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California · Nonprofit

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO (California) receives grants from 303 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,457,092 to it, the largest being The San Diego Foundation ($9,174,989). 173 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$438M
Revenue FY2024
303
Funders on record
$74M
Grants received
$862M
Net assets
173/303 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 3%

Against its field

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO is better cushioned than half of the 14 animals nonprofits its size.

Operating margin11% · below the median
Months of reserve3.2mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14 animals nonprofits over $100M, FY2024

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($342M) Expenses 100 ($269M) Net assets 100 ($465M)2018 Revenue 100 ($343M) Expenses 109 ($293M) Net assets 108 ($500M)2019 Revenue 123 ($422M) Expenses 113 ($304M) Net assets 135 ($629M)2020 Revenue 72 ($247M) Expenses 108 ($289M) Net assets 121 ($561M)2021 Revenue 104 ($356M) Expenses 114 ($305M) Net assets 149 ($691M)2022 Revenue 115 ($392M) Expenses 131 ($352M) Net assets 153 ($712M)2023 Revenue 120 ($411M) Expenses 136 ($365M) Net assets 170 ($789M)2024 Revenue 128 ($438M) Expenses 146 ($391M) Net assets 185 ($862M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (128)Expenses (146)Net assets (185)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 5% · 2018 5% · 2019 5% · 2020 8% · 2021 9% · 2022 6% · 2023 6% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

19% of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (69% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 16 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$73M
17
$50M
18
$119M
19
$42M
20
$50M
21
$40M
22
$46M
23
$46M
24
3.2
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 81 funders to 123 funders, grant income rose $8.4M → $9.6M.

36 of 303 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)39% 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 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 303 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

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left

48% 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 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO.

12%
largest funder
29%
top three
~24
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 25% · 2019 17% · 2020 25% · 2021 23% · 2022 12% · 2023 13%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

43% of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

53% of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO's grant income comes from California funders.

NH
WA
ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
SD
IA
OH
PA
CT
RI
CA
CO
NE
MO
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $29M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 303 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $46.4M on record — $46.3M federal, $13k state.

Federal$46.3M
grants $46.1Mcontracts $284k
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • Department of the Interior$24.6M
  • Department of Defense$18.1M
  • Institute of Museum and Library Services$2.3M
  • National Science Foundation$649k
  • Department of Education$500k
  • Department of Agriculture$143k
State$13k
Top programs
  • Other Contr and 3rd Pty Serv$13k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In California

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

85% of spending goes to programs.

Program 85%Management 13%Fundraising 2%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

86%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 2 states

CA
HI

Part of a family of 4 related entities

  • Foundation of Zoological Society of San Diego · exempt
  • Sdzwa-Peru · exempt
  • Sdzwa-Kenya · exempt
  • 2116 Holdings Inc · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO?
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO (California) receives grants from 303 organizations whose IRS filings report $74,457,092 to it, the largest being The San Diego Foundation ($9,174,989). 173 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO have?
IRS filings report 303 organizations giving $74,457,092 in grants to ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO, 173 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO?
The San Diego Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $9,174,989 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO 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 303funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing