Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,155,094 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,437,494). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.8M
- Funders on record
- 82
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $12M
What Business Executives for National Security does
Mission
Bens applies industry experience and best business practices to help address our nation's pressing national security challenges.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Business Executives for National Security (bens) today delivers its programmatic impact through a campaign model that aligns private-sector expertise and insight with the nation's most pressing security challenges. Through this force-multiplier approach, bens sustains integrated efforts that combine roundtables, site visits, applied projects, thought leadership, and direct engagement with senior military leaders and policymakers bringing industry perspective that informs decision-making and delivers practical, actionable recommendations that strengthen national resilience, industrial capacity, and defense readiness at scale.in 2025, bens concentrated its work on three priority areas. Through its homeland resilience and response efforts, bens advanced a whole-of-nation approach to emerging threats in biotechnology, space, and critical infrastructure domains where the private sector operates frontline systems. Bens, particularly supported the national security commission on emerging biotechnology, which informed landmark legislation such as the "independence investment fund act and the "biomanufacturing excellence act", while producing analysis on vulnerabilities in pharmaceutical…
$3,319,444 spent50% of program spendingDevelopment and membership services: by hosting events and conversations with security leaders and experts throughout the country, as well as organizing self-financed visits to regional facilities critical to national security missions, bens makes it possible for private sector leaders to garner firsthand knowledge of the major issues impacting america's security. In 2025, bens hosted more than 160 engagements nationwide, along with two flagship events in washington, dc, and new york city, where 850 leaders from the private sector and national security community came together to honor extraordinary americans who exemplify the 'whole-of-nation' approach to safeguarding our country.
$3,328,200 spent50% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,647,644.
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 2021 to 2022, from $15M to $21M (+41%).
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: 2021 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Gen Timothy Ray
President & CEO
Board chair
Gerencser Mark J
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020, and between the FY2021 and FY2022, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 22 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $827k → $1.6M.
26 of 82 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 82 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
BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
62% 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 BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 26% · 2018 19% · 2019 20% · 2020 22% · 2021 23% · 2022 20% · 2023 20% — 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
50% of BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
60% of BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY'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 $4.5M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 14 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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
BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY is better cushioned than half of the 798 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 798 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: 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 BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY?
- BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,155,094 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,437,494). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY have?
- IRS filings report 82 organizations giving $11,155,094 in grants to BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY, 53 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,437,494 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BUSINESS EXECUTIVES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Business Executives for National Security →
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 82 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing