The Termeer Institute Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
833891656
IRS 990 coverage
2019–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Cambridge, MA, USA
Phone
6179574054
Rating
73
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Diseases of Specific Organ Research

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,105,285
Expenses
$2,276,741
Assets
$1,840,279
Liabilities
$194,614

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

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • BELINDA TERMEER (PRESIDENT, SECRETARY, CO-FOUNDER)
  • CATHARINE SMITH (CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • CATHARINE SMITH (CEO): $372,268 total reported compensation
  • CHRISTINE COLE (SENIOR DIRECTOR, PHILANTHROPY): $272,621 total reported compensation
  • ERICA MAWBY-ROCHE (SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PROGRAM): $198,729 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

The termeer institute is a catalyst for innovation that brings life-changing treatments to patients worldwide. We support and empower brilliant life science leaders to advance groundbreaking, patient-centered solutions.

What it reported doing in 2025

To date, over 100 leaders from nine countries and six states have benefitted from the termeer institute's growing leadership programs. We have also expanded our network to include termeer scholars, academic and non-profit leaders seeking to scale and disseminate their knowledge to impact patients. In 2025, we added nine new scholars to our network for a total of 14 termeer scholars across the us and africa. In 2025, we updated the scholars program to a cohort model to focus on leadership and research translation skill development, in reponse to feedback from prior year scholars. In 2025, the termeer institute team continued to build its values-based leadership model- delivering 25 learning sessions, awarding 20 micro grants for professional leadership development, providing 150 1:1 coaching hours with consultants and executive coaches, creating 200+ mentoring and advising relationships within the termeer network, providing 100 hours of values-driven leadership programming, and organizing over 15 in-person networking opportunities to create connections. The termeer institute is committed to ensuring the inclusiveness of its network, particularly in recognition of the underrepresentation of women, people with disabilities, lgbtqia+ and black, brown and indigenous people of color at the executive level within the biopharmaceutical industry.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 97% 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. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 63
  • Transparency & Controls: 75
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 19
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 71%; rating input score 71
  • Program expense ratio: 65.1%; rating input score 65
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.12 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 92.5%; rating input score 92; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • 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: -8.1%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.81; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 37.1%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 40.5% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.9% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 71% of revenue deployed · 65.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 10 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.5M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $372K · 13 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 2 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: Fundraising efficiency scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 11/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 27/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Whistleblower policy not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.