Minnesota · Nonprofit
WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (Minnesota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $664,396 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($599,918). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 90% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $613k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $664k
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What Wildlife Research Institute does
Mission
To conduct scientific research on bears, other wildlife, and their habitat, and provide that information to decision-makers, the scientific community, students,and the public.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Wri continues to conduct the longest & most in-depth bear study ever done. Such research has produced over 100 scientific publications. This research also created and continues to update the content for the north american bear center's visitor center as well as their award winning website at bear.org.
$107,512 spent42% of program spendingProvided education on black bears through workshops attended by 54 participants, daily research updates read by over 3000 followers, production of three hour long bbc documentaries watched by over 7.8 million viewers in their first airings, and maintaining two websites (bear.org and bearstudy.org) visited by over 1.8 million visitors.there are 168,612 facebook followers of wri's page "lily the black bear."
$92,311 spent36% of program spendingA film documenting lynn rogers and the bears being studied at the Wildlife Research Institute is in production to educate the public.
$57,428 spent22% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $257,251.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.0M to $1.3M (+31%).
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% · 2022 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Board chair
Lynn Rogers
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $3k → $13k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 90% 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 WILDLIFE RESEARCH 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
WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 90% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
96% 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 WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 64% · 2020 71% · 2021 49% · 2022 97% · 2023 38% — 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.
Where its funders are
90% of WILDLIFE RESEARCH 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. Of the $63k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Minnesota, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $601k 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.
Organizations like WILDLIFE RESEARCH 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
56%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- North American Bear Center · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WILDLIFE RESEARCH 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 WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE?
- WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (Minnesota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $664,396 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($599,918). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 90% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $664,396 in grants to WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $599,918 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 Wildlife Research Institute →
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 6 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