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Texas · Nonprofit

TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO

TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO (Texas) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $782,506 to it, the largest being EL PASO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($266,525). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$627k
Funders on record
11
Grants received
$783k
Net assets
$149k
6/11 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 32%
01What it does

What Tech Frontier Fab Lab El Paso does

Mission

Provide open-door, open-access grassroots community space, hardware, software and resource support for education, research and development.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Grants & contributions

    $380,729 spentof which $15,397 as grants$530,786 earned by the program
    85% of program spending
  2. K12 stem program

    $63,246 spentof which $87,423 as grants$88,173 earned by the program
    14% of program spending
  3. Fabrication service

    $5,887 spent$8,207 earned by the program
    1% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $449,862.

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 ($136k) Expenses 100 ($64k) Net assets 100 ($139k)2018 Revenue 284 ($386k) Expenses 487 ($314k) Net assets 53 ($74k)2019 Revenue 158 ($215k) Expenses 328 ($211k) Net assets 57 ($79k)2020 Revenue 184 ($251k) Expenses 413 ($266k) Net assets 108 ($150k)2021 Revenue 223 ($303k) Expenses 497 ($320k) Net assets 96 ($133k)2022 Revenue 433 ($589k) Expenses 827 ($532k) Net assets 206 ($286k)2023 Revenue 442 ($601k) Expenses 1146 ($738k) Net assets 96 ($134k)2024 Revenue 548 ($746k) Expenses 1146 ($738k) Net assets 50 ($69k)2025 Revenue 461 ($627k) Expenses 844 ($543k) Net assets 107 ($149k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (461)Expenses (844)Net assets (107)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 2021 to 2022, from $213k to $367k (+73%).

$139k
$77k
$86k
$234k
$213k
$367k
$221k
$142k
$225k
'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

Government-grant reliance: 2021 10% · 2022 2% · 2023 42%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

100% of TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,618 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$72k
’17
$73k
’18
$4k
’19
−$15k
’20
−$17k
’21
$57k
’22
−$137k
’23
$8k
’24
$84k
’25
3.2
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.

Chief executive

Cathy Chen

Exec dir

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed77777666
Joined·+0+0+0+0+1+0+0
No longer listed·0000200
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $20k → $168k.

5 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO’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

TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

68% 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 TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO.

34%
largest funder
63%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 50% · 2021 66% · 2022 66% · 2023 32% — 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

75% of TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

58% of TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO'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 $330k that is directly attributable, 59% of it comes from Texas funders.

NY
OK
TX

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

’20
’21
’22
’23
Texas out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $452k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO has grown faster than three-quarters of the 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin13% · above the median
Months of reserve3.2mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)21% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12,262 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO

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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

82% of spending goes to programs.

Program 82%Management 15%Fundraising 3%

Governance

7
board members
0%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO: 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.

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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 TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO?
TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO (Texas) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $782,506 to it, the largest being EL PASO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($266,525). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO have?
IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $782,506 in grants to TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO?
EL PASO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $266,525 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TECH FRONTIER FAB LAB EL PASO 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 Tech Frontier Fab Lab El Paso →

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 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing