Texas · Nonprofit
MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION
MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $65,479 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($26,830). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 90% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $65k
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What Mensa Education and Research Foundation does
Mission
The mensa foundation is unleashing intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2023 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
Mensa foundation speaker series - 90-minute virtual sessions that dive deep into the world of intelligence and giftedness.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Scholarships and awards - the foundation presents awards for excellence to researchers based on outstanding research on human intelligence, intellectual giftedness and related fields. Other awards given by the foundation are copper black award for creative achievment, lifetime achievement award for research on intelligence and giftedness, mensa foundation prize and gifted education fellowship, and early career researcher mini-grant. The foundation awards scholarships to college students. The foundation awarded 199 scholarships and awards during the fiscal year ended march 31, 2024.
$386,723 spentof which $208,457 as grants65% of program spendingJournal and public education - the foundation publishes the "mensa research journal" at least three times per year. This journal highlights scholarly articles and recent research related to intelligence. The support of gifted youth is a focal point for the foundation. The foundation funds gifted youth programs through the web site www.mensaforkids.org, which offers educational games and articles for youth. The foundation hosts colloquiums that are open to the public. Colloquiums offer an in-depth look at a particular topic and offer a climate of intellectual excitement in which concepts are explored, dialogues are started and ideas are generated. This event is now also being offered as a livestream along with the in-person event. The recording of the colloquium is also availble for sale.
$211,608 spent$91,147 earned by the program35% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $598,331.
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 $4.6M to $6.4M (+38%).
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.
66% of MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Trevor Mitchell
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $1k → $2k.
4 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 90% 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: $316k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Mensa Ltd). These are real filings, and they are not money MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 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
MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
90% 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 MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 60% · 2021 68% · 2022 60% · 2023 67% — 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
60% of MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 50% 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
90% of MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION'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 $7k that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from funders outside Texas, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $59k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
56% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- American Mensa Ltd · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 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 MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION?
- MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $65,479 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($26,830). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 90% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $65,479 in grants to MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $26,830 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MENSA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 8 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