Massachusetts · Nonprofit
THE FAB FOUNDATION
THE FAB FOUNDATION (Massachusetts) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,164,943 to it, the largest being NOVO FOUNDATION ($2,800,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.5M
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $5.2M
- Net assets
- $2.0M
What The Fab Foundation does
Mission
The Fab Foundation was formed february 6, 2009 to facilitate and support the growth of the international fab lab network. The Fab Foundation is a us non-profit 501(c)(3) organization emerging from the massachusetts institute of technology's center for bits & atoms' (cba) international fab lab outreach program. Our mission is to provide access to the tools, the knowledge and the financial means to educate, innovate and invent using technology and digital fabrication to allow anyone to make (almost) anything, and thereby creating opportunities to improve lives and livelihoods around the world. Community organizations, educational institutions and non-profit concerns are our primary beneficiaries.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The organization promotes digital fabrication by facilitating the development of community-based and educational fab labs, the dissemination of best practices in digital fabrication throughout the fab lab network, facilitation and dissemination of research and community-beneficial projects, the funding and facilitation of fab lab and digital fabrication projects that benefit people and communities in exemplary ways, such as mobile fab labs for emergency aid, or fab labs for developing world contexts. These services include deploying, installing, training, and consulting for new fab labs as well as programmatic support of established fab labs. The organization works to gather and provide critical evaluation data as well as provide tools for tracking the impact of fab labs in educational, business and social contexts. As part of its services, the organization provides a network function for the fab lab community, bringing together fab labs around the world either physically (for annual meetings and workshops) or virtually through online tools and resources. Additionally, as a resource to educational organizations, entrepreneurial organizations and the general public the organization…
$4,271,482 spentof which $1,475,392 as grants$2,048,403 earned by the program87% of program spendingThe organization brings digital fabrication tools and processes to people of all ages, teaching the skills and knowledge of digital fabrication, developing curriculum for formal and informal educational settings, as well as designing and offering professional development training programs for teachers, fab lab managers and other professionals. The organization offers advanced technical education through the fab academy which provides instruction and supervises investigation of mechanisms, applications, and implications of digital fabrication and other technologies. The fab academy is a worldwide, distributed campus utilizing fab labs as classrooms and libraries for a new kind of technical literacy. The organization also provides professional development and resources for k12 teachers and educators through its scopes-df website and research platform (scopesdf.org). This site shares resources and disseminates best educational practices for educators using digital fabrication to teach stem disciplines and skills.
$629,353 spent$732,978 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,900,835.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.6M to $4.4M (+167%).
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: 2017 12% · 2020 1% · 2021 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
57% of THE FAB FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Board chair
Neil Gershenfeld
Chairman/director/consultant
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $508k → $630k.
6 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 FAB FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 20 of 21 funders by total. 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 FAB FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
29% 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 FAB FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 99% · 2019 100% · 2020 34% · 2021 78% · 2022 88% · 2023 79% — 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
20% of THE FAB FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 19% 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 FAB FOUNDATION draws 95% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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 FAB FOUNDATION 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 FAB FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $100k on record.
- National Science Foundation$100k
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 FAB 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
32%
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 FAB 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 THE FAB FOUNDATION?
- THE FAB FOUNDATION (Massachusetts) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,164,943 to it, the largest being NOVO FOUNDATION ($2,800,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE FAB FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $5,164,943 in grants to THE FAB FOUNDATION, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE FAB FOUNDATION?
- NOVO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,800,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE FAB FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 2017–2024), 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing