Maryland · Nonprofit
BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc
BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc (Maryland) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $525,858 to it, the largest being BALTIMORE CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND INC ($267,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $178k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $526k
- Net assets
- $48k
What BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc does
Mission
Baltimore Under Ground Science Space, Inc. (BUGSS) fosters a community of citizen-scientists who can explore biotechnology in a safe, constructive and socially responsible manner. A community laboratory promoting education and understanding of biotechnology, BUGSS offers courses, informational talks, community projects, workshops, student science-fair assistance and an open laboratory where individuals can conduct biotechnology experiments. We believe biotechnology and synthetic biology are the fabrication technologies of the future, and a key component of a sustainable economy in the mid-Atlantic region. We offer entrepreneurs access to low-cost laboratory space for early-stage, proof-of-concept and developmental experiments, and work to foster collaborations between biology, art, engineering and public policy to enhance innovation, stimulate curiosity and create new, interdisciplinary collaborations so that the full potential of biotechnology and synthetic biology can be reached.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
YOUTH COURSES AND SCHOOL PROGRAMS: BUGSS hosted classes, camps and outreach events to support science learning for students from kindergarten through high school. Students come from across the Baltimore region and either sign up as individuals or as part of homeschool groups. We served 163 students in twelve classes held at the BUGSS lab, on topics including acid-base chemistry, electrical signaling in plants and microbes, mycelium as a building material, randomness in mathematical functions, zebrafish development and techniques in molecular biotechnology. Several courses were taught by local graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and we continue to not only provide STEAM enrichment for students but also mentored teaching opportunities for fledgling instructors. In addition, we hosted a month-long elementary school camp for our nonprofit partner STEMx, hosted four high school interns, who were part of the Building Steps mentoring program, and hosted a two-week co-design workshop as part of the Synthetic Biology and Me program, an NSF-funded project for middle school students to design culturally responsive biomarker activities. We also engaged in thirteen outreach activities…
$50,097 spent$79,745 earned by the program42% of program spendingCOMMUNITY AND INDIVIDUAL MEMBER PROJECTS: BUGSS occupies a unique niche in the Baltimore ecosystem by enabling people of all backgrounds to engage with sophisticated scientific research in a safe, supportive and collaborative space. We provide lab space, rigorous lab-safety training and oversight, procurement support and scientific guidance. BUGSS brings together people of diverse backgrounds, from hobbyists pursuing projects of personal interest to those working at the intersection of art and science, who are using living organisms as artistic collaborators, to new biotechnology companies, who are at the earliest stages of inception. By year-end, BUGSS had 29 individual members including eighteen student members. Several members pursued independent research on microbiology, plant biotechnology and cancer detection, and several prior members successfully transitioned from working in the BUGSS lab to working at larger bioincubator spaces as their companies grew and became more well established. This year, we focused on developing a more robust safety-training program that could accommodate members whenever they chose to join the lab and that could provide faster approval for their…
$39,107 spent$60,352 earned by the program33% of program spendingiGEM: The international Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition is the premiere international competition in synthetic biology. In 2025, we hosted our tenth consecutive team; our group of 21 high school students and nine mentors met at BUGSS throughout the spring and summer to pursue their research project. This year, the team chose an oncology project, working to develop a low-cost sensor for recurrence of triple-negative breast cancer, the deadliest form. Students designed a genetic system with chromogenic reporters to measure the levels of two microRNAs associated with this specific type of cancer. They consulted scientific experts, patients, caregivers and experts in diagnostic technologies to design a practical device. They then conducted extensive experimentation to demonstrate how well their system worked and what its limitations would be. The team also designed a wiki site, created video presentations to describe their work and engaged in education and outreach to the community. Some students traveled to the iGEM Jamboree in Paris, where they presented their work to a panel of expert judges, and our team was awarded a gold medal for their highly successful…
$29,246 spent$18,742 earned by the program25% of program spendingADULT COURSES AND SEMINARS: BUGSS supports individual and group research projects, as previously described, but also provides foundational training allowing scientists and members of the public to learn modern science techniques in an applied manner and develop technical skills so that they can conduct more independent research. In 2025, BUGSS served 453 attendees at its adult courses and seminars. We hosted eight in-depth, hands-on courses for the public on topics spanning environmental metagenomics, personal genotyping, nanopore sequencing, lab robotics and Arduino-based lab hardware. We also hosted Lab Skills Nights, teaching fundamental molecular biology lab skills such as purifying proteins, DNA isolation and ELISA assays. BUGSS also facilitated science communication between professional scientists and our Baltimore community by sponsoring science seminars. We hosted four seminars on topics including the use of functional MRI to monitor Brain Dynamics in Schizophrenia, Sex, Genetics and Athletics, Rapid Detection of Pathogens and Gene Silencing in the Mitochondria. Our most popular offering this past year was our four Science Slam events, a group of 5-7 short, 5-minute talks…
$41 spent$10,845 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $118,491.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2023 to 2024, from $51k to $140k (+173%).
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.
80% of BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Lisa Scheifele
executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $46k → $18.
1 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE 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
BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% 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
51% 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 BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 81% · 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 85% · 2022 99% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.
“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
95% of BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc's grant income comes from Maryland funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $58 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE 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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
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 BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE 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 BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc?
- BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc (Maryland) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $525,858 to it, the largest being BALTIMORE CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND INC ($267,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $525,858 in grants to BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc?
- BALTIMORE CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $267,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 BALTIMORE UNDERGROUND SCIENCE SPACE →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), 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