Massachusetts · Nonprofit
Aspire Institute Inc
Aspire Institute Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,231,500 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($3,191,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $5.2M
- Net assets
- $773k
What Aspire Institute Inc does
Mission
Aspire's mission is to empower low-income and first-generation college students and recent graduates to act independently, make informed choices, and affect meaningful change. Through the tuition-free, online Aspire Leaders Program, participants develop resilience, cultural awareness, and leadership skills to help them navigate challenges and embrace opportunities in education, careers, and life. By fostering confidence, self-efficacy, and collaboration, Aspire equips future leaders to create lasting impacts in their communities and beyond.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Develop Skills for the Future: We equip learners with the core leadership and workplace skills needed to thrive in an increasingly complex, technology-enabled world.Foster a Global Community: Aspire builds peer networks spanning 192+ countries, fostering belonging and connection among underrepresented young leaders. Local Impact, Global Mindset: Aspire Institute strengthens local ecosystems through regional hubs and partnerships, bringing global perspectives to learners' own contexts. Promote Lifelong Learning: We provide ongoing opportunities for growth, such as mentorship, financial awards, career pathways, and AI leadership programs.Turn Ambition into Action: We enable learners to build confidence, find their voice, and lead meaningful change in their communities and beyond. Above all, we seek to broaden what learners believe is possible for themselves and help them aspire to lives of meaning and impact.Advanced Leadership Opportunities: Seed FundThis program offers crucial initial funding to ALP graduates with visionary ideas for community transformation. By providing seed capital, we empower innovators to convert their concepts into tangible projects that address local needs.…
$1,993,735 spentof which $150,895 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,993,735.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2021 to 2022, from $48k to $2.6M (+5288%).
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.
100% of Aspire Institute Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 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
Meena Sonea Hewett
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $1.0M → $1.2M.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 66% 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 Aspire Institute Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Aspire Institute Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
66% 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 Aspire Institute Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 90% · 2023 56% — 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.
Where its funders are
66% of Aspire Institute 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 $1.8M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 2 states.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Aspire Institute Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 718 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 718 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Aspire Institute 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Aspire Institute 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 Aspire Institute Inc?
- Aspire Institute Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,231,500 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($3,191,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Aspire Institute Inc have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $5,231,500 in grants to Aspire Institute Inc, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Aspire Institute Inc?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $3,191,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Aspire Institute Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Aspire Institute →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 7 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