California · Nonprofit
Maker Bhavan Foundation
Maker Bhavan Foundation (California) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,764,819 to it, the largest being THE KANAKIA FOUNDATION ($1,545,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.7M
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $2.8M
- Net assets
- $10.0M
What Maker Bhavan Foundation does
Mission
To enable Stem Education in India to train students to be innovative and job-ready upon graduation. The foundation acts as a global resource for Indian engineering colleges to provide access to tools, equipment, financial resources, and knowledge so that the education imparted is more relevant and responsive to the real life needs of students and society at large.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Tinkerers Labs are 24/7 student-managed academic makerspaces equipped with advanced fabrication tools (3D printers, CNC machines, laser cutters) that allow students to transition from theoretical concepts to real-world prototypes. MBF significantly accelerated its footprint in 2025. By the end of this reporting cycle, the foundation has established a total of 17 operational labs across India. A strategic priority was placed on less well-resourced institutions to democratize innovation. To date, over 100,000 students have benefited from the TL network.In 2025, MBF supported the establishment of 6 new labs namely - NIE Mysuru, IIT Jodhpur, Chitkara University, Ahmedabad University, and Prince Sri Venkateshwara Padmavathy Engineering College and College of Engineering Roorkee.The total cost of setting up these facilities in 2025 was USD 124,839.83In September 2025. MBF entered a landmark partnership with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and other collaborators to launch Project PRACTICE (Project for Advancing Critical Thinking, Industry Connect and Employability). This initiative aims to reach 1,000 Tier II and Tier III engineering colleges over three years,…
$124,840 spentof which $124,840 as grants60% of program spendingInvention Factory (IF) rebranded as InventX--An existing program of the Foundation, Invention Factory rebranded as InventX is an intensive six-week residential summer program in inventing for undergraduate engineering and design students in India. To date, a total of 265 students from 20 IITs and 18 NITs have participated in the program with 124 provisional patent applications filed in India and the USA. In 2025, we received 890 applications from 480 unique colleges, ultimately hosting the final selected students at IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Jammu. The cost incurred for this programme was USD 70,694 in 2025.
$70,694 spentof which $70,694 as grants34% of program spendingMaker Bhavan Our largest academic makerspace at IIT Gandhinagar supports approximately 15 courses and project workshops conducted by facility staff. In the year 2025, a Makerspace summit was held for which the cost MBF contributed USD 11,560.
$11,560 spentof which $11,560 as grants6% of program spendingVishwakarma Award, was launched in 2022, as an annual nationwide thematic challenge to encourage talented student teams to build innovative, impactful, deployable prototypes rapidly. In the first edition in 2022, 120 teams with a total of 300 plus students, from across India participated in the field of Water and Sanitation. The 2025, Vishwakarma Awards attracted 1,054 team applications from 3,616 students across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Nepal, culminating in a grand finale at IIT Indore following an intensive bootcamp. Supported by industry partners MathWorks, Addverb, Technocraft, WingsEV, and Alkyl Amines, the competition challenged participants to innovate within the themes of smart mobility, healthtech, and intelligent machines. The total cost of this programme was USD 62.07.
$62 spentof which $62 as grants0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $207,156.
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 2024 to 2025, from $640k to $10.0M (+1459%).
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.
99% of Maker Bhavan Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
dr hemant Kanakia
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $15k → $506k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 Maker Bhavan Foundation’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
Maker Bhavan Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
26% 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 Maker Bhavan Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 66% · 2021 67% · 2022 85% · 2023 89% — 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.
Where its funders are
Maker Bhavan Foundation draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $320k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Maker Bhavan Foundation holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Maker Bhavan Foundation
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
60% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
11%
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 Maker Bhavan Foundation: 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 Maker Bhavan Foundation?
- Maker Bhavan Foundation (California) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,764,819 to it, the largest being THE KANAKIA FOUNDATION ($1,545,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Maker Bhavan Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $2,764,819 in grants to Maker Bhavan Foundation, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Maker Bhavan Foundation?
- THE KANAKIA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,545,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Maker Bhavan Foundation 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 FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 6 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