Wisys Technology Foundation Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
391992463
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2023
Location
Madison, WI, USA
Phone
6083164037
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Educational Services and Schools - Other

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,578,608
Expenses
$3,100,009
Assets
$3,237,212
Liabilities
$887,888

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

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ARJUNA SANGA (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • ARJUNA SANGA (PRESIDENT): $342,102 total reported compensation
  • ADHIRA SUNKARA (DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY/INNOVATIVE VENTURES): $174,676 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Supporting universities of Wisconsin faculty, staff, students, and alumni to innovate for impact.

What it reported doing in 2024

Innovation events: wisys organizes several events and competitions geared towards honing innovation, entrepreneurship, and research skills among uw students, staff, faculty, and alumni. This includes four key programs that leverage expertise from across the state: 1) the wisys big idea tournament helps extend the Wisconsin entrepreneurial ecosystem to uw students, with a goal to improve the overall quality of business startup performance. 2) innovation on-ramp, a 5-week hybrid course, helps uw students and other participants develop an innovative thinking mindset and learn how to evaluate the market need and potential of an idea. 3) wisys quick pitch is a research-focused student pitch competition that inspires uw students to consider the impact of their research and learn how to effectively communicate it to a general audience in three minutes. 4) the annual wisys spark symposium (spark) was jointly hosted by wisys and uw-superior in 2024 to bring together innovative researchers and students from the universities of Wisconsin and other public and private organizations. Spark allows uw institutions to showcase their research and technology development as well as engage in discussions for development of collaborative partnerships with other uw campus researchers, students and industry professionals from around the state. This year's in-person engagement included 160 attendees and 56 projects presented during the two-day symposium. Across all the innovation programs, wisys engaged 625 students, faculty, and community leaders in fy25.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 89% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 78% for direct work, and 22% for grants.

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: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 87
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.4%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 75.2%; rating input score 75
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • 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: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 93.7%; rating input score 94; 28th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 23rd 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: -20.2%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.04; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 16.7%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 15.7% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.6% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 92.4% of revenue deployed · 75.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 13 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 7 filed program accomplishments · $2.3M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $342K · 14 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 33 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 14 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 13 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.

Key Signals

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

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 36/100.