Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 127 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,100,933 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($12,866,072). 89 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $93M
- Funders on record
- 127
- Grants received
- $64M
- Net assets
- $342M
What The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology does
Mission
The mission of the wistar institute is to marshal the talents of outstanding scientists through a highly enabled culture of biomedical collaboration and innovation in order to solve some of the world's most challenging and important problems in the field of cancer and immunology, and produce ground-breaking advances in world health. Consistent with a pioneering legacy of leadership in not-for-profit biomedical research and a track-record of life-saving contributions in immunology and cell biology, the wistar institute aims to pursue novel and courageous research paths to life science discovery, and to accelerate/potentiate the impact of those discoveries by shortening the path from bench to bedside.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The wistar institute is the nation's first independent nonprofit institution devoted exclusively to foundational biomedical research and training. Through a culture and commitment to biomedical collaboration and innovation, wistar science leads to breakthrough early-stage discoveries. Wistar scientists are dedicated to solving some of the world's most challenging problems in the fields of cancer and immunology, advancing human health through early-stage discovery and training the next generation of biomedical researchers. Core centers within the wistar institute includes its internationally recognized ellen and ronald caplan cancer center, designated a national cancer institute (nci) cancer center in 1972. In 2015, the center renewed its designation and received the first of two consecutive "exceptional" ratings that it retains today, the highest possible ranking a cancer center can receive. Wistar's hiv cure and viral disease center is one of the few centers in the nation dedicated to hiv cure research. Wistar scientists as well as scientists throughout the philadelphia region benefit from the technological support and state-of-the-science instrumentation provided by the…
$71,192,000 spent$260,000 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $71,192,000.
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 2020 to 2021, from $344M to $414M (+21%).
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 49% · 2018 50% · 2019 59% · 2020 61% · 2021 39% · 2022 65% · 2023 34% · 2024 63%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (7% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Dario Altieri Md
President & CEO, director of wistar cancer center
Board chair
Richard M Horowitz
Trustee - board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 33 funders to 54 funders, grant income rose $6.2M → $8.1M.
16 of 127 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 WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 127 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 WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
51% 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 WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 28% · 2019 29% · 2020 15% · 2021 41% · 2022 32% · 2023 20% — 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
49% of THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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 WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY draws 82% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 21 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY is better cushioned than half of the 4,580 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,580 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $420.7M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$399.1M
- Department of Defense$19.6M
- National Science Foundation$1.7M
- Department of Commerce$249k
- Department of Agriculture$99k
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 WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY
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.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Part of a family of 5 related entities
- Isaac J Wistar Foundation · exempt
- Tall Cell Technology LP · partnership
- Beneficial Interest in Perpetual Trusts Bny Mellon Wealth Management · corp_trust
- Beneficial Interest in Charitable Remainder Trust Pnc Wealth Management · corp_trust
- Beneficial Interest in Perpetual Trusts Pnc Institutional Investments · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY: 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 WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY?
- THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 127 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,100,933 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($12,866,072). 89 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY have?
- IRS filings report 127 organizations giving $64,100,933 in grants to THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY, 89 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY?
- GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $12,866,072 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY 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 Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology →
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 127 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing