Colorado · Nonprofit
OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION
OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION (Colorado) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,118,070 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($1,102,170). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $770k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $212k
What Open Source Hardware Association does
Mission
The Open Source Hardware Association (oshwa) aims to foster technological knowledge and encourage research that is accessible, collaborative and respects user freedom.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Educate the general public about open source hardware and its socially beneficial uses:oshwa embarked on research for an open healthware ecosystem, bringing health and medical devices into open source. We held six workshops attended by approximately 130 participants, and a conference with 100 in-person participants, and 930 online viewers. Throughout 2025, our participants co-created a standard for source in open hardware medical devices and we began the work of creating a certification and best practices around that standard.
$675,510 spent94% of program spendingEncourage collaborative learning, knowledge exchange, and social cohesion through conferences and other events focused on open source hardware:open hardware summit (ohs) is a conference to learn about open hardware, manufacturing, and policy. Oshwa had an in-person summit in 2025, and had 297 people in our audience and approximately 1500 viewers on our video feed.
$45,655 spent$21,335 earned by the program6% of program spendingOrganize the open source hardware movement around shared values and principles:oshwa certifies open source hardware based on requirements that follow the community-based open hardware definition. Compliance with our certification grants you license to use our trademark and a unique identifier. The certification produces a database of all certified open source hardware projects. In 2025, we certified 259 more projects. At the end of 2025 there were approximately 2,880 certified open source hardware projects in our database.
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $721,165.
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 $137k to $1.1M (+717%).
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: 2024 75% · 2025 90%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% 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
Alicia Seidle
Executive director
Board chair
Lee Wilkins
Summit chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $59k → $34.
3 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION’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
OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 99% of grant income and the top three 100%; 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% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 1 state in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 13,917 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,917 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- National Science Foundation$1.5M
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 OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION
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 Colorado
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
57%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION: 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 OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION?
- OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION (Colorado) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,118,070 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($1,102,170). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $1,118,070 in grants to OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION?
- ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,102,170 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE ASSOCIATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. 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 4 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