South Dakota · Nonprofit
WAITT INSTITUTE
WAITT INSTITUTE (South Dakota) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,643,549 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($4,500,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.2M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $-597275
What Waitt Institute does
Programs
The Waitt Institute conducted work related to sustainable ocean management in nine countries in 2023: azores, antigua and barbuda, bermuda, federated states of micronesia, fiji, maldives, samoa, tonga, and vanuatu. These jointly-funded programs provided financial and technical support to our government partners, who additionally provide in-kind support to achieve joint program goals as outlined in our mous with each government.azores: we worked with the government and local team to support submission of the offshore marine protected area network and the proposed law and continued to build capacity by hiring four local staff to support the work. We also drafted a fisheries summary document characterizing the azorean fleet, main fishing activities, and overlap with mpas. Antigua and barbuda: we continued to support capacity building for barbudango, a local ngo that works on a variety of environmental issues throughout barbuda. (see continuation below)
$0 spentBermuda: we refined the blue prosperity plan which included a marine spatial plan that protects 20% of bermuda's waters. We advanced the creation of the ocean fund (formerly the blue investment facility) to support long-term financing of sustainable ocean management. We supported extensive community and stakeholder engagement through focus group sessions, regular newsletters, and a variety of media outlets. Federated states of micronesia: we worked with the government and local team to endorse the draft offshore marine spatial plan. There was an election and we worked with the new administration to get up to speed on the program components and resubmit the msp bill. We also supported an expedition to gather data on fsm's nearshore environment. Fiji: there was a change in administration, and we worked with the new government on an amended memorandum of understanding for the program. (see continuation below)
$0 spentFiji (cont.): we conducted an archipelago-wide expedition to support a baseline understanding of fiji's nearshore marine environment. We hired several local team members to support the program and progress marine spatial planning. Maldives: we supported the government in drafting a marine spatial planning bill and progressing the offshore marine spatial plan. We supported an expedition to gather data on the nearshore environment. We worked with local partners to create a short documentary highlighting the blue economy sector in the maldives. Samoa: we supported the revision of the marine spatial plan based on feedback from public consultations and conducted an analysis of fishing activity in samoa's eez. We also worked with the government to support drafting of legislation related to marine spatial planning. (see continuation below)
$0 spentTonga: we supported finalization and submission of the tonga ocean management bill and worked with local partners to draft a blue economy framework in support of a broader strategy. We began the search to hire for several new program position that would start in 2024. We supported the special management areas program through local partners. Vanuatu: we launched our work in vanuatu in early 2023 by signing a memorandum of understanding with the government. We conducted an expedition to enhance baseline understanding of vanuatu's nearshore environment.
$7,262,793 spent
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990-PF.
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 $1.7M to $548k (−69%).
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
Kathryn Mengerink
Executive director
Board chair
Theodore W Waitt
Chairman/director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income held at $1.0M.
2 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $27M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Waitt Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money WAITT INSTITUTE raised.
From the IRS filings of WAITT INSTITUTE’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
WAITT INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 97% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 WAITT INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of WAITT INSTITUTE'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
WAITT INSTITUTE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like WAITT INSTITUTE
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 South Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WAITT INSTITUTE: 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 WAITT INSTITUTE?
- WAITT INSTITUTE (South Dakota) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,643,549 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($4,500,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WAITT INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $4,643,549 in grants to WAITT INSTITUTE, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WAITT INSTITUTE?
- AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WAITT INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Dakota. 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 Waitt Institute →
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 2 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