California · Nonprofit
ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC
ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC (California) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,332,310 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($14,360,334). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $31M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $56M
- Net assets
- $24M
What Activate Global Inc does
Mission
Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. Activate partners with u.s. Based funders, research institutions, and other pillars of the hard technology community to help entrepreneurial scientists translate their breakthrough ideas into commercial solutions.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The organization works between government and the private sector, transforming scientists into high-impact entrepreneurs through a fellowship experience that guides them along every step of the journey. The organization provides these innovators with essential strategic guidance and services, educational programming, and access to a tailored network of scientific and business mentors and advisors. Today, the organization supports activate fellows through its berkeley, boston, new york, houston, and anywhere communities. Since 2015, activate fellows have launched 235 science-based companies creating 3000+ new jobs. 96% of fellow companies are still active today. The organization continues to focus on expanding its fellowship program and supporting more entrepreneurs.
$25,151,051 spentof which $17,190,126 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $25,151,051.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $18M to $26M (+47%).
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: 2017 40% · 2018 19% · 2019 26% · 2020 16% · 2021 27% · 2022 27% · 2023 32% · 2024 53% · 2025 55%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (87% for the typical peer).
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.
Chief executive
Cyrus Wadia
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Nicole Systrom
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 18 funders, grant income rose $250k → $13M.
11 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
60% 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 ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 58% · 2019 36% · 2020 36% · 2021 31% · 2022 27% · 2023 26% — 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
46% of ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% give in more than one year at all.
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
54% of ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC'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 $26M that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $30M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Against its field
ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 195 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 195 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $54.0M on record.
- National Science Foundation$39.0M
- Department of Defense$8.1M
- Department of Commerce$5.2M
- Department of Energy$1.7M
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 ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
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
- Activate Finance Corporation · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC: 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 ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC?
- ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC (California) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,332,310 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($14,360,334). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $56,332,310 in grants to ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $14,360,334 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ACTIVATE GLOBAL INC 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 34 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