North Carolina · Nonprofit
The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc
The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,083 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($43,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $98k
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc does
Mission
CIBL exists to nurture the natural excitement children have doing science. Its mission is to support NC K-8 teachers by providing training and by providing the most engaging, integrated, hands-on STEM curriculum materials that promote creativity, collaboration and communication.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Classroom Kit Provision CIBL provides STEM curriculum units filled with hands-on materials that promote creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. We have several different products that include 1 SCIENCE KITS - Each unit serves one teacher and up to 32 students K-5 or 125 students 6-8 for a 9-week instruction period. At the end of each instruction period, the kit is returned to CIBL for refurbishing and reuse, eliminating storage and replenishment issues for teachers. 2 STUDENT ACTIVITY PACKSSAP - These are individual student bags with STEM design challenges. Each pack serves 1 teacher/35 students. During the 2024-25 school year, CIBL provided 1,143 kits and 2,750 SAPs, serving approximately 200,000 students. 3 CUSTOM PRODUCTS AS NEEDED - CIBL supports the NC Science Festival by packing the Science Night kits. These kits are supplied to teachers throughout the state through the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center located on UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Last year CIBL provided 323 of these kits which served approximately 65,000 students.
$674,554 spentof which $3,190 as grants$1,093,004 earned by the program85% of program spendingConsulting Professional Development CIBL offers professional development to its clients at no charge as part of its mission. During the 2024-25 fiscal year, CIBL provided charitable consulting and professional development workshops with approximately 2,000 teachers in attendance. All of these sessions were for K-8 classroom teachers and were focused on student acitivity packs and specific science kits with a 9-week kit use. In addition to the full day professional development sessions, CIBL offered online sessions for the new Student Activity Packs SAP created during the 24-25 school year. CIBL also led sessions at Bridging the Gap and NC Science Teachers conferences. CIBL also consults with school systems at no charge about science implementation for their schools/districts. In addition, in an effort to incentivize teachers to learn more about CIBLs mission, SAPs are given out to teachers during professional development sessions or conferences in which CIBL is presenting.
$70,442 spent9% of program spendingCurriculum Development CIBL staff are engaged in developing curriculum to meet the NC Essential Science Standards. During the 2024-25 fiscal year CIBL developed additional Student Activity Packs SAP which are designed to be used by students in any type of learning environment such as virtual, in-person, or hybrid. CIBL designed additional teacher resources such as teacher videos, slide decks, teacher tip documents and student activity sheets for our kits and SAPs to help teachers with the successful implementation of the kits/SAPs. These can be found on our website.
$48,726 spent6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $793,722.
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 2024 to 2025, from $3.5M to $3.8M (+9%).
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: 2020 15% · 2023 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
1% of The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Todd Guentensberger
Executive Director
Board chair
Jason Painter
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $10k → $10k.
2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc’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 Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
44% 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 The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 71% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $43k 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
The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,064 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,064 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
56%
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 The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc: 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 Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc?
- The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc (North Carolina) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,083 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($43,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $98,083 in grants to The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $43,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Center for Inquiry-Based Learning Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Center for Inquiry-Based Learning →
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 4 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