New Hampshire · Nonprofit
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) (New Hampshire) receives grants from 132 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,848,449 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($16,029,092). 68 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
- $85M
- Funders on record
- 132
- Grants received
- $51M
- Net assets
- $65M
What For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) does
Mission
See Mission statement on Schedule O, pg. 146.The mission of FIRST is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) directly served 87,000 youths on approximately 3,500 teams worldwide. Working with mentors, each team builds a robot starting with a kit of parts, designing it to meet this year's music-themed game challenge "CRESCENDO." Each team participated in one or more 2 to 3-day events at 181 locations, competing for awards for game scores, safety practices, teamwork, and other qualitative achievements, stressing the FIRST ethos of Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism. Award-winning teams participated in the annual international FIRST Championship event in Houston. The FRC Program provided students with the experience of applying engineering and technology to achieve a specific challenge under a time constraint. (Narrative continued on Schedule O, pg. 155). This experience developed students' technical skills, teamwork, and the ability to deal with the satisfactions and disappointments of a real engineering project. Participation in FIRST Robotics Competition has inspired many students to go on to college and careers in fields related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Many coaches and mentors work in these fields and help the…
$56,724,654 spentof which $24,816,779 as grants$21,384,382 earned by the program80% of program spendingFIRST LEGO League (FLL), for which there are three divisions, Discover, Explore and Challenge, reached 597,000 youths aged 4-16, on approximately 65,600 teams worldwide. This year's challenge was called "MASTERPIECE." Participants imagined and innovated new ways to create and communicate art across the globe. Discover and Explore students built a LEGO model and tracked what they learned in an Engineering Notebook. Explore teams used code to bring their model to life. Challenge teams also built and programmed an autonomous LEGO robot to play the themed MASTERPIECE Robot Game. In addition to participating in local events, teams from around the world met in Houston in April 2024 as part of the FIRST Championship competition and celebration. (Narrative continued on Schedule O, pg. 155).Participation in Discover, Explore and Challenge has engaged students in a comprehensive experience developing confidence in their ability to address real world issues facing their communities, builds their STEM literacy and social-emotional learning, and exposes them to STEM careers. By progressing through each division and on to high-school level FIRST programs, students gain a full suite of technical…
$7,249,403 spentof which $1,969,810 as grants$10,615,980 earned by the program10% of program spendingFIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) served 100,000 youths from ages 12-18 on approximately 7,800 teams worldwide. Like FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge teams design and build a robot to compete on a themed playing field but using a smaller robot kit and game challenge field. In this year's arts-themed game, "CENTERSTAGE," each team built a robot and participated in local events. This program provides an experience for a broad audience of educators and students at a low cost. The experience simulates the excitement as well as the pressure of a real-life engineering project, developing not only the students' technical know-how, but also leadership, cooperation, ability to plan, patience, and teamwork. (Narrative continued on Schedule O, pg. 156).FIRST Tech Challenge enriches the participating students' ability to deal with the satisfactions and disappointments of a real engineering project. The experience expands students' interest and skills in STEM and inspires many to go on to higher education and careers in those fields. Students and alumni of the program gain access to education and career discovery opportunities, connections to exclusive scholarships and employers, and…
$7,044,002 spentof which $2,020,193 as grants$5,445,462 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $71,018,059.
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 2019 to 2020, from $60M to $72M (+19%).
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 6% · 2018 6% · 2019 5% · 2020 5% · 2021 16% · 2022 9% · 2023 10% · 2024 5% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
52% of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (52% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Christopher Moore
Secretary, CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 41 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $14M.
34 of 132 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 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 132 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
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
67% 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 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST).
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 19% · 2019 24% · 2020 36% · 2021 24% · 2022 29% · 2023 47% — 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.
How long its funders stay
35% of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)'s funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)'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 $20M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside New Hampshire, across 34 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $31M arriving through sponsors registered in 22 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
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 85 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 85 science & tech nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $24.7M on record.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$19.8M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$4.6M
- Department of Defense$219k
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 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)
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 New Hampshire
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 27 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST): 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 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)?
- For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) (New Hampshire) receives grants from 132 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,848,449 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($16,029,092). 68 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 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) have?
- IRS filings report 132 organizations giving $50,848,449 in grants to For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), 68 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $16,029,092 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Hampshire. 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 132 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