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Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Whitehead institute forges new frontiers in science, uncovering insights today that unlock the potential of tomorrow.

$3.0M
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$593k
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$8.0MScience & Tech$7.4MEducation$931k
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 9 grants below total $2,557,603, the rows itemized in this filing. The $3,037,600 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $479,997 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 · $6k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $551k
  • $250k+5 grants · $2.0M
$312,383
Median grant
4
States reached
$973M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HARVARD UNIVERSITY$592,946
THE BROAD INSTITUTE$446,810
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY$333,938
DANA FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE$314,134
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$312,383
BRIGHAM AND WOMENS HOSPITAL$215,931
MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING$185,312
BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL$150,151
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSLYVANIA$5,998
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 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 50% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 10%THE BROAD INSTITUTE: $556k → 8%NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $478k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF PENNSLYVANIA: $215k → 22%REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $103k → 10%PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: $334k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $33k → 9%THE BROAD INSTITUTE: $447k → 8%BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $266k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF PENNSLYVANIA: $154k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $31k → 9%THE BROAD INSTITUTE: $356k → 8%BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $150k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF PENNSLYVANIA: $77k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $27k → 9%MASS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $885k → 8%BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $116k → 16%MASS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $768k → 8%BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $100k → 16%MASS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $766k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $72k → 16%MASS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $482k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $41k → 16%MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $265k → 8%BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $26k → 16%MASS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $61k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $15k → 16%TUFTS UNIVERSITY: $531k → 8%MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $439k → 8%DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: $1.2M → 16%MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $257k → 8%DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: $1.1M → 16%TUFTS UNIVERSITY: $115k → 8%DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: $888k → 16%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $449k → 8%DANA FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: $344k → 16%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $384k → 8%DANA FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: $314k → 16%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $245k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $206k → 16%DANA FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: $201k → 16%DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE: $171k → 16%MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $144k → 16%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $92k → 16%MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $78k → 16%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $88k → 16%MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $67k → 16%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $15k → 16%MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $12k → 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.

Grants abroad, by region: $480k on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 1 region. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$480k · 100% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: RESEARCH SUBAWARDS

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$11M · 10 repeat orgs$651k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +45% since the first grant, against +6% for those funded once.

10 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
3

Total granted

$11M
$651k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+45%
+6%

Still filing today

70%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
HealthEducationOther
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

  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc
    7× · 2017–2025 · $4.1M · revenue +162%
  • Trustees of Tufts College
    5× · 2017–2021 · $2.2M · revenue +50%
  • CH
    Children's Hospital Corporation
    5× · 2017–2025 · $658k · revenue +91%

Funded once

  • NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2024 · $478k · revenue +6%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS
    one grant, 2017 · $103k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
    one grant, 2021 · $70k
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
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
2
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
3
University of Miami

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

Education
4
Trustees of Boston College

Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…

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
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
7
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
8
Bentley University

Organization's mission bentley university believes good business can impact more than the bottom line - it can change the world. bentley is a community of future business leaders who will deliver value in the marketplace and lasting…

Education
9
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…

Health
10
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
11
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
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Trustees of Tufts College; the most unlike its peers is Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 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

12 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. 12 of the 17 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)
12/12
Grantees still filing
8/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Trustees of Tufts College: $2,160,326 · EducationTrustees of Tufts CollegeMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $1,711,711 · EducationMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $1,670,275 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard CollegeThe Trustees of Princeton University: $865,032 · EducationThe Trustees of Princeton UniversityNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $477,986 · EducationNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITYTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $452,654 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIATHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $312,383 · EducationDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $4,149,327 · HealthDana-Farber Cancer Institute IncThe Broad Institute Inc: $1,358,456 · HealthThe Broad Institute IncChildren's Hospital Corporation: $657,846 · HealthChildren's Hospital CorporationMEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER: $444,809 · HealthMEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTERMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $997,409 · OtherMASS GENERAL B…TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $400,299 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BO…MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $349,054 · OtherMASS GENERAL B…UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $103,080 · OtherUNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $90,732 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO: $69,733 · Other
Education$7,650,367Health$6,610,438Other$2,010,307

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

25%50%75%100%grantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $4,149,327 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $2,160,326 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $1,711,711 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $1,670,275 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe Broad Institute Inc: $1,358,456 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $865,032 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetChildren's Hospital Corporation: $657,846 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $477,986 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $452,654 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER: $444,809 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $400,299 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $312,383 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 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc ↗
  • Who funds Trustees of Tufts College ↗
  • Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
  • Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
  • Who funds The Broad Institute Inc ↗
  • Who funds The Trustees of Princeton University ↗
  • Who funds Children's Hospital Corporation ↗
  • Who funds NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
  • Who funds MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • The Broad Institute Inc: 19% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
  • Children's Hospital Corporation: 10% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Northeastern University: 7% of income from government
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
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 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research?

Find your warmest path to Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research 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 17 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 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research’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