Montana · Nonprofit
THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE
THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE (Montana) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,881,803 to it, the largest being Wend II Inc ($2,930,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.9M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $8.9M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What The Biomimicry Institute does
Mission
The purposes of this corporation shall be to naturalize biomimicry in the culture by promoting the transfer of ideas, designs, and strategies from biology to sustainable human systems design. About biomimicry: efforts to address climate change, consumption, pollution, deforestation, and the myriad of other issues that threaten the planet have to date been primarily reactive and wholly insufficient. The strategies we relied on to provide food, water, energy, shelter and comfort to a growing population are now seen as compounding rather than solving the problems. Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature's best ideas, abstracts the deep design principles, and then emulates these designs and processes to solve human problems. The Biomimicry Institute is the foremost authority and all around go-to place for biomimicry information, through its four main programs: biomimicry design challenges & education programs, innovation program, systems change program, and asknature.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Systems change - design for transformation (d4t)in 2021 we initiated a new systems change program to continue building on the interest generated by our the nature of fashion report (2020). This program looks at system level challenges, with an initial focus on textile decomposition and how we can design systems that ultimately support the safe breakdown and build up of materials. Materials and products that are unfamiliar to nature predominate the textile industry. The scope and scale of this industry threatens to overwhelm planetary boundaries. Taking a biomimetic frame to the issues leads to possible end-of-life solutions starting with making materials and products that are familiar (aka compatible) with natural systems. The d4t initiative is conducting pilots in the global north and global south that are designed to explore how the "bottom fraction" of mixed textile waste which are destined for landfill or incineration can be converted into valuable outputs. In 2023 we brought together a variety of global partners together to work on a variety of aspects of the project. Together we have worked to create a new expanded version of what the future of circularity holds and to begin…
$806,516 spentof which $127,234 as grants35% of program spendingInnovation - biomimicry launchpad and ray of hope prizein 2024, we supported another cohort of 20 multidisciplinary participants of scientists, innovators and designers from across the globe. This cohort engaged in a 10-week virtual program focused on storytelling, diversity, sustainability and entrepreneurial mindset including an in-person retreat to further establish this cohort of nature-inspired entrepreneurs. In addition, the program team attended the society of integrative and comparative biology (sicb), continued engagement with engineers for one planets advisory committee. 2024 also marked the evolution of the launchpad program into the innovation co-labs initiative to target a more established audience that may advance the organization's mission at an accelerated rate. The audience transitioned from early career individuals exploring nature-inspired entrepreneurship to established corporate leaders to activate industries with natures solutions through a 12-month collaboration, each year will invite a new cohort and will focus on a different sector. The ray of hope prize program identifies startups with nature-inspired solutions, amplifies their stories and connects them…
$808,016 spentof which $75,139 as grants$50,000 earned by the program35% of program spendingAsknature - asknature and asknature hiveas the largest open-access database for innovators to find biological models for design guidance, asknature is mission-critical for our work. Students use asknature when they first learn design and engineering skills in various biomimicry programs and continue to use it as they advance through university and become innovators. Our aim is to have nature-inspired design become standard practice, with asknature as a primary tool.we currently have more than 1,775 articles describing biological strategies (a characteristic, mechanism, or process that performs a function for an organism or other type of living system), 310 describing innovations (stories behind realized and conceptual products, services, and system components that are inspired by biology), 75 indexed resources specifically designed for educators, and 40 feature pages featuring curated subsets of our content and contextualizing intros or essays. Asknature is the world's go-to and largest open-access source of biomimicry education resources for primary, secondary, post-secondary, and professional audiences. In 2024 we improved functionality and added or updated dozens of pages of…
$574,287 spent$53,330 earned by the program25% of program spendingEducation and outreachthe biomimicry youth design challenge (ydc) provides a framework for middle and high school students to learn stem and environmental science using biomimicry and a project-based experience. The Biomimicry Institute implemented the sixth ydc program this year, with a total of 353 people registering to the ydc website. Around 65% of registrants planned a design project with their students, 11% planned to use the resources in other ways, and the remaining 24% were interested only in viewing the resources for future use. Registered users represented 52 different countries; users residing in the united states came from 47 different states.teams of 82 coaches and 584 students successfully submitted 177 projects to the ydc competition (81 in the high school track and 96 in the middle school track), representing a 42% increase from the prior year's 125 submissions. Findings from the evaluation presented in this report indicate the program had a positive impact on students and coaches' knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Coaches' confidence in their ability to guide students through the design challenge experience increased from 83% at pretest to 96% at post test.…
$115,964 spent$3,029 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,304,783.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2019 to 2020, from $1.4M to $2.2M (+53%).
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: 2021 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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
Amanda Sturgeon
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $105k → $2.2M.
11 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 THE BIOMIMICRY 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
THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 70%; 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 95% · 2018 100% · 2019 43% · 2020 64% · 2021 64% · 2022 29% · 2023 30% — 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
58% of THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Montana, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M 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.
Against its field
THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 482 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 482 science & tech nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $19k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$19k
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 THE BIOMIMICRY 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 Montana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
37%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BIOMIMICRY 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 THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE?
- THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE (Montana) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,881,803 to it, the largest being Wend II Inc ($2,930,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $8,881,803 in grants to THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE?
- Wend II Inc is the largest funder on record, with $2,930,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Montana. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 27 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