Is it real?
Yes. Never revoked by the IRS. Latest filing on record: FY2025. IRS ruling in Jan 2020.
IRS Pub. 78 · IRS Auto-Revocation List · IRS Business Master File
Where the money goes
69 cents of each dollar spent went to programs.
Form 990 Part IX, line 25, columns B–D. Every line is in By the numbers.
Something off? Claim to add context
Who runs it and what they're paid
4 people listed on the 990; $500 paid to officers and key staff.
Brendan Fong’s $139K as Chief Executive Officer is at the 58th percentile of top reported officer pay among 3395 $1–10M education nonprofits. Peer set: organizations in the same NTEE major field of work and revenue-size band, compared on each org’s own highest-paid officer/key-employee, from Form 990 Part VII / 990-PF Part VIII. Descriptive placement, not a verdict on whether the pay is appropriate.
Compensation history total reportable pay by year · 4 named individuals · Part VII
| Name | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan Fong | $139,310 | $131,275 | $116,272 | $115,001 | — |
| David Spivak | $136,599 | $126,308 | $123,451 | $115,001 | $500 |
| Shaowei Lin | $131,781 | — | — | — | — |
| Evan Patterson | $122,542 | $124,359 | $111,734 | — | — |
Total reportable compensation (Form 990 Part VII column D / Schedule J column E) by filing year, matched by name within this organization. The Schedule J base / bonus / deferred breakdown is not parsed into this dataset.
See Topos Institute executive salaries →Questions the 990 asks
The form asks each of these directly. These are the filed answers.
- Family or business ties among officersPt VI · Ln 2No
- Top official's pay set by an independent reviewPt VI · Ln 15aYes
Programs and updates
Conducts scientific and educational research for public benefit.
Questions for Topos Institute
Your first name shows with your question. Topos Institute answers here, for everyone.
We coalesce a socially-aware scientific community through four levels of activity: 1. Fundamental Research: New discoveries in pure and applied mathematics and computer science.2. Tool Building: Software tools, platforms, and programming languages.3.
Funders
Who pays for it.
From grant filings on record. Receipts are incomplete: individual donors are never listed.
Grants
Federal money
The auditor reported 6 findings: a weakness in money controls, questioned costs.
The auditor reported no findings.
By the numbers
The FY2021 990, line by line.
Download 990
| Line | Start FY21 | End FY21 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and savingsLn 1–2 | $170K | $239K |
| InvestmentsLn 11–13 | $0 | |
| Land, buildings, equipmentLn 10c | $0 | |
| Total assetsLn 16 | $172K | $458K |
| LiabilitiesLn 26 | $3K | $22K |
| Net assetsLn 32 | $169K | $435K |
| Line | Total | Programs | Management | Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants to domestic organizationsLn 1 | $0 | |||
| Grants to domestic individualsLn 2 | $0 | |||
| Grants and assistance to foreign recipientsLn 3 | $0 | |||
| Benefits paid to or for membersLn 4 | $0 | |||
| Pay of current officers, directors and key staffLn 5 | $180K | $107K | $70K | $2K |
| Pay of disqualified personsLn 6 | $0 | |||
| Other salaries and wagesLn 7 | $215K | $198K | $17K | $147 |
| Pension plan contributionsLn 8 | $0 | |||
| Other employee benefitsLn 9 | $25K | $19K | $6K | $230 |
| Payroll taxesLn 10 | $33K | $26K | $7K | $233 |
| Management feesLn 11a | $0 | |||
| Legal feesLn 11b | $8K | $8K | ||
| Accounting feesLn 11c | $21K | $1K | $20K | $4 |
| Lobbying feesLn 11d | $0 | |||
| Professional fundraising feesLn 11e | $0 | |||
| Investment management feesLn 11f | $0 | |||
| Other fees for servicesLn 11g | $103K | $38K | $63K | $2K |
| Advertising and promotionLn 12 | $638 | $638 | ||
| Office expensesLn 13 | $637 | $580 | $57 | |
| Information technologyLn 14 | $8K | $4K | $2K | $1K |
| RoyaltiesLn 15 | $0 | |||
| OccupancyLn 16 | $26K | $26K | ||
| TravelLn 17 | $447 | $447 | ||
| Travel and entertainment for public officialsLn 18 | $0 | |||
| Conferences, conventions and meetingsLn 19 | $0 | |||
| InterestLn 20 | $0 | |||
| Payments to affiliatesLn 21 | $0 | |||
| Depreciation, depletion and amortizationLn 22 | $0 | |||
| InsuranceLn 23 | $2K | $652 | $1K | $84 |
| Other expenses (24a–d)Ln 24 | $48K | $45K | $3K | |
| All other expensesLn 24e | $930 | $37 | $761 | $132 |
| Total functional expensesLn 25 | $672K | $466K | $200K | $6K |
Filing history
| Year | Money in | Money out | In minus out | Net assets | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 LatestFiled with the IRS Aug 18, 2026 | $2.1M | $1.9M | $138K | $1.1M | 990 PDF |
| FY2024Filed with the IRS Jul 25, 2025 | $1.8M | $1.9M | −$71K | $955K | 990 PDF |
| FY2023Filed with the IRS Aug 15, 2024 | $2.0M | $1.7M | $273K | $1.0M | 990 PDF |
| FY2022Filed with the IRS Feb 14, 2023 | $1.4M | $1.1M | $317K | $753K | 990 PDF |
| FY2021 ViewingFiled with the IRS Feb 10, 2022 | $938K | $672K | $266K | $435K | 990 PDF |
| FY2020Filed with the IRS Jan 18, 2021 | $256K | $89K | $167K | $169K | 990 PDF |
Schedules filed Part IV
See the full FY2021 990 (6 parts)
Part I · Summary $938,060 revenue, 12 lines filed
Part VI · Governance 2 of 3 board members independent, no flags
Part VIII · Statement of revenue $938,060 across 11 lines filed
Part IX · Statement of functional expenses $671,858 across 31 lines filed
Part X · Balance sheet $457,747 assets, 20 lines filed
Part XI · Reconciliation of net assets $435,274 net assets at year end
Form 990 e-file (XML) FY2021 from the IRS · Classification, formation year and address from the IRS Business Master File
Similar organizations you could support · Compare with another nonprofit
Names, privacy, and removal requests More
The names, titles, and compensation shown on this page are reproduced from IRS Form 990 filings, which are public records.
Philanthropy.org does not alter the content of those filings. All information appears exactly as reported by the filing organization for the tax year shown.
We publish only information contained in the public IRS filing — and less than the filing contains. Our profile pages do not display street addresses, telephone numbers, personal email addresses, or other personal contact information, even where the filing includes them.
Many people share the same name. A name shown on this page reflects only what one organization reported in one IRS filing for one tax year. It should not be interpreted as identifying any other individual with the same or a similar name.
If you are no longer affiliated with the organization, your name will generally stop appearing in future IRS filings once the organization no longer reports you. Pages for tax years in which you were reported remain published because those filings remain part of the public record.
Philanthropy.org does not alter or remove IRS filing records. Removing a page from this website would not remove the underlying IRS filing, which remains publicly available from the IRS and other publishers of the same information.
If you believe the IRS filing itself is inaccurate, corrections must be made by the filing organization or the IRS directly.