New Mexico · Nonprofit
SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH
SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH (New Mexico) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,024,760 to it, the largest being ANNE RAY FOUNDATION ($4,512,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.8M
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $48M
What School for Advanced Research does
Mission
The School for Advanced Research's mission is to advance understanding of humanity through a unique alchemy of creative practice and scholarly research in native american arts, anthropology, and related disciplines. Its vision is to be a nexus of scholars and artists,creative thinkers and curious learners, where we exchange ideas, bring life to history, explore the present, and broaden perspectives in pursuit of a more informed and equitable society.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Scholar programs: during the fiscal year, jason de len, a former sar weatherhead fellow, earned the 2024 national book award for nonfiction for soldiers and kings: survival and hope in the world of human smuggling, a book with roots in work created during his time at sar and a profound testament to the rigorous and heartfelt scholarship that sar supports. Not only does de len's recognition underscore the caliber of our fellowships (he joins two other sar scholars who received the same honor in the past four years), but we were also honored to bring him back to campus as our mellon lecture speaker in february 2025, showing how scholarship cultivated at sar can circle back to inform, enrich, and inspire public audiences. Fellows advanced projects spanning sovereignty, migration, environmental health, and the making of meaning across art and daily life. Scholars expanded their thinking through sar's catherine mcelvain library resources. The result is visible: new books in progress, new collaborations underway, and new ways to think about some of the most difficult questions of our time.
$1,606,905 spentof which $210,000 as grants$63,256 earned by the program45% of program spendingThe indian arts research center (iarc): the iarc's work this year reinforced the power of orienting collections care around community. The indigenous collections care (icc) guide, a project born from a growing interest in prioritizing and privileging indigenized practices on all levels of museum work, particularly in the stewardship of collections, progressed to the final vetting stage this year, offering opportunities to engage tribal and museum voices across the field. This eventual companion to the widely used guidelines for collaboration and standards for museums with native american collections, illustrates a clear aim for the iarc's continued work: center stewardship around indigenous knowledge and needs, and make that standard practice accessible to professionals and community members around the world. On the public stage, grounded in clay: the spirit of pueblo pottery continued its national tour, following a celebrated new york presentation by the metropolitan museum of art and the vilcek foundation with an opening at the museum of fine arts, houston (october 2024-january 2025) and a run at the saint louis art museum (march- september 2025). The exhibition's curriculum and…
$1,445,311 spent$27,849 earned by the program41% of program spendingPublic programs & events: over the course of 12 days, this year's humanities festival: food for thought offered audiences means to explore food as culture, memory, and power. Archaeologist chelsea fisher revealed how sustainable farming practices of the past may hold solutions for the future. Michaela desoucey stirred debate with her talk on the politics of foie gras, weaving ethics, pleasure, and identity into one fraught meal. At reunity resources, members walked through rows of living crops before sitting down to a farm-to-table lunch, blurring the line between learning and savoring. And when kathleen merrigan moderated a panel with a rancher, organic farmer/hydrologist, and native permaculture expert and artist, the result was part science, part storytelling, part community reckoning with water and land. The summer also included the launch of sar's summer series featuring music at dusk concerts as well as 4 dog days events where sar members and the public were invited to bring their dog to campus to socialize with other dog owners, attend talks on canine history and behavior as well as meet other dogs.
$504,401 spent$51,869 earned by the program14% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,556,617.
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 2023 to 2024, from $32M to $41M (+28%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 5% · 2022 3% · 2023 4% · 2024 1% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
70% of SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% 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.
Board chair
Gregory A Smith
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $301k → $855k.
12 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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
SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
63% 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 SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 78% · 2018 54% · 2019 38% · 2020 59% · 2021 41% · 2022 41% · 2023 35% — 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
60% of SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside New Mexico, across 17 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 84 social science nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 84 social science nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.1M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$520k
- National Science Foundation$259k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$226k
- Department of the Interior$89k
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 SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH
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 Mexico
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
64% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
50%
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 SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH: 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 SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH?
- SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH (New Mexico) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,024,760 to it, the largest being ANNE RAY FOUNDATION ($4,512,000). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $11,024,760 in grants to SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH?
- ANNE RAY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,512,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Mexico. 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 School for Advanced Research →
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 52 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