphaned gorillas preparing for rewilding. The Aspinall Foundation brings decades of rewilding experience, and the Congo site lies within a protected national reserve with over 40 years of zero gorilla poaching. A Memorandum of Understanding is nearing completion, enabling us to engage a world-class designer in 2026 to convert conceptual plans into construction plans.
$212,322 spent28% of program spendingConservation: (aka: KokoProtects)In FYE2025 we expanded our partnership with the Community-Based Biosynergy Management Foundation in Cameroon to focus on protecting the critically endangered Cross-River Gorilla subspecies along the CameroonNigeria border. This project integrates empathy-building via the Koko Signs app with a community-based monitoring program using camera traps to generate a more accurate population census. Earlier in the year, we concentrated on conservation education in Eastern Cameroon with communities living near Western Lowland Gorilla habitats. We also began introducing more accurate pre/post app surveys to measure the impact of our Koko-inspired educational materials.The overarching goal is to develop replicable, Koko-enriched conservation methods that can help protect all four gorilla subspecies from extinction.
$99,314 spentof which $14,477 as grants13% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $759,331.
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.
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 $2.4M to $6.9M (+188%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
Francine Patterson
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 16 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $47k → $54k.
5 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 The Gorilla Foundation’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
The Gorilla Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
37% 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 The Gorilla Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 34% · 2019 56% · 2020 27% · 2021 31% · 2022 54% · 2023 36% — 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
30% of The Gorilla Foundation'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
The Gorilla Foundation draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $89k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Organizations like The Gorilla 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
57%
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 The Gorilla 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 The Gorilla Foundation?
- The Gorilla Foundation (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $243,826 to it, the largest being The White Pine Fund ($44,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Gorilla Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $243,826 in grants to The Gorilla Foundation, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Gorilla Foundation?
- The White Pine Fund is the largest funder on record, with $44,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Gorilla Foundation 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.
Play a game about who funds Gorilla →
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 30 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