Grants for engineering and technology research centers

450 engineer and technology research centers received at least $96.8 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 553 grants made from 424 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,175. Of these 424 foundations, 88% made just a single grant to tech institutes, and 3% made grants to four or more tech institutes. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.
$96,768,534
Total grant dollars given to engineering and technology research centers
553
Number of grants made annually to engineering and technology research centers
424
Number of grantmakers funding engineering and technology research centers
$1,175
Median grant size to engineering and technology research centers

Foundations that support engineer and technology research centers

Out of all grants made to engineering and technology research centers, 73% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 95% of the dollar-value of grants to tech institutes. Foundations funding tech institutes also made grants to universities, trade / professional associations, animal shelters, youth development programs, and international development organizations.

Foundation size

Foundation sizeNumber of grantmakers
Small
 
313
Medium
 
43
Large
 
67
Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation typeNumber of grantmakers
Community
 
16
Private
 
342
Corporate
 
27
Other
 
39

Grants made

Grants made to tech institutesNumber of grantmakers
1
 
375
2-3
 
36
4-10
 
9
11+
 
4

Top 10 foundations supporting engineer and technology research centers

GrantmakerStateGeographic focusPercent of grant dollars to tech institutesNumber of grants made to tech institutesMedian grant size
Seattle FoundationWAState0.0%16$1,315
Westrock FoundationGANational0.0%15$10
Arkansas Community FoundationARState0.1%11$1,400
Shell Oil Company FoundationTXNational0.1%11$750
Salesforce Com FoundationCANational0.0%10$75
Abbvie FoundationILNational0.0%8$334
JP Morgan Chase FoundationNYNational0.0%7$670
Us Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and TechnologyNHNational0.2%5$2,300
Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationWANational0.1%4$1,669,004
John D & Catherine T Macarthur FoundationILNational0.0%4$4,350

Engineer and technology research centers grantees

Engineering and technology research centers with more than $5 million in total revenues received 96% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 48% of all tech institutes.

Grant amounts

Size of grantNumber of grants
<$10k
 
540
$10k-$25k
 
0
$25k-$100k
 
0
$100k+
 
13

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenueMedian grant size
<$100k
 
$2,759
$100k-$500k
 
$1,500
$500k-$1M
 
$1,000
$1M-$5M
 
$2,500
>$5M
 
$1,000

Grantee states

State of granteeNumber of grants
Massachusetts
 
157
New York
 
64
California
 
63
Washington
 
34
Other
 
235

Grantee metros

Metro area of granteeNumber of grants
Boston
 
157
New York City
 
58
Seattle
 
33
San Francisco
 
25
Other
 
248

Top 25 grants made to engineering and technology research centers

GranteeGrant sizePurposeGrantmaker
OpenAI$30,000,000SciencesSilicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
OpenAI$16,028,500General SupportYc Org
Cicp Foundation$7,360,812FMVCentral Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP)
US Ignite$6,805,894Sub-AwardNortheastern University (NU)
Georgia Tech Research Corporation$5,471,008Research/subcontractEmory University
SRI International$5,036,570Sub-AwardJohns Hopkins University (JHU)
The Good Food Institute$4,200,000Food SecuritySilicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
NC State University$4,011,663Scholarships, Faculty Support, Departmental Support and Facility SupportNC State Investment Fund
Arizona State University Enterprise Partners$3,735,000Program SupportASU Foundation
Digital Green Foundation$3,533,683Agricultural DevelopmentBill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Georgia Tech Research Corporation$3,335,508Water, Sanitation and HygieneBill & Melinda Gates Foundation
NC State University$3,148,267Envisioning Excellence for Community College LeadershipJohn M Belk Endowment (JMBE)
Council on Library and Information Resources$3,000,000To Support A National Grantmaking Competition for the Digitization of Collections of Scholarly and Cultural ImportanceAndrew W. Mellon Foundation
ITP International$5,000Social ServicesThe Columbus Foundation
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)$5,000General & UnrestrictedFrancis and Christine Martin Family Foundation
Project Tomorrow$5,000To Provide Assistance To Disadvantaged Children.Roosters Foundation of Orange County
Pasadena-Foothill Valley YWCA$5,000For Core Operating Support for the Health and Wellness of Girls of Color in Pasadena Who Participate in Enrichment Programs and Summer Camp.California Wellness Foundation
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)$5,000General PurposesThe Cloud Family Private Foundation
Girls Who Code$5,000Close the Gender Gap inBen E Factors Foundation 7600-XXXXXX16259
USENIX Association$5,000In Support of the 9th Usenix Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet.John D & Catherine T Macarthur Foundation
Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society$5,000In Support of An Event Focused on Ethics and Artificial Intelligence During the 2019 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.John D & Catherine T Macarthur Foundation
Women's Foundation of Arkansas$5,000General Operating FundRebsamen Fund
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)$5,000CharitableThe Branscomb Family Foundation
Billion Oyster Project$5,000General OperationsEmily Hall Tremaine Foundation
Nexleaf Analytics$5,000International Humanitarian ProgramsGoldman Sachs Gives
Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Engineering and technology research centers" category for this page is determined by the "U40: Engineering and Technology Research, Services" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.