Skip to content
Alternatives Research and Development Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Alternatives Research and Development Foundation

The mission of the ardf is to fund and promote the development, validation and adoption of non-animal methods in biomedical research, product testing, and education.

$433k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$1.4MEducation$377kScience & Tech$275kEnvironment$40kAnimals$15k
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 7 grants below total $332,253, the rows itemized in this filing. The $432,731 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $100,478 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $127k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $200k
$49,999
Median grant
6
States reached
$17M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY JUHRA$99,555
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY$50,000
CINCINNATI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER$50,000
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS$49,999
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL$49,999
INSTITUTE FOR IN VITRO SCIENCES INC$27,500
PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS$5,200
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 74% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS: $50k → 15%BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER: $40k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $40k → 11%THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF FOX CHASE CANCER CENTER: $40k → 22%BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JR UNIV: $40k → 7%XCELL SCIENCE INC: $20k → 8%CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES: $40k → 14%PACE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO SCHOOL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES: $40k → 13%PACE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 17%THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK BINGHAMTON: $39k → 20%ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: $40k → 28%THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN: $40k → 10%OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY: $38k → 19%REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $40k → 14%MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: $50k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON: $40k → 10%DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: $40k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $50k → 13%BROWN UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%CINCINNATI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER: $50k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $40k → 9%RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: $40k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: $40k → 8%SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES AND TECHNOLOGY: $40k → 10%INSTITUTE FOR IN VITRO SCIENCES INC: $28k → 8%JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: $40k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE-PHOENIX: $20k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $40k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $38k → 14%MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL OFFICE OF SPONSORED RESEARCH: $40k → 13%UNIVERSTY OF WASHINGTON OFFICE OF SPONSORED PROGRAMS: $40k → 9%ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $40k → 14%AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CELLULAR & COMPUTATIONAL TOXICOLOGY: $10k → 6%INSTITUTE FOR IN VITRO SCIENCES INC: $13k → 8%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION: $36k → 19%REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $38k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $40k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $40k → 9%ADA SCIENCE & RESEARCH INSTITUTE LLC: $40k → 14%THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $20k → 19%INSTITUTE FOR IN VITRO SCIENCES INC: $10k → 8%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY - BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: $20k → 19%JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: $10k → 19%JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: $10k → 19%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY JUHRA: $100k → 19%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY JHURA: $40k → 19%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
SD
IA
OH
PA
CT
RI
CA
VA
MD
AZ
NC
OK
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $100k on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 2 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Spain$50k · 50% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: DR. ARANZAZU VILLASANTE RESEARCH GRANT A HUMAN-RELEVANT MODEL FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF MYCN-DRIVEN NEUROBLASTOMA SPREADING AND DRUG TESTING

Sweden$50k · 50% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: DR. MARIA KARLGREN RESEARCH GRANT REPLACING ANIMAL-DERIVED PRODUCTS IN DRUG DEVELOPMENT IN VITRO MODELS

How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 10% of Alternatives Research and Development Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Alternatives Research and Development Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 6.3% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

62%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 13 repeat orgs$741k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +46% since the first grant, against +18% for those funded once.

13 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
20

Total granted

$1.2M
$686k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+46%
+18%

Still filing today

54%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $55k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthAnimalsScience & TechSocial ScienceOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
    6× · 2018–2025 · $294k · revenue +51%
  • PU
    PACE UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2020–2022 · $80k · revenue +20%
  • UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
    2× · 2018–2022 · $80k · revenue +40%

Funded once

  • CH
    Children's Hospital Los Angeles
    one grant, 2022 · $40k · revenue +23%
  • UO
    University of Wisconsin Madison
    one grant, 2024 · $40k
  • RV
    RECTOR & VISITORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
    one grant, 2019 · $40k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
2
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
3
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
4
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
5
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.

Education
6
Drexel University

Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…

Education
7
Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…

Education
8
Cornell University

Education, research, medical services and other public services.

Education
9
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
10
Washington University

The washington university is a co-educational, nondenominational university with a long and distinguished history of teaching, research and (cont'd on schedule o)

Education
11
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Fred hutch cancer center ("fred hutch") unites innovative research and compassionate care to prevent and eliminate cancer and infectious disease. continued on schedule o

Health
12
Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas jefferson university ("tju") is a comprehensive university with preeminence in transdisciplinary, experiential professional education, research and discovery, delivering exceptional value for the 21st century students with…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Johns Hopkins University; the most unlike its peers is American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

23 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 23 of the 39 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
23/23
Grantees still filing
18/23
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $129,822 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILLUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $119,990 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $115,621 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANMICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: $90,000 · OtherMICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: $79,830 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF FLORIDAUNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: $69,999 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF ARIZONAUniversity of Wisconsin Madison: $40,000 · OtherRECTOR & VISITORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: $40,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS: $40,000 · OtherADA Science and Research Institute LLC: $40,000 · OtherSOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HEALTH CENTER: $40,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS: $40,000 · OtherOKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY: $37,799 · Other+3 more: $42,915 · OtherJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $293,690 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYPACE UNIVERSITY: $80,000 · EducationPACE UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $80,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGHThe Research Foundation for The State University of New York: $78,500 · EducationThe Research Foundation for The State Universi…INSTITUTE FOR IN VITRO SCIENCES INC: $60,000 · EducationINSTITUTE FOR IN VITRO SCIENCES INCAlbert Einstein College of Medicine: $40,000 · EducationDUKE UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $40,000 · EducationWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $40,000 · EducationIllinois Institute of Technology: $39,996 · EducationCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER: $50,000 · HealthCHILDREN'S …Children's Hospital Los Angeles: $40,000 · HealthChildren's …BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER INC: $40,000 · HealthBETH ISRAEL…The Institute For Cancer Research: $40,000 · HealthThe Institu…Rush University Medical Center: $39,996 · HealthRush Univer…BROWN UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · Community ImprovementAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CELLULAR AND COMPUTATIONAL TOXICOLOGY INC: $15,697 · Science & TechHumane World for Animals Inc: $10,000 · AnimalsPEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS INC: $5,200 · AnimalsSOCIETY FOR IN VITRO BIOLOGY: $5,000 · Social Science
Other$965,976Education$872,186Health$209,996Community Improvement$40,000Science & Tech$15,697Animals$15,200Social Science$5,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $293,690 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetPACE UNIVERSITY: $80,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $80,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Research Foundation for The State University of New York: $78,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR IN VITRO SCIENCES INC: $60,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChildren's Hospital Los Angeles: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAlbert Einstein College of Medicine: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER INC: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Institute For Cancer Research: $40,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRush University Medical Center: $39,996 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIllinois Institute of Technology: $39,996 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CELLULAR AND COMPUTATIONAL TOXICOLOGY INC: $15,697 over 2y, 9.3% of budgetHumane World for Animals Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS INC: $5,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSOCIETY OF TOXICOLOGY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA3.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Alternatives Research and Development Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Alternatives Research and Development Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Society for in Vitro Biology: 20% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Inc: 6% of income from government
  • Institute for in Vitro Sciences Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Alternatives Research and Development Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Alternatives Research and Development Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 39 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Alternatives Research and Development’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home