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Unicode Inc

EIN 77-0269756 · S San Fran, CA

Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.

LegitimacyPassesRegistration and standingFinancial healthGood81 out of 100GovernanceStrong91 out of 100Impact evidenceDescribes programsHow well its results are evidenced

What it says it does

THIS CORPORATION IS A NONPROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION AND IS NOT ORGANIZED FOR THE PRIVATE GAIN OF ANY PERSON. IT IS ORGANIZED UNDER THE NONPROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION LAW FOR PUBLIC AND CHARITABLE PURPOSES. THIS CORPORATION'S SPECIFIC PURPOSE SHALL BE TO ENABLE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD TO USE COMPUTERS IN ANY LANGUAGE, BY PROVIDING FREELY AVAILABLE SPECIFICATIONS, LIBRARY CODE, AND DATA TO FORM THE FOUNDATION FOR SOFTWARE INTERNATIONALIZATION IN ALL MAJOR OPERATING SYSTEMS, SEARCH ENGINES, APPLICATIONS, AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB. AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS PURPOSE IS TO STANDARDIZE, MAINTAIN, EDUCATE AND ENGAGE ACADEMIC AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC ABOUT, MAKE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE, PROMOTE, AND DISSEMINATE TO THE PUBLIC A STANDARD CHARACTER ENCODING THAT PROVIDES FOR AN ALLOCATION FOR MORE THAN A MILLION CHARACTERS.

Income
$860,373
Spending
$880,463
Spent on programs
56%
Reserves
24.5 months of spending
Largest source of income
donations and private grants, 50%
Employees
7
Volunteers
98
Highest pay
$296,745, ceo

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate

Financial health

Good: 81 out of 100. Higher than 54% of charities in its peer group (science, $250k to $1m).

  • Reserves

    35 of 35

    Spendable reserves would cover 24.5 months of spending.

  • Debt

    20 of 20

    It owes 0% of what it owns.

  • Living within its means

    8 of 15

    Spending exceeded income by 2% of income.

  • Income trend

    10 of 15

    Income fell 5% on the year before.

  • Spending floor

    8 of 15

    56% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 38 cents.

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate

Governance

Strong: 91 out of 100. Higher than 81% of charities in its peer group (science, $250k to $1m).

  • Independent board

    25 of 25

    9 of 9 voting board members are independent.

  • Conflict of interest policy

    15 of 15

    Has a written conflict of interest policy.

  • Whistleblower policy

    8 of 8

    Has a written whistleblower policy.

  • Record keeping policy

    7 of 7

    Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.

  • Board minutes

    5 of 5

    Keeps minutes of board meetings.

  • Board sees the tax return

    10 of 10

    Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.

  • Pay set independently

    5 of 5

    Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.

  • Independent check of accounts

    6 of 15

    Its accounts were not audited or reviewed by an independent accountant.

  • No reported misuse

    10 of 10

    Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, 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)
  1. $240,523 spent. COMMON LOCALE DATA REPOSITORY (CLDR)WHEN AN APP FORMATS A DATE AS "APRIL 28" FOR AN AMERICAN USER AND "28 APRIL" FOR A BRITISH ONE, OR GOOGLE FORMATS A PRICE IN BRAZILIAN REALS, OR WINDOWS SORTS A LIST IN JAPANESE ALPHABETICAL ORDER, THAT BEHAVIOR IS POWERED BY THE UNICODE COMMON LOCALE DATA REPOSITORY (CLDR).CLDR IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE REPOSITORY OF LOCALE DATA, AND IT SERVES AS THE SHARED BACKBONE THAT ALLOWS THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY TO BUILD PRODUCTS THAT FEEL NATIVE TO USERS EVERYWHERE. ADOBE, AIRBNB, APPLE, GOOGLE, MICROSOFT, META, AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER COMPANIES RELY ON CLDR RATHER THAN MAINTAINING THEIR OWN FRAGMENTED, REDUNDANT DATASETS, BECAUSE THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES IS VAST.EVERY LANGUAGE AND CULTURE CARRIES ITS OWN CONVENTIONS: HOW DATES AND TIMES ARE WRITTEN, HOW NUMBERS AND CURRENCIES ARE FORMATTED, HOW NAMES ARE ORDERED, WHICH CALENDAR SYSTEM IS USED, WHICH UNITS OF MEASUREMENT ARE STANDARD, HOW LISTS ARE SORTED, AND EVEN WHAT EMOJI ARE CALLED. CAPTURING ALL OF THIS ACCURATELY AND KEEPING IT CURRENT FOR MORE THAN 90 LANGUAGES REQUIRES CONTINUOUS COLLABORATION WITH LINGUISTS, TRANSLATORS, AND REGIONAL EXPERTS AROUND THE WORLD. THAT WORK IS COORDINATED BY THE UNICODE CLDR TECHNICAL COMMITTEE, WHICH COLLECTS DATA, VETS CHANGES, RESOLVES DISPUTES, AND PUBLISHES REGULAR UPDATES.THE RESULT FLOWS DIRECTLY INTO THE TOOLS DEVELOPERS USE EVERY DAY. CLDR DATA IS EMBEDDED IN WIDELY USED SOFTWARE LIBRARIES INCLUDING ICU4J, ICU4C, AND ICU4X; IN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES LIKE JAVA AND JAVASCRIPT; AND IN OPERATING SYSTEMS INCLUDING ANDROID, IOS, WINDOWS, AND MACOS. WHEN A DEVELOPER NEEDS THEIR APP TO BEHAVE CORRECTLY IN SWAHILI OR SLOVAK, THEY DON'T BUILD THAT KNOWLEDGE FROM SCRATCH; THEY INHERIT IT FROM CLDR.THE VALUE IS SUBSTANTIAL. BY MAINTAINING A SINGLE AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE OF LOCALE DATA AS A PUBLIC GOOD, UNICODE ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR EVERY TECHNOLOGY COMPANY TO DUPLICATE THIS EXPENSIVE, SPECIALIZED RESEARCH INDEPENDENTLY, SAVING THE INDUSTRY ENORMOUS ENGINEERING TIME AND COST, AND ACCELERATING THE DELIVERY OF LOCALIZED PRODUCTS TO USERS WORLDWIDE.2025 CLDR HIGHLIGHTS (RELEASES 47 & 48)ON TRACK FOR PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS, PROGRESS, TRACKING FOR V46MESSAGE FORMAT 2.0, PERSON NAME VALIDATION, KEYBOARDS, DDLDIGITALLY DISADVANTAGED LANGUAGE COVERAGE. WORK CONTINUED TO DDL COVERAGE, WITH MANY DDL NOW WITH HIGHER COVERAGE LEVELS: MODERN (ADDED AKAN, BASHKIR, CHUVASH, KAZAKH (ARABIC), ROMANSH, SHAN, QUECHUA - SUITABLE FOR FULL UI INTERNATIONALIZATION MODERATE (ADDED ANTI, ESPERANTO) - SUITABLE FOR "DOCUMENT CONTENT" INTERNATIONALIZATION, EG. IN SPREADSHEET BASIC (ADDED BURIAT, PIEDMONTESE, SICILIAN, TUVINIAN) - SUITABLE FOR LOCALE SELECTION, EG. CHOICE OF LANGUAGE ON MOBILE PHONE
  2. $109,740 spent. UNICODE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE (UTC)EVERY TIME SOMEONE READS A WEB PAGE, SENDS A MESSAGE, RESPONDS WITH AN EMOJI, SCROLLS THROUGH SHOW TITLES ON THEIR TV, OR DOES ANYTHING WITH TEXT - WHETHER IN ENGLISH, ARABIC, TAMIL, OR ANY OTHER LANGUAGE - THEY ARE RELYING ON UNICODE WITHOUT EVER KNOWING IT.THE UNICODE STANDARD ASSIGNS A UNIQUE NUMERIC CODE TO MORE THAN 157,000 CHARACTERS SPANNING THOUSANDS OF LANGUAGES, SCRIPTS, AND SYMBOL SYSTEMS, FROM ANCIENT HIEROGLYPHICS TO MODERN EMOJI. BUT UNICODE IS MORE THAN A SIMPLE LOOKUP TABLE. EACH CHARACTER CARRIES PRECISELY DEFINED PROPERTIES THAT GOVERN HOW IT BEHAVES ACROSS TEXT OPERATIONS: HOW LETTERS COMBINE, HOW LINES BREAK, HOW TEXT FLOWS RIGHT-TO-LEFT IN ARABIC OR HEBREW, AND HOW CHARACTERS SORT AND COMPARE ACROSS SYSTEMS.TOGETHER, THESE TWO ELEMENTS - UNIVERSAL ENCODING AND BEHAVIORAL SPECIFICATION - GIVE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS AND PLATFORM BUILDERS A SINGLE, AUTHORITATIVE STANDARD TO IMPLEMENT, SO THAT A MESSAGE COMPOSED ON A PHONE IN LAGOS RENDERS CORRECTLY ON A LAPTOP IN SEOUL. THE RESULT IS A WORLD WHERE BILLIONS OF PEOPLE CAN COMMUNICATE SEAMLESSLY ACROSS DEVICES, PLATFORMS, AND LANGUAGES, WITH UNICODE WORKING QUIETLY BENEATH EVERY CHARACTER.THE UTC COLLABORATES WITH LINGUISTS, EDUCATORS, ACADEMICS, SOFTWARE PROGRAMMERS, INTERNATIONALIZATION EXPERTS, AND OTHERS IN GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS TO OVERSEE, DEFINE, MODIFY, AND APPROVE THE SPECIFICATIONS AND DATA THAT ALLOW ANY COMPUTER, SMARTPHONE, OR DEVICE TO CONSISTENTLY DISPLAY TEXT IN THE LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD.2025 HIGHLIGHTSIMPROVED PROCESSES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE UNICODE STANDARD YIELDING BETTER GENERATION, DISCOVERY, AND ACCESSCONTINUED UPDATING OF PROCESS FOR ENCODINGRELEASED THE UNICODE STANDARD 17.0, ADDING 4,803 NEW CHARACTERS (INCLUDING THE SAUDI RIYAL SIGN), INCLUDING FOUR NEW SCRIPTS, EIGHT NEW EMOJI CHARACTERS, AS WELL AS MANY OTHER CHARACTERS AND SYMBOLS, BRINGING THE TOTAL OF ENCODED CHARACTERS TO 159,801.
  3. $65,726 spent. INTERNATIONAL COMPONENTS FOR UNICODE (ICU)SOFTWARE DOES NOT BECOME MULTILINGUAL BY ACCIDENT. IT REQUIRES A RELIABLE, PURPOSE-BUILT IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNICODE STANDARD AND ITS ALGORITHMS, AND FOR MOST OF THE WORLD'S SOFTWARE, THAT IMPLEMENTATION IS ICU.ICU IS THE MOST WIDELY USED SET OF OPEN-SOURCE LIBRARIES FOR UNICODE AND INTERNATIONALIZATION SUPPORT. AVAILABLE IN C/C++ AND JAVA, WITH WRAPPERS IN PYTHON AND OTHER LANGUAGES, ICU GIVES DEVELOPERS A CONSISTENT, AUTHORITATIVE TOOLKIT FOR THE HARD PROBLEMS OF GLOBAL SOFTWARE: CONVERTING AND ENCODING TEXT SO IT CAN BE UNIVERSALLY EXCHANGED, RENDERING BIDIRECTIONAL TEXT CORRECTLY IN LANGUAGES LIKE ARABIC AND HEBREW, SEGMENTING TEXT INTO WORDS AND SENTENCES ACROSS SCRIPTS THAT DON'T USE SPACES, FORMATTING DATES AND NUMBERS TO MATCH LOCAL CONVENTIONS, AND APPLYING GRAMMAR RULES THAT VARY ACROSS LANGUAGES.OVER MORE THAN 25 YEARS, ICU HAS BECOME EMBEDDED INFRASTRUCTURE. IT IS BUILT INTO EVERY MAJOR OPERATING SYSTEM AND BROWSER, MEANING THAT BILLIONS OF PEOPLE INTERACT WITH ICU-POWERED SOFTWARE EVERY DAY WITHOUT REALIZING IT. AS THE UNICODE STANDARD EVOLVES, ICU EVOLVES WITH IT, INCORPORATING NEW UNICODE VERSIONS, UPDATED CLDR LOCALE DATA, REFINED ALGORITHMS, AND NEW FEATURES, SO THAT THE SOFTWARE BUILT ON TOP OF IT STAYS CURRENT WITH THE WORLD'S LANGUAGES AND THEIR COMMUNITIES.2025 ICU HIGHLIGHTSUPDATED TO UNICODE 17.0 CHARACTERS, DATA, AND ALGORITHMSIN SYNC WITH CLDR LOCALE DATAMODERNIZED C/J APIS FOR EASE OF USE, SIMPLER DEVELOPMENTRELEASED TECHNICAL PREVIEW OF THE UNICODE INFLECTION LIBRARY
  4. $65,726 spent. INTERNATIONAL COMPONENTS FOR UNICODE 4X (ICU4X)BILLIONS OF PEOPLE NOW COME ONLINE THROUGH SMARTPHONES, SMART WATCHES, AND COMPACT LOW-RESOURCE DEVICES RATHER THAN DESKTOP BROWSERS, AND THAT SHIFT IS ACCELERATING, PARTICULARLY IN EMERGING MARKETS AND AMONG COMMUNITIES WHOSE LANGUAGES HAVE HISTORICALLY BEEN UNDERSERVED BY GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY.ICU4X IS UNICODE'S ANSWER TO THAT REALITY. BUILT IN RUST, ICU4X DELIVERS THE SAME CORE INTERNATIONALIZATION CAPABILITIES AS ICU BUT IN A LIGHTWEIGHT, MODULAR FORM DESIGNED FOR DEVICES THAT CANNOT RUN FULL ICU IMPLEMENTATIONS. IT IS ENGINEERED FOR CONSTRAINED ENVIRONMENTS WHERE MEMORY, PROCESSING POWER, AND BANDWIDTH ARE LIMITED, AND WHERE THE COST OF GETTING INTERNATIONALIZATION WRONG FALLS HARDEST ON COMMUNITIES THAT CAN LEAST AFFORD IT.ICU4X ALSO EXTENDS UNICODE'S REACH INTO THE BROADER PROGRAMMING ECOSYSTEM, BRINGING ROBUST INTERNATIONALIZATION SUPPORT TO THOUSANDS OF LANGUAGES AND PLATFORMS BEYOND C/C++ AND JAVA. THE ICU4X TECHNICAL COMMITTEE OVERSEES THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LIBRARY, ENSURING IT REMAINS TECHNICALLY RIGOROUS WHILE STAYING FOCUSED ON ITS CORE MISSION: MAKING SCALABLE INTERNATIONALIZATION ACCESSIBLE EVERYWHERE, FOR EVERYONE.2025 ICU4X HIGHLIGHTSRELEASED ICU4X 2.1 TO INCLUDE LATEST 118N DATA, CALENDAR IMPROVEMENTS, NORMALIZER OPTIMIZATIONS, AND COLLATION SORT KEYS
  5. $7,260 spent. THE THIRD ANNUAL UNICODE TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP SUPPORTED IN-PERSON COMMUNITY BUILDING AMONGST STUDENTS, YOUNG PROFESSIONALS, AND INTERNATIONALIZATION EXPERTS AND ENTHUSIASTS AROUND THE UNICODE TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES SOFTWARE WORK FOR BILLIONS OF PEOPLE. THE EVENT INCLUDED A DAY OF TUTORIALS AND 2 SESSION DAYS WITH TWO TRACKS. THERE WERE MORE THAN 25 SESSIONS, INCLUDING WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS, FREE-FORM DISCUSSIONS, AND LIGHTNING TALKS CENTERED AROUND I18N LIBRARIES, LOCALE DATA FRAMEWORKS, GLOBALIZATION TOOLING, LOCALIZATION PIPELINES, INPUT METHODS, AND TEXT RENDERING. THE EVENT ALSO INCLUDED CASE STUDIES. 100% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAID THEY WOULD RECOMMEND A UNICODE EVENT TO OTHERS.

Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate

Legitimacy checks

  1. 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 September 7, 2026.

  2. 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 September 30, 2026.

  3. 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 September 10, 2026.

  4. Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.

    Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2025.

    Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.

  5. How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.

    Recognized by the IRS since March 2013.

    Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.

  6. 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 7, 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.