New York · Nonprofit
NYC FIRST Inc
NYC FIRST Inc (New York) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,738,707 to it, the largest being Siegel Family Endowment ($2,700,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.7M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $9.7M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What NYC FIRST Inc does
Mission
See Schedule O.NYC FIRST's mission is to inspire and empower K-12 students from diverse communities across New York City each year to engage with STEM and robotics in meaningful and joyful ways. It creates learning experiences that encourage young people to think critically and creatively and to persevere. Its programs set young people on pathways to success academically and professionally.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
See Schedule O.Through its STEM Centers, NYC FIRST creates an array of empowering, innovative and accessible educational opportunities throughout the year. Its STEM Centers serve as a high-impact programmatic platform that empowers students, educators and mentors through district-wide school-day programs, after-school robotics leagues, credit-bearing STEM courses, pathways support, professional development for teachers, collaborative curriculum design, hands-on workshops, and open hours for design and fabrication. At its STEM Centers, staff lead credit-bearing, immersive courses, with three-hour-long, school-day sessions each week. Year-long courses allow students to immerse themselves in robotics, while also providing them with the opportunity to apply their knowledge to create projects and solutions that seek to solve problems in their communities. NYC FIRST operates four STEM Centers, at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island, the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, in the New York Public Library's Washington Heights branch, and in Downtown Brooklyn. NYC FIRST manages all three FIRST robotics programs (FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition) serving…
$6,568,961 spentof which $3,143,398 as grants$466,828 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $6,568,961.
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 $2.7M to $5.7M (+110%).
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: 2018 1% · 2019 0% · 2021 9% · 2023 8% · 2024 10% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of NYC FIRST Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Michael Zigman
CEO/Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $636k → $2.4M.
14 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 NYC FIRST Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
NYC FIRST Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
57% 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 NYC FIRST Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 96% · 2018 60% · 2019 38% · 2020 40% · 2021 43% · 2022 46% · 2023 42% — 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
38% of NYC FIRST Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
63% of NYC FIRST Inc's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.6M 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
NYC FIRST Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,064 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,064 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like NYC FIRST 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
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 NYC FIRST 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 NYC FIRST Inc?
- NYC FIRST Inc (New York) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,738,707 to it, the largest being Siegel Family Endowment ($2,700,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NYC FIRST Inc have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $9,738,707 in grants to NYC FIRST Inc, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NYC FIRST Inc?
- Siegel Family Endowment is the largest funder on record, with $2,700,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NYC FIRST Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 34 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