Massachusetts · Nonprofit
MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY (Massachusetts) receives grants from 90 organizations whose IRS filings report $43,840,220 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($6,644,234). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $55M
- Funders on record
- 90
- Grants received
- $44M
- Net assets
- $212M
What Marine Biological Laboratory does
Mission
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the world's leading scientists who are attracted by the MBL's unique resources and strengths, and who come to the MBL to conduct research for weeks or months at a time. Their work spans biological scales from molecules and cells to ecosystems. The MBL trains students from high school to postdoctoral levels. Central to the MBL's identity are its advanced graduate level research courses.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) maintains laboratories for the scientific study and investigation of a wide range of biological topics, from biomedical to ecological research. MBL Resident Scientists are based full-time in Woods Hole and conduct funded research in areas of science that are relevant to the MBL's mission of fundamental biological discovery. Areas of focus include new discoveries emerging from the study of new research organisms, encompassing studies in cell biology, regenerative biology, neuroscience, sensory physiology, and comparative evolution and genomics; the study of microbiomes and microbial diversity and ecology in a variety of ocean, organismal, and terrestrial habitats; innovation in imaging and computation, illuminating cellular function and previously unknown biology; and adaptation and resilience of environmental systems and organisms in the face of global change.
$33,429,251 spentof which $3,115,475 as grants$24,481,273 earned by the program70% of program spendingThe Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) offers a wide range of scientific courses (from high school to post-doctoral level), workshops, conferences, and internships throughout the year. Central to the MBL's identity are its advanced, discovery-based courses for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. In these courses students learn from internationally renowned scientists and are immersed in the laboratory, learning cutting-edge techniques while investigating contemporary research problems. Each year, MBL advanced courses attract more than 500 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from more than 300 institutions and over 30 countries. Course directors and faculty are leaders in their fields, drawn from leading universities and research institutions around the world.
$11,887,269 spentof which $2,260,277 as grants$13,552,325 earned by the program25% of program spendingVisiting (Whitman) Research: The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) hosts hundreds of researchers, postdocs, and graduate students from around the world to participate in scientific discovery courses, research, lectures, and field studies. As a convener of biology, the MBL is well known for fostering a highly collaborative environment, with scientists and students engaged in intensive research in a collegial and informal atmosphere. Whitman Center Scientists are provided with infrastructure and an informal, interactive scientific community that allows them to launch into research almost immediately upon their arrival. Advice and equipment are available from other researchers or from colleagues in the education program. Free from academic duties at their home institutions, some veteran Whitman Center Scientists report they do more hands-on research in three months at the MBL than they do during the rest of the year at their home institutions.
$2,326,523 spent$1,614,209 earned by the program5% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $47,643,043.
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 $211M to $244M (+16%).
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 30% · 2018 28% · 2019 23% · 2020 27% · 2021 25% · 2022 27% · 2023 33% · 2024 32% · 2025 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
71% of MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY’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. 5 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.
Board chair
William I Huyett
Chair of the Board of Trustees
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 47 funders, grant income rose $3.0M → $9.6M.
15 of 90 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $3.3M from 9 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Silicon Valley Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY raised.
From the IRS filings of MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 90 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
MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
48% 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 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 36% · 2019 38% · 2020 13% · 2021 18% · 2022 26% · 2023 19% — 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
44% of MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY draws 81% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 15 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 9 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
MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY's funding base is broadening — from 29 funders to 47 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 85 science & tech nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $135.5M on record — $133.9M federal, $1.6M state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$72.6M
- National Science Foundation$42.4M
- Department of Energy$11.1M
- Department of Defense$5.7M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$1.0M
- Smithsonian Institution$948k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$1.6M
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$35k
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 MARINE BIOLOGICAL 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 Massachusetts
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
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 35 states
Part of a family of 35 related entities
- University of Chicago · exempt
- Arch Development Corporation · exempt
- Chicago Home for the Incurables · exempt
- Chicago Tumor Institute · exempt
- Court Theatre Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MARINE BIOLOGICAL 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 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY?
- MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY (Massachusetts) receives grants from 90 organizations whose IRS filings report $43,840,220 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($6,644,234). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY have?
- IRS filings report 90 organizations giving $43,840,220 in grants to MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $6,644,234 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY 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 90 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