Biocurious

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
273848068
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2015
Location
Santa Clara, CA, USA
Phone
6502696228
Rating
81
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Science and Technology N.E.C.

Reported finances

Revenue
$201,517
Expenses
$225,713
Assets
$117,028
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

7 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Maria Chavez (President)

People named in this filing

  • Innokenti Toulokhonov (Board member)
  • Chan-Kun Kurt Chang (Board member)
  • Darach Miller (Board member)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to provide safe, affordable lab space, classes, and community projects and encourage the exploration of the science in our community regardless of educational background. Membership is open to anyone in the community.

What it reported doing in 2025

As part of our mission to democratize biology, we have created a number of community projects that are free and open to the public. Community projects at BioCurious allow any interested person to experience the process of science and learn so laboratory techniques. This provides the foundation so they can pursue their own ideas in the lab. These projects are typically run by PhD-level scientists, meet in the evenings, and are very well attended. A primary focus of community projects is hands-on work in the lab. This provides an opportunity to learn lab skills in a friendly environment so everyone can contribute. We also provide Zoom access to lectures so that people from around the world can attend and contribute. These open forums allow anyone to participate in scientific projects. These projects can lead to publications. For example, we have a community project doing DNA editing with CRISPR, for example. This project is very popular in the community and gives the participants valuable lab experience.

Operating model

Revenue model
Membership-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from membership dues.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 64
  • Sustainability: 32
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 91.1%; rating input score 91
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -12%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.52; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.1% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.3% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 91.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $206K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 7 people listed
  • Consistency: 40 of 40 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 17/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.