Texas · Nonprofit
SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION
SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $597,846 to it, the largest being The Lightner Sams Foundation Inc ($248,750). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $192k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $598k
- Net assets
- $27k
What Solar Car Challenge Foundation does
Mission
STEM Education - Science, Engineering, Alternative Energy. The Solar Car Challenge Foundation helps motivate students in Science, Engineering, and Alternative Energy. We teach high school students how to plan, fund-raise, design, engineer, build, and race roadworthy solar cars. This goal is achieved through in-person workshops, virtual workshops, curriculum materials, mentor programs, and on-site visits. Since its inception, we have worked with more than 65,000 students in 37 states helping share the fun of STEM Education. Students enter a 15-month education cycle wherein they learn mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, aerodynamics, battery technology, project management, financial planning, materials technology, communications, coding, and construction skills. Most importantly, students learn life skills including dedication and commitment to a project. They learn how to deal with both success and failure.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
(1) The Solar Car Challenge Education Program taught 8,000 students and teachers how to plan, design, engineer, and build a roadworthy solar car through in-person and virtual workshops. (2) The Solar Car Challenge Foundation hosted a racing event at the Texas Motor Speedway that allowed student solar car teams from around the country to both display and safely race their vehicles. Forty-five teams registered to take part in the 2022 event. (3) The Solar Car Challenge hosted multiple national workshops teaching engineering and project management to high school students. This was done virtually to minimize COVID exposure. (4) The Solar Car Challenge and participating teams shared their project with both Elementary School Students and Middle School Students around the country. Our goal is to inspire youngsters to get involved with Science and Engineering. (5) The Solar Car Challenge continued its "challenge" to high school students to build a vehicle, power that vehicle by the Sun, and to drive that vehicle at a world famous NASCAR Trace (The Texas Motor Speedway) in Fort Worth, Texas.
$181,086 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $181,086.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $57k to $3k (−94%).
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.
81% of SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION’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 4 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $38k → $131k.
2 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION’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
SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
36% 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 SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 95% · 2019 54% · 2020 100% · 2021 52% · 2022 29% · 2023 38% — 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
43% of SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 64% 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
SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Texas, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $163k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 4 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
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 SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION: 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 SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION?
- SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $597,846 to it, the largest being The Lightner Sams Foundation Inc ($248,750). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $597,846 in grants to SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION?
- The Lightner Sams Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $248,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOLAR CAR CHALLENGE FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 Solar Car Challenge →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 11 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