Is it real?
Yes. Never revoked by the IRS. Latest filing on record: FY2025. IRS ruling in Dec 2022.
IRS Pub. 78 · IRS Auto-Revocation List · IRS Business Master File
Where the money goes
92 cents of each dollar spent went to programs.
Form 990 Part IX, line 25, columns B–D. Every line is in By the numbers.
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Who runs it and what they're paid
9 people listed on the 990; $1.4M paid to officers and key staff.
Zenna Tavares’s $195K as President is at the 59th percentile of top reported officer pay among 363 $1–10M science & technology 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 · 8 named individuals · Part VII
| Name | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Alan Witty | — | $205,713 | $181,975 |
| Zenna Tavares | $195,200 | $72,904 | $59,729 |
| Emily Lambert Mackevicius | $187,700 | $99,000 | $36,000 |
| Rafal Urbaniak | $187,678 | — | — |
| Michelangelo Naim | $183,134 | — | — |
| Dmitry Batenkov | $181,689 | — | — |
| John Feser | $172,400 | — | — |
| Karen Schroeder | $147,000 | — | — |
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.
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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
Develops innovative artificial intelligence research and solutions.
Questions for Basis Research Institute
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Basis performs research and development into ai reasoning technology,building general modeling and inference tools that automate causal and probabilistic reasoning. We apply these tools in areas that have broad scientific and societal impact.
The modeling, abstract and reasoning agent (mara) project is a research initiative to develop ai agents capable of discovering and reasoning with abstract models of the world to carry out goals across a portfoliio of domains.
Core tech program expense
Funders
Who pays for it.
From grant filings on record. Receipts are incomplete: individual donors are never listed.
Grants
By the numbers
The FY2025 990, line by line.
Download 990
| Line | Start FY25 | End FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and savingsLn 1–2 | $2.0M | $3.5M |
| InvestmentsLn 11–13 | $269K | $154K |
| Land, buildings, equipmentLn 10c | $9K | $31K |
| Total assetsLn 16 | $2.3M | $4.1M |
| LiabilitiesLn 26 | $24K | −$31K |
| Net assetsLn 32 | $2.3M | $4.1M |
| Line | Total | Programs | Management | Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants to domestic organizationsLn 1 | $60K | $60K | ||
| Pay of current officers, directors and key staffLn 5 | $383K | $355K | $28K | |
| Other salaries and wagesLn 7 | $1.8M | $1.7M | $132K | $19K |
| Other employee benefitsLn 9 | $93K | $92K | $990 | |
| Payroll taxesLn 10 | $164K | $147K | $17K | |
| Management feesLn 11a | $17K | $17K | ||
| Legal feesLn 11b | $2K | $2K | ||
| Accounting feesLn 11c | $62K | $62K | ||
| Investment management feesLn 11f | $1K | $490 | $552 | |
| Other fees for servicesLn 11g | $88K | $76K | $12K | |
| Advertising and promotionLn 12 | $27K | $27K | ||
| Office expensesLn 13 | $42K | $42K | $55 | |
| Information technologyLn 14 | $51K | $44K | $7K | |
| OccupancyLn 16 | $38K | $38K | ||
| TravelLn 17 | $62K | $62K | $666 | |
| Depreciation, depletion and amortizationLn 22 | $10K | $269 | $10K | |
| InsuranceLn 23 | $13K | $5K | $8K | |
| Total functional expensesLn 25 | $2.9M | $2.7M | $215K | $19K |
Filing history
| Year | Money in | Money out | In minus out | Net assets | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 Latest Viewing | $4.7M | $2.9M | $1.8M | $4.1M | 990 PDF |
| FY2024 | $513K | $1.5M | −$989K | $2.3M | 990 PDF |
| FY2023 | Not on file | ||||
| FY2022 | $3.0M | $53K | $2.9M | $2.9M | 990 PDF |
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Schedules filed Part IV
See the full FY2025 990 (6 parts)
Part I · Summary $4,745,774 revenue, 12 lines filed
Part VI · Governance 3 of 5 board members independent, no flags
Part VIII · Statement of revenue $4,745,774 across 3 lines filed
Part IX · Statement of functional expenses $2,946,241 across 17 lines filed
Part X · Balance sheet $4,089,015 assets, 14 lines filed
Part XI · Reconciliation of net assets $4,119,999 net assets at year end
Form 990 e-file (XML) FY2025 from the IRS · Classification, formation year and address from the IRS Business Master File
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