Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE
THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $631,126 to it, the largest being ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($332,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $81k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $631k
- Net assets
- $20k
What The Thinking Project Institute does
Mission
The thinking project's mission is to bring inquiry to every student, everywhere. Rooted in the process of inquiry-based stress reduction (ibsr), we're exploring how this work-and related, congruent practices-can meaningfully support both students and educators. Our focus is on reducing stress and awakening natural joy, openness, and creativity, especially in the moments that feel most confusing or challenging. We're discovering how the ability to identify and question specific stressful thoughts-and to see with fresh perspective-can be a powerful foundation for lasting change, relevant learning, and deep growth.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Pivoted to direct educator support through ibsr sessions: building on our prior-year educator interviews and framework pilots, we verified that teachers regularly face difficult situations where they don't know how to respond. This is consistent with national research on widespread educator stress and burnout. In response, we focused on supporting educators directly through inquiry-based stress reduction (ibsr) sessions. We developed a virtual ibsr tool to help guide a session, and tested both the effectiveness of an ibsr experience in reducing educator stress and its potential for sustained, repeated use by educators. We delivered 32 individual ibsr sessions to educators (31 reported a positive experience), 5 small-group sessions with professional learning communities (plcs) and instructional coaches (5-12 participants each), and one educator summit of approximately 10 participants. All reported positive experiences.
$100,803 spent100% of program spendingDiagnosed the "fizzle" barriers to sustained, scaleable practice: despite consistently positive initial ibsr sessions -- many lasting 45 minutes to an hour -- we observed that the experience often did not translate into sustained participation across a five-session arc. Drawing on our own implementation data and social-emotional learning (sel) implementation research, we identified the recurring barriers that affect us and sel programs broadly: time scarcity, competing priorities, and scheduling and logistical friction. These pressures impact effective scaling: across the research, the small, high-fidelity conditions that produced positive impact stopped replicating it as programs scaled into the time-scarce contexts of whole schools and districts, with their competing priorities and unpredictable schedules. We also studied the factors more likely to support resilient, ongoing uptake and growth, such as quick wins, adaptability to local context, and repeatability. This diagnosis gave us a growth-research foundation and design guide for the resource and delivery testing we pursued in fy25.
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $100,803.
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 2021 to 2022, from $168k to $39k (−77%).
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: 2022 18% · 2023 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (65% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $82k → $100k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 THINKING PROJECT 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 THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 50% · 2020 93% · 2021 100% · 2022 72% · 2023 50% — 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.
Where its funders are
53% of THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE'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 $299k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $332k 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 THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE has grown faster than half of the 17,277 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,277 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like THE THINKING PROJECT 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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
89%
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 THE THINKING PROJECT 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 THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE?
- THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $631,126 to it, the largest being ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($332,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $631,126 in grants to THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE?
- ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $332,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE THINKING PROJECT INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Thinking Project Institute →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 6 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