Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER
MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $39,427,402 to it, the largest being THE AMBROSE MONELL FOUNDATION ($26,525,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $21M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $39M
- Net assets
- $37M
What Monell Chemical Senses Center does
Mission
To advance knowledge of the mechanisms and functions of the chemical senses: taste, smell and chemosensory irritation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Monell Chemical Senses Center is a non-profit independent scientific institute dedicated to interdisciplinary basic research on the senses of taste, smell and chemosensory irritation. In addition to increasing fundamental knowledge about the chemical senses, basic research at Monell relates to significant public health and quality of life issues, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, pediatric health, occupational safety, environmental pollution, and homeland security. Our appreciation of many of lifes pleasures, such as the evocative realms of scent and flavor, also is enhanced through discoveries from Monell. Monells science connects us intimately to the world around us, helping to improve the human experience.
$16,197,239 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $16,197,239.
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 $23M to $40M (+72%).
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 31% · 2019 36% · 2020 41% · 2021 52% · 2022 26% · 2023 37% · 2024 38% · 2025 37%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (7% 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
Benjamin Smith Phd
Exec Dir President
Board chair
David Macnair Phd
Chairman of the Board
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $248k → $7.6M.
11 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 67% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 75% · 2019 50% · 2020 54% · 2021 41% · 2022 76% · 2023 82% — 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
56% of MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER draws 95% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 13 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M 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
MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER is better cushioned than half of the 2,843 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,843 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $54.5M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$51.6M
- Department of Agriculture$2.9M
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 MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
62%
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 MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER: 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 MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER?
- MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $39,427,402 to it, the largest being THE AMBROSE MONELL FOUNDATION ($26,525,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $39,427,402 in grants to MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER?
- THE AMBROSE MONELL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $26,525,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MONELL CHEMICAL SENSES CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Monell Chemical Senses Center →
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 36 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