Texas · Nonprofit
CICERO RESEARCH
CICERO RESEARCH (Texas) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,202,867 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($11,133,300). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $27M
What Cicero Research does
Mission
Cicero Research is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization that operates, along with its related and independent 501(c)(4) organization cicero action, as the cicero institute. Cicero Research's mission is to educate the public and support activities that embrace the principles of a free society and highlight the principles of liberty, accountability, and transparency to fix broken public systems and lift up millions of americans.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Public policy research:Cicero Research undertook activities and made grants to educate the public about the importance of liberty, accountability, and transparency with respect to several policy areas such as homelessness, public safety, education, workforce, regulatory reform, and healthcare.
$4,284,638 spentof which $30,000 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,284,638.
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 $19M to $27M (+46%).
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.
96% of CICERO RESEARCH’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Board chair
Joseph Lonsdale
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base narrowed from 11 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $1.0M → $3.8M.
10 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 89% 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 CICERO RESEARCH’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
CICERO RESEARCH leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 84%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
95% 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 CICERO RESEARCH.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 49% · 2022 75% · 2023 51% — broadly stable.
“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
89% of CICERO RESEARCH'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 $1.9M that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from funders outside Texas, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $15M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
CICERO RESEARCH runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 772 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like CICERO RESEARCH
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Cicero Action · exempt
- Arpinum · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CICERO RESEARCH: 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 CICERO RESEARCH?
- CICERO RESEARCH (Texas) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,202,867 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($11,133,300). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CICERO RESEARCH have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $17,202,867 in grants to CICERO RESEARCH, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CICERO RESEARCH?
- MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $11,133,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CICERO RESEARCH find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 20 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