Mircore
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
miRcore's mission is to advance science and medicine by advocating personalized medicine and democratizing medical research. We believe that cultivating youth in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, medicine) is the best way to realize our mission. We value science, compassion, and collaboration. We teach students to see the humanity behind statistics and to understand the importance of collaboration among scientists, doctors, and the public. We hope to engender a STEMM-literate citizenry.
- Income
- $446,787
- Spending
- $403,946
- Spent on programs
- 93%
- Reserves
- 5.6 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 65%
- Employees
- 29
- Volunteers
- 350
- Highest pay
- $71,500, president and director
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 85 out of 100. Higher than 48% of charities in its peer group (medical research, $250k to $1m).
Reserves
20 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 5.6 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 0% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 10% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 19% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1593% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 0 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Fair: 54 out of 100. Higher than 22% of charities in its peer group (medical research, $250k to $1m).
Independent board
18 of 253 of 4 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
0 of 8Reports no written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
0 of 7Reports no written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
0 of 10Did not give the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
0 of 5Reports no independent review process for its chief executive's pay.
Independent check of accounts
6 of 15Its accounts were not audited or reviewed by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (5)
- $248,934 spent. Computational biology research education for high school students: To democratize medical research in the genomics era, we teach high school students computational biology. About 2,100 students were served in 2024 through our Contest, Conference, camps, in-school, after-school and weekend programs. 1) miRcore Volunteer Program (MVP): We mentor high schoolers in computational biology research every weekend, advocating personalized medicine and fostering leadership. This year, we offered in-person meetings at University of Michigan, Scripps Research Institute, LG NOVA. Volunteers lead school club Genes in Disease and Symptoms (GIDAS, guide-us). 2) GIDAS: a student club at high schools and the University of Michigan. Our volunteers share learning with peers at their schools. In 2024, there are over 100 high school GIDAS chapters nationally. 3) Genes and Health Contest: promotes study in science among peers through enjoyable challenges. In 2024, we held the contest virtually. 4) High School Research Conference: provides high schoolers a science conference setting to boost their familiarity with academic pursuits while raising community awareness on the conference theme (disease of focus voted on by volunteers each year). We held two in-person locations at University of Michigan campus and Scripps Research Translational Institute as well as with virtual participation. 5) Summer camps for high schoolers: Computational Biology, Biotechnology Sequencing, R Programming Research, and Sequencing Your Genome camps were held online and also in-person at University of Michigan and Scripps Research Institute. We focused on high school student teaching among last year's Citizen Scientist Sequencing Initiatives this year and thus include CSSI here this year. 6) Lab on Wheels program: We provided hands-on experiments at local high school biology classrooms to expose 9th graders about computational biology and a research project using gel electrophoresis. 7) Middle School biology workshop: Our high school volunteers led the workshop to teach younger students about genes, cancers, and computational biology.
- $40,966 spent. Citizen Scientist Sequencing Initiative (CSSI): In February 2023 we implemented our Citizen Scientist Sequencing Initiative, whereby individuals can obtain their own genomic sequences as sole custodians, not having to share it with anyone, including us, miRcore. After the successful implementation, in 2024 we focused the CSSI to a dedicated high school student education through a summer camp, Sequencing Your Genome. Though we focused the effort to SYG and moved expenses directly related to student education to the first program of high school education expenses and revenue, the related other expenses including exhibiting at 2024 ASHG Conference are under this category, because this program is for educating citizen scientists beyond high school students.
- $37,489 spent. Bioinformatics research, consulting and supports: 1. We supported scientists at the University of Michigan, University of Texas Medical Branch and Yonsei University in Korea. More specifically, we provided computational biology research support to RNA function experts regarding small RNA regulations. We published research papers for the public benefits. 2. We are uncovering novel RNA-RNA interactions, research which may result in identifying more breast cancer patients who can benefited from precision medicine cancer drugs. 3. We taught student scientists to do in-depth research and how to write research papers. One collaborative research project for novel small RNA functions in COVID-19 was published and one research project manuscript was also published.
- $32,374 spent. miRcore Science Advocacy (MSA): We continued miRcore Science Advocacy, which has the basic structure from the MVA program that we had developed in 2021 as a student-run COVID-19 vaccine advocacy program galvanized individuals who have positive perceptions of vaccines in advocating for vaccines in their own networks and communities. Utilizing the MVA program structure, we had expanded the advocacy to miRcore Science Advocacy in 2022 summer with a focus on genome privacy and promises of genome medicine until the end of the school year 2023. In 2023-24 school year, our students chose the theme to neural degenerative disorder research advocacy and also started to advocate for mental health. For MSA training, we hosted brain health workshop with a regional artist, which helped to implement brain health workshop at our Annual High School Research Conference. Weekly newsletter and weekly project meetings have been continuously implemented.
- $16,000 spent. Microgrant program: We provide microgrants to experts in the field of disease of focus (autoimmune diseases in 2022-23 school year; neurodegenerative diseases in 2023-24 school year) so that they can obtain initial proof-of-concept data for innovative ideas to be used in bigger grant applications. We provided $6,000 microgrant to Drs. Arash Soleimanpour and Vaibhav Sidarala, for their Type 1 Diabetes research and $10,000 to Dr. Sami Barmada for ALS research. Drs. Soleimanpour and Barmada are Associate Professors of the University of Michigan and Dr. Sidarala is an Adjunct Research Investigator of the University of Michigan.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since August 2010.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.