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MIT FREE SPEECH ALLIANCE

EIN 87-4018419 CAMBRIDGE, MA

Revenue 2025
$236,015
Expenses 2025
$352,768

Program services were 51.4% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

As filed

Subsection
03
NTEE code
R63
Classification
1000
Street
1 BROADWAY STE 14

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2025

Mission

To promote free expression, academic freedom, viewpoint diversity, and open scientific inquiry in the MIT community

  • In 2025 the MIT Free Speech Alliance conducted another full year of public programming while maintaining a membership of more than 1,200. MFSA hosted two campus debates at MIT, in the spring and fall of 2025. Our Spring debate was on the issue of closing the gender gap in the STEM professions. Our Fall 2025 debate addressed the issue of American higher educations reliance on international students. As with previous years, our debates brought together a heterodox group of debaters and successfully modeled civil discourse for the MIT community. Also in the fall of 2025, MFSA held its third annual conference. This conference brought together representatives from various MIT constituencies, including students, faculty, alumni, and trustees, for discussions on how the university can work to foster free expression and civil discourse. The conference was highlighted by a keynote speech from Brookings Institution scholar Jonathan Rauch. Throughout 2025 we provided commentary on free speech issues of concern to the MIT community. We gathered our members for quarterly virtual discussions with notable guest speakers, and also sponsored or co-sponsored lectures on topical issues in free speech and higher education open to the MIT community. Additionally, our leaders gave presentations at a national conference on censorship in STEM; at the Heterodox Academy annual conference; and at the annual meeting of the Academic Freedom Alliance. Finally, MFSA saw its strongest fundraising year to date, increasing contributions from its members by nearly 40% over the previous year.

    Expenses $181,265 · Grants $13,000

As filed on the 2025 return.

Officers and directors · 2025

As listed in Part VII of the 2025 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

  • Peter Bonilla

    Executive Director

    Total calculated
    $134,161
    From this org
    $131,881
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $2,280
    Hours/week
    40

  • Wayne Stargardt

    President

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    17

  • Cesarina Templeton

    Treasurer

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    10

  • Ken Kidd

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Frank Laukien

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Chuck Davis

    Secretary

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • Steven Carhart

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    2

  • Melanie Soderstrom

    Director

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    0.5

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

  • 2025
    Revenue
    $236,015
    Expenses
    $352,768
    Contributions
    $233,040
    Grants paid
    $13,000
  • 2024
    Revenue
    $203,814
    Expenses
    $291,630
    Contributions
    $203,814
    Grants paid
    $11,500
  • 2023
    Revenue
    $373,087
    Expenses
    $248,479
    Contributions
    $373,087
    Grants paid
    $0
  • 2022
    Revenue
    $343,048
    Expenses
    $33,887
    Contributions
    $343,048
    Grants paid
    $3,000

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Grants made

  • Alumni Free Speech Alliance

    $10,000

    2025 Program Services

  • MIT Concourse

    $5,000

    2024 Program Services

  • MIT Open discourse Society

    $5,000

    2024 Program Services

Where these grants went next →

Grants received

Other IRS files

Auto-Revocation List

Not listed. The IRS publishes this list for organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years.

Publication 78

Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.

These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.

What this page reflects

The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 26 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2025, the newest we have parsed for this organization.