Massachusetts · Nonprofit
INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC
INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $293,214 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($209,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.9M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $293k
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Institute for Human Centered Design Inc does
Mission
Institute for human centered design (ihcd) is an international non-profit committed to advancing the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages, abilities, and culture through excellence in design. Ihcd's work balances expertise in legally required accessility with promotion of best practices in human-centered or universal design.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The organization is a 40-year-old educational non-profit organization committed to advancing the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages, abilities and cultures through excellence in design. The organization's work balances expertise in legally required accessibility with promotion of best practices in human centered or universal design. Projects vary from local to international. All are characterized by collaboration and user participation. The organization promotes design that works for everyone across the spectrum of ability, age and culture. The organization provides easy access to information and guidance about the civil rights law and codes that provide a bedrock of accessibility in the u.s., and education and consultation about strategies, precedents and best practices that go beyond legal requirements to design places, things, communication and policy that integrate solutions to the reality of human diversity. Distinguishing characteristics:- first u.s. Non-profit focused on the role of design in relation to disability & aging founded in 1978 in boston as adaptive environments.- balances expertise and guidance on all facets…
$2,048,505 spentof which $115,650 as grants$1,711,678 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,048,505.
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 2022 to 2023, from $1.5M to $2.3M (+54%).
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 71% · 2018 64% · 2019 52% · 2020 43% · 2021 43% · 2022 49% · 2023 44% · 2024 40% · 2025 41%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
42% of INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Valerie Fletcher
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $10k → $46.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 78% 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 INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN 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
INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 71% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 53% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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
78% of INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN 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 $66k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 2 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $228k 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
INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC's revenue grew 51% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $11.3M on record — $9.1M federal, $2.3M state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$9.0M
- Smithsonian Institution$61k
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$1.8M
- (NN) INFRASTRUCTURE:$254k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$210k
- (UU) IT NON-PAYROLL EXPENSES$23k
- (JJ) OPERATIONAL SERVICES$15k
- (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$1k
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 INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN 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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN 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 INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC?
- INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $293,214 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($209,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $293,214 in grants to INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN INC?
- Boston Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $209,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN 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.
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 5 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