Open Research Institute Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
823945232
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-N 2019
Location
San Diego, CA, USA
Phone
8582293399
Rating
77
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Research Institutes and Public Policy Analysis

Reported finances

Revenue
$11,291
Expenses
$11,507
Assets
$524,061
Liabilities
$0

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

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Michelle Thompson (CEO)

People named in this filing

  • Keith Wheeler (Secretary)
  • Anshul Makkar (Director)
  • Michelle Thompson (CEO)

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

Open Research Institute ORI is a non-profit research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research.

What it reported doing in 2025

Our second largest program expense for 2025 was demonstrating prototypes of all active projects at the DEFCON conference in Las Vegas NV. Our open source digital radio exhibit in RF Village was visited by thousands of participants. Opulent Voice open source Synthetic Aperture Radar RFBitBanger and Ribbit were demonstrated live. Exhibits about successful sounding rocket launches with the University of Puerto Rico collaboration with Deep Space Exploration Society and IEEE were also presented and interpreted by four volunteers who worked the event full time from open to close Thursday through Sunday.

Operating model

Revenue model
Investment-supported. 79% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
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

SUPPORTED - 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 program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 82
  • Sustainability: 64
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.7%; rating input score 93
  • Program expense ratio: 75.3%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd 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: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.9%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 45.54; rating input score 92; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -38.7% per year; rating input score 0; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -69.2% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -6.4% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92.7% of revenue deployed · 75.3% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $9K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 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.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 6 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 48/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 58/100.