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Marine Biological Laboratory at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners.

$5.3M
Granted FY2025still arriving
23
Grants FY2025still arriving
16
States reached
$585k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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.

Science & Tech$14MEducation$3.4MEnvironment$891kHealth$112kYouth Development$103kAnimals$59kHuman Services$37k
02FY2025 · 23 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 23 grants below total $2,958,795, the rows itemized in this filing. The $5,277,746 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $2,318,951 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

  • $10k–50k11 grants · $396k
  • $50k–250k9 grants · $1.1M
  • $250k+3 grants · $1.5M
$58,830
Median grant
16
States reached
$247M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Yale University$585,015
University of Texas at Dallas$457,737
Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst$415,927
University of Chicago$247,177
Regents of the University of Minnesota$191,632
Nature Conservancy$190,080
Northeastern University$133,561
Rutgers University$82,312
University of Illinois Chicago$72,155
Children's Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati Children's Hospital)$64,558
University of Georgia Research Foundation$63,431
Albert Einstein College of Medicine$58,830
University of New Hampshire$49,944
Clark University$48,211
University of South Carolina$46,549
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:

Its human-services grants (FY25–25, $37k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%Saint Francis University: $37k → 16%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

ME
VT
NH
WA
MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
OR
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
UT
VA
MD
AZ
KS
NC
SC
LA
GA
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $1.1M on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 8 regions, $162k to organizations and $941k to individuals. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$407k · 37% · 1 grant · 78 people

Stated purpose: Research · Scholarship & Research Award

South Asia$173k · 16% · 46 people

Stated purpose: Scholarship & Research Award

East Asia and the Pacific$135k · 12% · 41 people

Stated purpose: Scholarship

South America$125k · 11% · 31 people

Stated purpose: Scholarship

Middle East and North Africa$105k · 10% · 1 grant · 4 people

Stated purpose: Research · Scholarship

Sub-Saharan Africa$77k · 7% · 20 people

Stated purpose: Scholarship

North America (Canada and Mexico)$54k · 5% · 1 grant · 11 people

Stated purpose: Research · Scholarship

Russia and Neighboring States$25k · 2% · 6 people

Stated purpose: Scholarship

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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$16M · 39 repeat orgs$459k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +56% since the first grant, against -38% for those funded once.

39 repeat relationships: 17 still active in FY2025, 22 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

39
7

Total granted

$16M
$256k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+56%
-38%

Still filing today

38%
14%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $203k 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
EducationScience & TechEnvironmentHuman ServicesOther
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

  • University of Chicago
    9× · 2017–2025 · $1.8M · revenue +56%
  • WH
    WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION
    8× · 2018–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +69%
  • UO
    University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
    4× · 2017–2025 · $506k · revenue +80%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
    one grant, 2022 · $99k
  • VI
    VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE
    one grant, 2024 · $57k
  • AS
    ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2022 · $27k
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
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
2
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
3
Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University, a 501(c)(3) institution of higher education, is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the liberal arts and in graduate and professional education. The organization is comprised of seven constituent parts: Wake…

Education
4
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
5
University of Miami

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

Education
6
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
7
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
8
Roger Williams University

At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight…

Education
9
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
10
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
11
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
12
Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…

Science & Tech
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Northeastern University; the most unlike its peers is National Audubon Society Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

21 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. 21 of the 53 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
21/21
Grantees still filing
18/21
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE: $1,028,791 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGEREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $941,226 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS CENTER FOR BRAINHEALTH: $866,813 · OtherTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS CENTER FOR BRAINHEALTHUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS: $841,072 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTSUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $668,832 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTAUNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $664,908 · OtherUNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF NEW HAMPSHIREUniversity of South Carolina: $552,733 · OtherUniversity of South CarolinaREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY: $549,001 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEYClifford A Goudey & Associates: $465,464 · OtherTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: $415,050 · OtherMICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: $409,376 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $402,762 · Other+22 more: $2,267,916 · Other+22 moreYale University: $1,997,176 · EducationYale UniversityUniversity of Chicago: $1,797,918 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoUniversity of Georgia Research Foundation Inc: $506,493 · EducationUniversity of Georgia Research Foundat…TRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITY: $488,372 · EducationTRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITYTOWSON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $473,654 · EducationTOWSON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INCNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $328,149 · EducationRensselaer Polytechnic Institute: $223,985 · Education+5 more: $530,677 · Education+5 moreWOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: $1,320,706 · Science & TechWOODS HOLE…Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc: $348,299 · Science & TechWoodwell C…+2 more: $50,878 · Science & TechMASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $220,140 · EnvironmentNATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $58,830 · EnvironmentTHE LUTHERAN SERVICE SOCIETY OF W PA: $36,537 · Human Services
Other$10,073,944Education$6,346,424Science & Tech$1,719,883Environment$278,970Human Services$36,537

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetYale University: $1,997,176 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $1,797,918 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetWOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: $1,320,706 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of Georgia Research Foundation Inc: $506,493 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITY: $488,372 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetTOWSON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $473,654 over 5y, 1.9% of budgetWoodwell Climate Research Center Inc: $348,299 over 6y, 1.1% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $328,149 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $315,673 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $232,447 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetRensselaer Polytechnic Institute: $223,985 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $220,140 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetWilliam Marsh Rice University: $180,417 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetVILLANOVA UNIVERSITY: $130,089 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $128,978 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $58,830 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $52,286 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences: $43,012 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College: $38,907 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LUTHERAN SERVICE SOCIETY OF W PA: $36,537 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetJ CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE: $7,866 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds Yale University ↗
  • Who funds University of Chicago ↗
  • Who funds WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION ↗
  • Who funds University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds TOWSON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc ↗
  • Who funds NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ↗
  • Who funds MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC ↗
  • Who funds William Marsh Rice University ↗
  • Who funds VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC ↗

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.

University of MiamiAmerican Chemical Soc…The Trustees of Colum…
University of MiamiFL13.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: University of Miami · American Chemical Society · The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York

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 Marine Biological Laboratory funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Marine Biological Laboratory. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 9%
  • Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc: 17% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Yale University: 9% of income from government
  • Northeastern University: 4% of income from government
  • Trustees of Clark University: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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.

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 53 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 Marine Biological Laboratory’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