Colorado · Nonprofit
THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY
THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY (Colorado) receives grants from 313 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,642,324 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,476,046). 198 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $36M
- Funders on record
- 313
- Grants received
- $23M
- Net assets
- $30M
What The Wild Animal Sanctuary does
Mission
Animal sanctuary and public education on captive wildlife.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Animal Care-The Sanctuary successfully cares for Lions, Tigers, Bears, Wolves and other large carnivores as well as Wild Mustangs. The Organization feeds species-specific food and provides large natural habitats for the animals.
$27,507,344 spent85% of program spendingPublic Education-The Sanctuary operated on-site public education programs for people in the Denver Metro area as well as visitors from around the nation and other countries. Education on the Sanctuarys animals is provided through in person field trips, Zoom intertnet videos presentations as well as various social media campaigns.
$4,565,250 spent14% of program spendingAnimal Rescue-The Sancuary has remained highly active in rescuing large carnivores throughout the United States and from many other countries around the world. The Sanctuary operates a fleet of specialized rescue equipment and highly trained staff to rescue animals that were suffering or facing death on a daily basis.
$153,344 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $32,225,938.
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 2022 to 2023, from $33M to $49M (+50%).
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.
99% of THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (67% 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.
Chief executive
Pat Craig
Executive Director
Board chair
Toni Scalera
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 66 funders to 135 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $3.4M.
41 of 313 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 313 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 WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
63% 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 WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 52% · 2019 37% · 2020 27% · 2021 35% · 2022 23% · 2023 15% — 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
52% of THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
58% of THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY'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 $9.4M that is directly attributable, 75% of it comes from funders outside Colorado, across 39 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $13M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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 WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY has grown faster than half of the 235 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 235 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY
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 Colorado
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY: 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 WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY?
- THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY (Colorado) receives grants from 313 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,642,324 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($4,476,046). 198 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY have?
- IRS filings report 313 organizations giving $22,642,324 in grants to THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY, 198 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $4,476,046 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. 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 Wild Animal Sanctuary →
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 313 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