Maine · Nonprofit
THE JACKSON LABORATORY
THE JACKSON LABORATORY (Maine) receives grants from 198 organizations whose IRS filings report $116,201,918 to it, the largest being HAROLD ALFOND FOUNDATION ($13,550,000). 135 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $653M
- Funders on record
- 198
- Grants received
- $116M
- Net assets
- $1.1B
What The Jackson Laboratory does
Mission
The purposes of the laboratory are scientific, medical, charitable, and educational. Our mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the biomedical community.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Develop and provide genetic resources The Jackson Laboratory (jax) is a global resource for developing, distributing and analyzing innovative models of human disease. It offers an array of model creation, husbandry and diagnostic and analytical services, ranging from custom breeding and strain preservation to drug efficacy studies and genome sequencing, all focused on empowering basic scientific research and drug discovery. Jax maintains close to 14,000 genetically distinct strains of research mice. In 2024, distributed them to researchers from more than 2,400 organizations, in upwards of 68 countries used jax research mice to support efforts to find cures for the world's most devastating human diseases and bring advanced therapies to patients. The laboratory also hosts the mouse genome informatics databases, the world's source for information on mouse genetics and biology.
$323,174,300 spentof which $181,795 as grants$477,529,331 earned by the program62% of program spendingBiomedical research the laboratory's researchers combine experience in mammalian genetics and human genomics to shape an integrated approach to personalized medicine. Scientists work collaboratively and cross-discipline, leveraging expertise in cancer, immunology, neurogenetics, life-cycle biology, the microbiome, and computational biology. More than 400 jax staff members hold advanced degrees and the laboratory supports nearly 60 research teams. Faculty members have 324 active sponsored research collaboration agreements with 245 academic research and clinical institutions. Multiple laboratory centers coordinate expertise around critical research areas. Since 1983 the laboratory has had a national cancer institute-designated cancer center, one of only seven such designated institutions in the united states. To date 26 nobel prizes are associated with laboratory research, education programs and resources.
$185,972,569 spentof which $1,653,210 as grants$762,068 earned by the program36% of program spendingEducation and training the laboratory offers educational programs for scientists throughout their careers from stem education for high school students and training for science and math teachers to courses and conferences for experienced researchers defining the cutting edge of genomics into their practices. For more information on the laboratory's program services, please refer to The Jackson Laboratory accomplishments at https://www.jax.org/about-us/our-impact/medical-impact.
$13,011,981 spentof which $1,180,991 as grants$706,736 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $522,158,850.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.2B to $1.5B (+20%).
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 23% · 2018 22% · 2019 25% · 2020 20% · 2021 18% · 2022 18% · 2023 18% · 2024 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
18% of THE JACKSON LABORATORY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (1% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Lon Cardon PHD FMEDSCI
President & CEO
Board chair
Timothy D Dattels
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 61 funders to 81 funders, grant income rose $8.0M → $15M.
24 of 198 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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 THE JACKSON LABORATORY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 198 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
THE JACKSON LABORATORY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
71% 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 THE JACKSON LABORATORY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 9% · 2019 21% · 2020 48% · 2021 14% · 2022 10% · 2023 17% — 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
40% of THE JACKSON LABORATORY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
THE JACKSON LABORATORY draws 75% of its grant income from funders outside Maine, across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
THE JACKSON LABORATORY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,076 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,076 health nonprofits over $100M, FY2024
Government funding THE JACKSON LABORATORY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $816.4M on record — $814.2M federal, $2.2M state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$790.8M
- Department of Defense$18.6M
- National Science Foundation$3.0M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$1.7M
- Department of Agriculture$62k
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$52k
- CT$2.2M
- OK$47k
- NJ$176
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 THE JACKSON LABORATORY
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 Maine
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% 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 31 states
Part of a family of 10 related entities
- Jackson Laboratory Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Jackson Laboratory California Research Institute LLC · disregarded
- The Jackson Lab M&T (Shanghai) Co Ltd · corp_trust
- The Jackson Laboratory Hong Kong Holdings Ltd · corp_trust
- The Jackson Laboratory Japan Holdings Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE JACKSON LABORATORY: 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 THE JACKSON LABORATORY?
- THE JACKSON LABORATORY (Maine) receives grants from 198 organizations whose IRS filings report $116,201,918 to it, the largest being HAROLD ALFOND FOUNDATION ($13,550,000). 135 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE JACKSON LABORATORY have?
- IRS filings report 198 organizations giving $116,201,918 in grants to THE JACKSON LABORATORY, 135 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE JACKSON LABORATORY?
- HAROLD ALFOND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $13,550,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE JACKSON LABORATORY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maine. 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 198 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