California · Nonprofit
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies (California) receives grants from 207 organizations whose IRS filings report $226,798,924 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO ($26,342,005). 141 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is better cushioned than half of the 13 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13 science & tech nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- National Multiple Sclerosis Societyshared funders
- The Grass Foundationportfolio match
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratoryportfolio match
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.
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 36% · 2018 41% · 2019 38% · 2020 45% · 2021 38% · 2022 50% · 2023 44% · 2024 51% · 2025 47%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (38% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 53 funders to 77 funders, grant income rose $19M → $26M.
34 of 207 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 Salk Institute for Biological Studies’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 207 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 Salk Institute for Biological Studies has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
73% 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 Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 35% · 2019 35% · 2020 13% · 2021 11% · 2022 19% · 2023 23% — 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
51% of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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 Salk Institute for Biological Studies draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 29 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $88M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 207 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- National Multiple Sclerosis Societyshared fundersNY · backs 108 organizations that share your funders
- The Grass Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratoryportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Alexs Lemonade Stand Foundationshared fundersPA · backs 104 organizations that share your funders
- Blood Cancer United Incshared fundersDC · backs 92 organizations that share your funders
- Cystic Fibrosis Foundationshared fundersMD · backs 149 organizations that share your funders
- Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Incshared fundersDC · backs 111 organizations that share your funders
- The Children's Oncology Group Foundation Incshared fundersPA · backs 94 organizations that share your funders
- St Baldrick's Foundation Incshared fundersCA · backs 89 organizations that share your funders
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centershared fundersWA · backs 95 organizations that share your funders
- The George Washington Universityshared fundersVA · backs 157 organizations that share your funders
- The Children's Hospital of Philadelphiashared fundersPA · backs 143 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding The Salk Institute for Biological Studies receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $671.2M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$634.2M
- Department of Defense$15.8M
- National Science Foundation$8.5M
- Department of the Interior$7.6M
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$2.2M
- Department of Homeland Security$1.5M
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 Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 40 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Salk Institute Commercial Services Corp · corp_trust
- Charitable Remainder Trusts (5) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Salk Institute for Biological Studies: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds The Salk Institute for Biological Studies?
- The Salk Institute for Biological Studies (California) receives grants from 207 organizations whose IRS filings report $226,798,924 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO ($26,342,005). 141 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Salk Institute for Biological Studies have?
- IRS filings report 207 organizations giving $226,798,924 in grants to The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 141 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies?
- JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO is the largest funder on record, with $26,342,005 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Salk Institute for Biological Studies find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 207funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing