THE BREAKTHROUGH INSTITUTE

As filed

Subsection

03

NTEE code

C19

Classification

1280

Street

2054 UNIVERSITY AVE STE 500

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

• Research Programs: Breakthrough's Research Programs consist of our Climate and Energyprogram, which focuses on policies and technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissionsand increase social resilience to a changing climate; our Nuclear Energy Innovation program, which oversees all engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and publishes cutting-edge analysis on nuclear technology; our Food and Agriculture program, which advances an innovation-and-productivity framework for enabling abundant andlow-impact food production; our Energy and Development program, which focuses onenergy and infrastructural equity and resilience in emerging economies; and our Environmental Regulatory Reform program, which develops and promotes credible and politically durable policy reforms that support the timely, lawful, and equitable deployment of critical infrastructure.

  Expenses $3,369,938 · Revenue $75,000

• Events: Network building is one of the principal ways that Breakthrough makes change in the world, and one way we execute on this is through our events. For over a decade, Breakthrough hosted two popular annual events the Breakthrough Dialogue in California and Ecomodernism in Virginia which convened and advanced ecomodernism, pro-nuclear, and other pragmatic environmental ideas and policy agendas. For the last three years, Breakthrough has been one of the leading organizers of the annual Abundance conference in Washington, DC. We also host numerous workshops, focused policy briefings, and other high-level meetings.

  Expenses $1,055,846 · Revenue $162,920

• Communications: Our communications program consists of regular publication of research, policy analysis, and argumentative essays on our website, and multiple weekly publications on our flagship Sub-stack, The Ecomodernist. We promote our research, writing, and staff on social media, and augment our institutional publications through speaking engagements at conferences and public events; as well as through essays and analysis for external outlets, including academic, peer-reviewed journals and high-leverage publications such as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

  Expenses $393,284 · Revenue $6,170

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.

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. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

• 2025

  Revenue

  $5,069,912

  Expenses

  $5,783,654

  Contributions

  $4,610,976

  Grants paid

  $0

• 2024

  Revenue

  $7,537,340

  Expenses

  $5,536,433

  Contributions

  $7,181,014

  Grants paid

  $20,000

• 2023

  Revenue

  $4,438,319

  Expenses

  $6,558,097

  Contributions

  $4,063,704

  Grants paid

  $0

• 2022

  Revenue

  $6,739,502

  Expenses

  $5,383,594

  Contributions

  $6,545,552

  Grants paid

  $0

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.

Other returns filed

• 2021 · 990

  Revenue

  $4,564,377

  Expenses

  $3,775,078

  Assets (EOY)

  $4,243,816

• 2020 · 990

  Revenue

  $3,162,290

  Expenses

  $2,257,835

  Assets (EOY)

  $3,545,139

• 2019 · 990

  Revenue

  $3,260,665

  Expenses

  $2,589,944

  Assets (EOY)

  $2,349,332

• 2018 · 990

  Revenue

  $2,793,648

  Expenses

  $2,424,794

  Assets (EOY)

  $1,728,569

• 2017 · 990

  Revenue

  $2,524,843

  Expenses

  $1,329,466

  Assets (EOY)

  $1,322,685

Nonprofiteer parses Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF, in a window of recent tax years. These returns are recorded from the IRS e-file index, so their figures were extracted by that index rather than read from the return here — treat them as a different source from the filings above, not as more of the same record. A dash means the index carries no figure; Form 990-T listings carry none at all.

Grants made

• Nuclear Alternative Project

  $15,000

  2024 · General support

Where these grants went next →

Grants received

• VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM

  $2,400,000

  2023 · FOR RECIPIENT'S EXEMPT PURPOSE

• VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM

  $1,821,000

  2022 · FOR RECIPIENT'S EXEMPT PURPOSE

• BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY FOUNDATION

  $1,261,802

  2022 · FED AGRICULTURE & NUCLEAR POLICY

• BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY FOUNDATION

  $1,261,802

  2023 · POLICY DEVELOPMENT

• BREAKTHROUGH ENERGY FOUNDATION

  $500,000

  2022 · ASSESSING & ADVANCING CLIMATE-SMART AG R&D

• FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND

  $423,100

  2023 · For grant recipient's exempt purposes

• FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND

  $387,000

  2022 · For grant recipient's exempt purposes

• FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND

  $278,000

  2024 · For grant recipient's exempt purposes

• JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF S F MARIN PENINSULA & SONOMA COUNTIES

  $250,000

  2022 · ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND PROTECTION

• JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF S F MARIN PENINSULA & SONOMA COUNTIES

  $250,000

  2023 · ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND PROTECTION

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Other IRS files