Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 473355381
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, US
- Phone
- (628) 899-7600
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $180,131,815
- Expenses
- $53,795,577
- Assets
- $285,156,429
- Liabilities
- $8,671,312
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
26 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KAREN E KNUDSEN COSTELLO (CEO AS OF 03/2025)
Highest reported compensation
- TARAK MODY (CHIEF BUSINESS OFF. THRU 8/25): $886,463 total reported compensation
- JOHN CONNOLLY PHD (CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER): $778,175 total reported compensation
- KAREN E KNUDSEN COSTELLO (CEO AS OF 03/2025): $714,456 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To develop and accelerate access to breakthrough cancer therapies, curating innovation from discovery to commercialization.
What it reported doing in 2025
Parker institute for cancer immunotherapy (pici) encourages advances in cancer immunotherapy research, collaboration, and discovery, and the translation of these advances into cures and treatments for the benefit of patients. To do this, pici partners with its consortium of preeminent hospitals and academic research centers to conduct its discovery and clinical research and provides its partners with shared research resources, such as scientific equipment, consumables, bioinformatics analysis, and a specimen biobank. Pici also funds and otherwise supports cancer immunotherapy research within its consortium.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and program spending has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 54
- Transparency & Controls: 81
- Accountability: 96
- Sustainability: 79
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 27.4%; rating input score 27
- Program expense ratio: 87%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $375 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Pass
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 26th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 70.1%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.3; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 10%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1.7% per year; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 21.4% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 27.4% of revenue deployed · 87% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 15 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $46.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $886K · 26 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $6.4M reported
- Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2015 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 21 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 15 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 27/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.