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North Carolina · Nonprofit

Research Triangle Institute

Research Triangle Institute (North Carolina) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $227,689,379 to it, the largest being JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ($60,188,749). 79 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.3B
Funders on record
113
Grants received
$228M
Net assets
$539M
79/113 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 3%
01What it does

What Research Triangle Institute does

Mission

Research Triangle Institute is one of the world's leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. Our staff of more than 3,700 provides research and technical (continued on Schedule O, Part III, Line 1) expertise to governments and businesses in approximately 70 countries in the areas of health, education and workforce development, energy and environment, food security and agriculture, international development and innovation.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. RESEARCH: Multidisciplinary research & development and the application of science & technology in the areas of Health Research; Drug Discovery & Development; Education & Training Research; Survey Research Services; Statistics Research; Economic & Social Research; Advanced Technology Research & Development; Energy Research; Environmental Research Services; and Laboratory & Chemistry Services; See Schedule O for expanded description of these program services.

    $888,829,311 spentof which $256,040 as grants$988,600,665 earned by the program
    78% of program spending
  2. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: See Schedule O for description of program services, Part III Line 4b.

    $244,551,690 spent$230,317,398 earned by the program
    22% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,133,381,001.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($979M) Expenses 100 ($971M) Net assets 100 ($416M)2018 Revenue 99 ($966M) Expenses 100 ($967M) Net assets 100 ($415M)2019 Revenue 99 ($967M) Expenses 99 ($961M) Net assets 98 ($409M)2020 Revenue 94 ($918M) Expenses 93 ($904M) Net assets 104 ($435M)2021 Revenue 111 ($1.1B) Expenses 110 ($1.1B) Net assets 120 ($498M)2022 Revenue 126 ($1.2B) Expenses 122 ($1.2B) Net assets 114 ($476M)2023 Revenue 127 ($1.2B) Expenses 127 ($1.2B) Net assets 119 ($494M)2024 Revenue 143 ($1.4B) Expenses 141 ($1.4B) Net assets 127 ($529M)2025 Revenue 128 ($1.3B) Expenses 128 ($1.2B) Net assets 129 ($539M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (128)Expenses (128)Net assets (129)Peer revenue range

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 $735M to $864M (+18%).

$695M
$707M
$682M
$735M
$864M
$796M
$822M
$936M
$947M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

1% of Research Triangle Institute’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (40% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 51 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$7.8M
’17
−$1.2M
’18
$6.9M
’19
$14M
’20
$15M
’21
$56M
’22
$17M
’23
$34M
’24
$10M
’25
0.3
months of
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

P Scott III

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed383335343737393334
Joined·+7+9+9+10+12+13+6+4
No longer listed·1271071211123
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 23 funders to 49 funders, grant income rose $16M → $33M.

12 of 113 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 Research Triangle Institute’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 113 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

Research Triangle Institute has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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

65% 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 Research Triangle Institute.

26%
largest funder
54%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 26% · 2019 23% · 2020 25% · 2021 24% · 2022 35% · 2023 26% — 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

40% of Research Triangle Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

Research Triangle Institute draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 26 states in all.

ME
WA
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
RI
CA
MO
WV
VA
MD
KS
TN
NC
SC
DC
LA
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
North Carolina out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.8M 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Research Triangle Institute's funding base is broadening — from 23 funders to 49 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin1% · below the median
Months of reserve0.3mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 32 science & tech nonprofits over $100M, FY2025

Government funding Research Triangle Institute receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.4B on record — $7.4B federal, $8.8M state.

Federal$7.4B
grants $2.8Bcontracts $4.6B
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • Department of Health and Human Services$3.4B
  • Agency for International Development$2.2B
  • Environmental Protection Agency$394.4M
  • Department of Education$393.0M
  • Department of Justice$287.6M
  • Department of Defense$216.4M
State$8.8M
04
05
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
By state
  • FL$6.8M
  • VT$851k
  • MD$528k
  • OR$350k
  • MA$282k
  • NJ$6k

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 Research Triangle Institute

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

91% of spending goes to programs.

Program 91%Management 9%Fundraising 0%

Governance

18
board members
56%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 3 states

MA
CA
GA

Part of a family of 9 related entities

  • Research Triangle Institute International LLC · disregarded
  • RTI Health Solutions LLC · disregarded
  • Duke University · exempt
  • The University of North Carolina · exempt
  • Research Triangle Institute Global Inc · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Research Triangle Institute: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Research Triangle Institute?
Research Triangle Institute (North Carolina) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $227,689,379 to it, the largest being JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ($60,188,749). 79 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Research Triangle Institute have?
IRS filings report 113 organizations giving $227,689,379 in grants to Research Triangle Institute, 79 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Research Triangle Institute?
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY is the largest funder on record, with $60,188,749 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Research Triangle Institute 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.

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 113 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