San Diego Biomedical Research Institute

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
463481092
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
San Diego, CA, USA
Phone
8582007156
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Cancer

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,921,973
Expenses
$9,347,122
Assets
$13,648,150
Liabilities
$16,908,950

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JOANNA DAVIES (President & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • JAMES BINLEY (Professor): $264,501 total reported compensation
  • JOANNA DAVIES (President & CEO): $258,572 total reported compensation
  • BRUNO CONTI (PROFESSOR): $235,178 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The SDBRI mission is to find new ways to predict and prevent cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease, neurological disorders and HIV infection, and to accelerate medical advances that maintain health and improve quality of life.

What it reported doing in 2024

Cancer: A major question in cancer treatment remains, why do some people respond to treatment and others dont. Finding new ways to detect and treat cancer could potentially lead to cures that are currently unavailable to the majority of patients. At SDBRI scientists are developing a new technology to identify previously unidentifiable cancer-specific targets that might be used to design novel cancer fighting drugs. A Postdoctoral Fellow from Japan received salary and benefits while being trained at SDBRI in a variety of cellular immunology and sterile techniques to better understand techniques to help diagnose and treat cancer.DNA replication and disease DNA replicates in a highly organized way in healthy cells. However, in unhealthy cells, DNA replication is mis-regulated. SDBRI scientists are working to understand how DNA replication is mis-regulated in human disease in the hopes of finding new therapeutic approaches to preventing and reversing diseases such as cancer.Cells in our bodies eat internal parts of themselves to maintain their own health. This process, known as autophagy (spokeno-to-foh-jee), is essential for removing toxic material that causes diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer. In autophagy, components inside cells are placed in a trash bag called the autophagosome which looks like a balloon. The autophagosome then fuses with the cells incinerator to decompose the transported toxic material. Scientists at SDBRI are working to understand how these complicated events are controlled in the hopes that interventions in these pathways might lead to novel treatments for disease.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 98% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 85
  • Transparency & Controls: 70
  • Accountability: 92
  • Sustainability: 26
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 97.1%; rating input score 97
  • Program expense ratio: 92.7%; rating input score 93
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -4.8%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.46; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.24; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 18.1%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 14.7% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 35.1% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 97.1% of revenue deployed · 92.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 6 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 7 filed program accomplishments · $8.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $265K · 14 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 51/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.