California · Nonprofit
THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION
THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,654,135 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,070,489). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 72% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.2M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $17M
What The Mono Lake Foundation does
Mission
The Mono Lake Foundation (known as the mono lake committee) is a non-profit citizen's group dedicated to protecting and restoring mono lake, its tributary streams, and surrounding lands, educating the public about mono lake and the impacts on the environment of excessive water use, and promoting cooperative solutions that protect mono lake and meet real water needs without transferring environmental problems to other areas.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Protection & restoration: the mono lake committee protects the ecological health and scenic qualities of mono lake, its tributary streams, and surrounding lands. The committee advocates and implements restoration programs that heal the damage done by excessive water diversions to los angeles in past decades including raising mono lake to the state-mandated ecologically sustainable level and restoring the health of mono's tributary streams and waterfowl habitat. Working closely with our community and state, federal, and regional groups, the mono lake committee seeks to demonstrate the interconnection between a healthy ecosystem and a sustainable economy. The mono lake committee's statewide water policy work focuses on using the lessons learned at mono lake as a tool to advocate for conservation, reclamation, and wise water use. The mono lake committee also maintains an active presence in los angeles, reflecting the long-term intertwined relationship between the city and mono lake.
$2,378,142 spentof which $89,219 as grants$99,371 earned by the program100% of program spendingEducation: the mono lake committee seeks to share the mono lake story with the general public and a diverse range of schools and community groups. Education programs include interpretive walks and canoe tours at mono lake, bird walks, environmental education for school groups, weekend field seminars, a public information center with exhibits and a film, and the outdoor education center that connects los angeles youth to the source of their water. These programs, which reach thousands of people annually, emphasize personal environmental responsibility through understanding the balance between mono lake's unique ecosystem and humans' need for water.mono lake committee communications provide valuable educational information to the public. The quarterly mono lake newsletter contains detailed information about public policy, natural history, and other items relevant to mono lake and is mailed to the mono lake committee's 16,000 members and given to the public for free. The mono lake committee's website, monolake.org provides a wide range of current news and information about mono lake.
Scientific research: the mono lake committee runs the mono basin field station to support scientific research in the mono basin by providing housing and basic resources for needed for research. The information gathered at the field station is instrumental in understanding mono lake and in shaping the mono lake committee's policies and science-based land management by agencies. The mono lake committee also runs the vorster center for mono basin hydrology, a science and research hub for data collection, modeling, analysis, forecasting, and real-world application of mono lake and mono basin hydrology. The mono lake committee also maintains an online library for scientific research, environmental studies, and historical documents at monobasinresearch.org.
The 3 programs described on its FY2021 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,378,142.
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 $11M to $14M (+30%).
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: 2021 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% 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.
Board chair
Sally Gaines
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 23 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $124k → $757k.
13 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 72% 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 MONO LAKE FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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
THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
73% 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 MONO LAKE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 22% · 2019 52% · 2020 32% · 2021 38% · 2022 40% · 2023 74% — 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
54% of THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
72% of THE MONO LAKE 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 $733k that is directly attributable, 60% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like THE MONO LAKE 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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 MONO LAKE 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 MONO LAKE FOUNDATION?
- THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,654,135 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,070,489). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 72% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $2,654,135 in grants to THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE MONO LAKE FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,070,489 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE MONO LAKE 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.
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 66 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