California · Nonprofit
J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE
J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,232,578 to it, the largest being University of Chicago ($10,942,502). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $14M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $38M
- Net assets
- $31M
What J Craig Venter Institute does
Mission
J. Craig venter institute (jcvi) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization advancing the science of genomics committed to accelerating foundational scientific research to drive advances in human health and environmental sustainability. This past year jcvi committed research efforts in human health, environmental sustainability, synthetic biology, and software tools and technology.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Department of health and human services: two million people in the u.s. Are diagnosed annually with life-threatening infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria that are responsible for 35,000 deaths each year with an economic impact estimated to be as much as $20 billion a year in direct healthcare costs. Due to the spread of antibiotic resistance, very few drugs remain that can treat these infections. Led by derrick fouts, phd, (jcvi) and funded by the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc), the j. Craig venter institute and cleveland va prevention and intervention epicenter are developing novel interventions that will prevent the colonization and spread of antibiotic resistant (ar) bacteria that cause hospital acquired infections (hai), and to develop diagnostics and interventions to combat the colonization by the rapidly emerging fungal pathogen candida auris. Collaborators on this multi year funded center include research labs at duke university, case western university and northwestern university. Led by indresh singh, director of informatics, the jcvi is a key colloborator for the bacterial and viral bioinformatics resource center (bv-brc). Using the…
$5,271,780 spentof which $770,981 as grants59% of program spendingNational science foundation continues to fund the j. Craig venter institute (jcvi) in the areas of synthetic biology, integrative organismal systems core programs. Funded by the office of international science and engineering, dr. Tae seok moon, jcvi professor leads an international consortium through a global center to address the challenges of recalcitrant waste streams by developing integrated, novel, and scalable processes for their valorization, integrating researchers all over the world and from academia and industry, and providing global education, outreach activities, and workforce. Global centers: circle: center for innovative recycling and circular economy is suported by research teams in the united states, canada, united kingdom, korea, japan, singapore & australia. This center will develop three core technologies, including (1) multi-omics-based bioprospecting to discover new enzymes, gene regulators, and organisms for waste valorization, (2) predictive computational approaches to enable forward engineering of proteins and strains for biomanufacturing, and (3) tea, lca, and risk assessment to develop commercially viable bioprocesses for waste valorization. To…
$1,128,103 spentof which $200,684 as grants13% of program spendingJcvi scientists have partnered with other scientists from leading academic centers to come together to answer key questions about the root cause of long covid whether fragments of the coronavirus persist in the tissues of patients. The long covid research inititative bands together scientsits from harvard unibversity, stanford university, the university of california, san francisco, yale university and the j. Craig venter institute. The inititative is backed by an inititial investment from the balvi, a scientifc investment fund. Jcvi funding is awarded through the polybio research foundation. Researchers are using advanced imaging and gene-sequencing techniques looking for evidence of the virus in tissues and analyzing its affect on the immune system. Over the last few years, advances in stem cell research and synthetic biology have catalyzed an extraordinary expansion of organoid technology that is bringing changes to translational medicine, pharmaceutical research, and strategies for treating various human pathologies. Using stem cells, organoids have been developed for multiple organs including liver, intestine, kidney, brain, stomach, skin, ovary, and lung. Funded by the larry…
$2,066,947 spentof which $565,153 as grants23% of program spendingOther related programs for support of development of key staff & internships.
$451,688 spent5% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,918,518.
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 $94M to $56M (−40%).
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 77% · 2018 47% · 2019 76% · 2020 84% · 2021 89% · 2022 1312% · 2023 85% · 2024 71%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (52% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 8 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
Venter John Craig
Chairman & chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 20 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $3.6M → $6.8M.
8 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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
J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
81% 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 J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 37% · 2019 34% · 2020 25% · 2021 36% · 2022 32% · 2023 40% — 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.
How long its funders stay
35% of J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE draws 82% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 13 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $477k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 149 science & tech nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $100.4M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$62.2M
- National Science Foundation$13.5M
- Department of Energy$12.7M
- Department of Defense$10.3M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$1.6M
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 J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
45% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 19 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE: 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 J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE?
- J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,232,578 to it, the largest being University of Chicago ($10,942,502). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $38,232,578 in grants to J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE?
- University of Chicago is the largest funder on record, with $10,942,502 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 40 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