Massachusetts · Nonprofit
National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc
National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $34,672,720 to it, the largest being THE LEMELSON FOUNDATION ($21,793,866). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $106M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $35M
- Net assets
- $36M
What National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc does
Mission
VentureWell is on a mission to cultivate a pipeline inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs driven to solve the world's biggest challenges and to create lasting impact. We foster collaboration among the best minds from research labs, classrooms, and beyond to advance innovation and entrepreneurship education and to provide unique opportunities for stem students and researchers to fully realize their potential to improve the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
RADX - VentureWell serves as the network partner and administrator for the National Institutes of Health's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Initiative. Known as RADX, this program aims to expand the range of innovative diagnostic technologies available to support a rapid increase in reliability, speed, and scale of testing for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) across the country.
$92,644,524 spentof which $41,707,157 as grants$97,756,278 earned by the program100% of program spendingIn addition to the 3 grants programs outlined on lines 4a through 4c, NCIIA also: a) awards other types of grants primarily to institutions of higher education in keeping with the organization's mission of promoting invention, innovation and entrepreneurship; b) offers membership to colleges and universities across the U.S., which afford member institutions the opportunity to attend NCIIA-sponsored events at reduced rates, tap into the NCIIA network, and to apply for NCIIA grants; c) conducts workshops and events, including but not limited to an annual conference and workshops designed to teach technology entrepreneurship basics and how to enhance success of commercializing inventions and innovations; and d) invests in select ventures emerging from U.S institutions of higher education.
I-Corps Program - VentureWell led courses engage participants in moving products out of the lab into the market by talking to potential customers, partners and competitors, and encountering the challenges and uncertainty of creating successful innovations.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $92,644,524.
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 2024 to 2025, from $67M to $89M (+33%).
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 41% · 2018 43% · 2019 43% · 2020 33% · 2021 9% · 2022 6% · 2023 5% · 2024 5% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
6% of National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Todd Warren
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $200k → $3.4M.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc’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
National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 89%; 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 100% · 2018 57% · 2019 70% · 2020 66% · 2021 76% · 2022 83% · 2023 90% — 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
50% of National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% 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
National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $633k 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
National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 679 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 679 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $515.0M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$426.4M
- National Science Foundation$61.1M
- Department of Commerce$13.7M
- Department of State$12.1M
- Department of Defense$668k
- Department of Energy$531k
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 National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Venturewell LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc: 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 National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc?
- National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $34,672,720 to it, the largest being THE LEMELSON FOUNDATION ($21,793,866). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $34,672,720 in grants to National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc?
- THE LEMELSON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $21,793,866 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc 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 16 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