Minnesota · Nonprofit
SEARCH INSTITUTE
SEARCH INSTITUTE (Minnesota) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,353,651 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,745,751). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.9M
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Search Institute does
Mission
Search Institute mission is to cultivate strengths, relationships, and opportunities necessary for young people to learn, grow, contribute, and thrive. This mission is in furtherance of our vision of a world where the inherent value of every young person is known, nurtured, and activated so youth and communities thrive together.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Search Institute studies and works to strengthen youth outcomes in schools, youth programs, families, and communities. Founded in 1958, Search Institute was a pioneer in using social science to understand the lives, beliefs, and values of young people. Since that time, more than 6 million children and adolescents have participated in Search Institute studies and projects. In addition, more than 11,000 youth-serving organizations and almost 120,000 practitioners have utilized the practical resources that Search Institute has created to help young people thrive. Search Institute is more than a research organization; we transform complex findings into practical strategies and tools that support adults in co-creating spaces where youth can be and become their best selves. We work alongside our partners to refine our approaches, ensuring that change is meaningful and enduring. Our approach includes: generating knowledge: our work lives in the dynamic intersection of scientific research, practitioner wisdom, and youth voice, with a commitment to expand the collective knowledge of what all youth need to thrive.co-creating solutions: we anticipate and solve for needs by developing…
$3,704,697 spent$982,655 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,704,697.
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 $4.0M to $11M (+161%).
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 19% · 2019 13% · 2020 18% · 2021 4% · 2022 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of SEARCH INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (60% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Ben Houltberg
President and CEO
Board chair
Brian Lindberg
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021, and between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $548k → $3.0M.
5 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 SEARCH INSTITUTE’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
SEARCH INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 84% · 2018 43% · 2019 77% · 2020 57% · 2021 75% · 2022 43% · 2023 37% — 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
25% of SEARCH INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
SEARCH INSTITUTE draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
SEARCH INSTITUTE's funding base is broadening — from 3 funders to 9 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,299 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SEARCH INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $798k on record — $754k federal, $44k state.
- Department of Education$399k
- Department of Justice$307k
- Department of Health and Human Services$47k
- DE$44k
- VT$58
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 SEARCH 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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
45%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 4 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SEARCH 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.
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 SEARCH INSTITUTE?
- SEARCH INSTITUTE (Minnesota) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,353,651 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($4,745,751). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SEARCH INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $14,353,651 in grants to SEARCH INSTITUTE, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SEARCH INSTITUTE?
- GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,745,751 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SEARCH INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 21 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