North Carolina · Nonprofit
QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC
QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $517,147 to it, the largest being THE BLACKBAUD GIVING FUND ($140,064). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $286k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $517k
- Net assets
- $145k
What Queen City Robotics Alliance Inc does
Mission
Nurturing the future workforce by providing practical hands-on STEM experiences for local youth.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
YETI Robotics, founded in 2011, remains one of QCRAs flagship teams. The program serves over 70 students annually through its core high school team while also supporting the launch of 7 FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams and 6 FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams at the middle and elementary school levels. These teams operate with QCRA as their fiscal sponsor. To date, multiple teams have earned awards for outstanding performance, with several advancing to State Championship competitions. Demonstrating the excellence of our programming, Avalanche Robotics and Yeti Robotics went to the World Championships in Houston in 2025.
$145,506 spent79% of program spendingQCRA leverages the FIRST Robotics program to advance STEM education, now supporting 22 middle and high school robotics teams comprising over 300 students. In addition to coaching and mentoring, QCRA serves as the fiscal sponsor, overseeing team funds and expenses. We collaborate on fundraising initiatives to reduce participation costs for families facing financial constraints. Our outreach efforts promote STEM education and career awareness, reaching over 5,000 individuals annually. QCRA has also been selected as the local host for the NASA International Space Apps Challenge in Charlotte in 2024 and 2025, further expanding its impact across the Carolinas. To broaden access and strengthen the STEM pipeline, QCRA has expanded into year-round programming, including after-school programs and summer camps designed for students with little to no prior experience, as well as those seeking additional development. These programs provide hands-on learning in robotics and coding, reinforcing skills needed for continued participation in competitive teams. QCRA collaborates with corporate partners to provide scholarships, helping ensure affordability and reducing financial barriers so more…
$38,891 spent21% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $184,397.
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 $97k to $186k (+92%).
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 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 94% · 2020 68%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
73% of QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Kaiwen Cheng
CEO
Board chair
Mark Rohlinger
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $2k → $100k.
5 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS 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
QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
88% 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 QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 56% · 2021 70% · 2022 30% · 2023 40% — 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
100% of QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS 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
57% of QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC'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 $224k that is directly attributable, 68% of it comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $293k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC has grown faster than half of the 17,450 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS 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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS 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 QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC?
- QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC (North Carolina) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $517,147 to it, the largest being THE BLACKBAUD GIVING FUND ($140,064). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $517,147 in grants to QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC?
- THE BLACKBAUD GIVING FUND is the largest funder on record, with $140,064 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like QUEEN CITY ROBOTICS ALLIANCE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Queen City Robotics Alliance →
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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing