Open Research Lab Inc., publicly known as OpenResearch, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization was originally incorporated as Y Combinator Research Inc. and renamed in 2020 “to better reflect its independence” from Y Combinator. Its stated mission is “to pursue fundamental and open-ended research projects that are rarely possible in traditional research environments.” [1][2]
OpenResearch is best known for the Unconditional Cash Study, one of the largest privately funded universal basic income (UBI) experiments in the United States — distributing $1,000 monthly to 3,000 participants in Illinois and Texas over three years beginning in 2020. The organization released its initial findings in July 2024. [3][4]
OpenResearch is also the entity through which Sam Altman extended a multi-year interested-person loan that became the organization’s single largest funding source and the primary driver of its negative net worth. [5][6][7]
Basic Information
| Field | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Legal name | Open Research Lab Inc. | Since ~2020 [1][2] |
| Previous name | Y Combinator Research Inc. | Renamed to remove “Y Combinator” after Altman’s departure from YC [2][8] |
| EIN | 81-0861414 | [5] |
| IRS classification | 501(c)(3) | Public charity |
| IRC section | 509(a)(2) | Support from gross receipts |
| Founded | 2015 | By Sam Altman, announced October 7, 2015 on YC blog [9] |
| Address | San Francisco Bay Area (previously Mountain View) | [5] |
| Website | openresearchlab.org | [1] |
| Tax preparer | Fontanello Duffield & Otake LLP (Firm EIN 37-1420474) | Same firm for all 9 consecutive years (2016–2024) [5][7] |
Board of Directors and Officers
| Name | Title | Compensation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Altman | Director | $0 | Also CEO of OpenAI. Extended $14M+ interested-person loan. Named on Schedule L Part II for 7 consecutive years (2016–2022), then anonymized to “Board Member” (2023–2024). [5][6][7] |
| Chris Clark | President / COO | $0 | Also President and Treasurer of UBI Charitable. Former Head of Strategy at OpenAI (tenure ended 2024). Former Mayor of Mountain View, CA. Signs all Form 990s. Reviews filings with tax preparer before board sees them. Administers conflict of interest policy. 18-year continuous operational relationship with Altman: Loopt (Director of Partnerships, 2008–2012) → Green Dot (VP Mobile Partnerships, 2012–2014) → Canonical (2014–2016) → OpenAI (first COO, 2016–2022; Head of Nonprofit, 2022–2024) → OpenResearch full-time (2024–present). Born ~1983, Rozetta IL. US House Page → Stanford (Political Science) → Harvard Kennedy School. Mountain View youngest-ever mayor (2014), youngest-ever Council member (2012), first openly LGBTQ member, re-elected November 2024. [5][7][10][11] |
| Patrick Scaglia | Director | $0 | Chairman of HARC (Human Advancement Research Community). Former HP executive for 12 years. Former co-director of Foundry@CITRIS. [5][12] |
All three board members receive $0 compensation. Clark’s prior-year filings show compensation from “related organizations” — indicating OpenAI was the paying entity. After his OpenAI departure in 2024, the source of his income is unidentified. Mountain View city council pays approximately $600/month per California law. [5][7][11]
Key Personnel
| Name | Role | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Rhodes | Research Director | Joint PhD in social work and political science. Applied after seeing Altman’s 2016 blog post. Leads the Unconditional Cash Study. Rarely does interviews. [3][4] |
| Sam Manning | Research Manager | $143,917 compensation (FY2021) [5] |
| Patrick Krause | Data Manager | $132,500 compensation (FY2021) [5] |
Programs and Projects
OpenResearch has incubated several projects since its founding. Most have been defunded or spun off. [1][9]
| Project | Leader | Launched | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Sam Altman, Greg Brockman | Dec 2015 | Spun off as independent entity | “The first group affiliated with YC Research is OpenAI.” OpenAI was originally listed as a YC Research project. Per TechCrunch investigation, despite being listed as a founding donor, “YC Research did not contribute anything at all” to OpenAI. Now valued at $300B+. [9][13][8] |
| Basic Income / Unconditional Cash Study | Elizabeth Rhodes | Jan 2016 (announced), 2020 (launched) | Completed 2023, findings released Jul 2024 | 3,000 participants in IL and TX, $1,000/month for 3 years. Largest privately funded UBI study in US. [3][4] |
| HARC (Human Advancement Research Community) | Alan Kay, Patrick Scaglia | May 2016 | Defunded ~2017 | “Ensure human wisdom exceeds human power.” PIs included Alan Kay, Bret Victor, Vi Hart. Chris Clark ran it operationally. Advisory Board: Patrick Collison (Stripe CEO — connecting to Altman’s $633M Stripe position), Adele Goldberg, Alan Kay, Vishal Sikka, Tanja Rueckert. Sponsors included Infosys and SAP. [9][12][14] |
| Dynamicland | Bret Victor | ~2016 | Spun off | Interactive computing research environment. [1] |
| Cities | Unknown | ~2016 | Unknown | Listed in Sam’s September 2016 “YC Changes” post as a YC Research group alongside OpenAI, Basic Income, and HARC. No further public documentation found. [14] |
The $10 Million Promise
In October 2015, Sam Altman announced YC Research with a public commitment: “I’m going to personally donate $10 million to start.” The actual 2016 IRS filing shows OpenResearch received approximately $1 million in donations — not the promised $10 million. The $10 million threshold was not reached until 2019, four years after the public commitment. Instead of donating the $10 million outright, Altman structured most of his funding as a LOAN — making himself the organization’s largest creditor rather than its largest donor. The governance implications are materially different: a donor gives and walks away; a creditor retains leverage. [6][8][9]
Total OpenResearch funding was reported as $24.5 million per TechCrunch (February 2023) and approximately $60 million per Forbes (July 2024). The discrepancy may reflect different time periods or the inclusion of the loan facility in the Forbes figure. [6][8]
Personnel Dependency on Altman’s Loan
Elizabeth Rhodes ($174,833), Sam Manning ($143,917), and Patrick Krause ($132,500) — the three salaried employees — are paid from an organization whose operating funds come primarily from Sam Altman’s personal credit facility. When the organization’s total revenue was $110,000 in FY2020 but expenses were $4.14 million, the gap was funded by Altman’s loan. The researchers’ salaries are structurally dependent on a single individual’s willingness to continue lending. This creates an inherent dependency that is distinct from grant-funded research at a university, where funding sources are diversified and institutional. [5][6]
Philosophy professor Patricia Illingworth, quoted in TechCrunch’s investigation: “When donors give, and then benefit from their donations, arguably they are not promoting the public good, but rather their own good.” [8]
The “Cities” Group
Sam’s September 13, 2016 YC blog post listed four YC Research groups: “We’re currently supporting 4 groups — OpenAI, Basic Income, HARC, and Cities.” The Cities group has no further public documentation — no announced leadership, no website, no research output, no IRS filing reference. It appears and disappears in the public record in a single blog post. [14][22]
The TrialSpark Grant (FY2020)
OpenResearch’s Schedule I for FY2020 shows a single grant: $1,000,000 to TrialSpark Inc., a for-profit clinical trials company, for “Operations.” This was the organization’s only grant-making activity for the entire fiscal year. [5][15]
The grant funded Project Covalence, a COVID-19 clinical trial platform. TrialSpark trademarked “Project Covalence” as its own intellectual property 34 days after launch (US Application 90062822, filed July 20, 2020). The trademark was registered to TrialSpark, Inc. — not to OpenResearch. [15][16]
Twelve months after this grant, Sam Altman personally co-led TrialSpark’s $156 million Series C fundraising round. [17]
TrialSpark had already raised approximately $87 million from Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, and John Doerr before receiving the OpenResearch grant. It was not a charity case. [15][17][18]
For the full Formation Bio / TrialSpark analysis, see: Formation Bio (TrialSpark / LabNook)
The Interested-Person Loan
Sam Altman extended a multi-year loan to OpenResearch documented across eight consecutive Schedule L Part II filings (2016–2023). Forbes reported the total facility as a “$25 million line of credit.” The Schedule L filings show a maximum “Original principal” of $14,073,376 — creating an approximately $11 million delta between the reported facility size and the disclosed principal. [5][6][7]
| Year | Original Principal (Schedule L) | Balance (End of Year) | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $5,200,000 | $5,200,000 | Loan initiated [5] |
| 2017 | $5,200,000 | $5,200,000 | Stable [5] |
| 2018 | $5,950,000 | $5,950,000 | Increased $750K [5] |
| 2019 | $5,950,000 | $5,950,000 | Stable [5] |
| 2020 | $14,073,376 | $14,073,376 | Unexplained $8.1M increase — coincides with YCR→OpenResearch rebrand [5][7] |
| 2021 | $14,073,376 | $14,073,376 | Stable [5] |
| 2022 | $14,073,376 | $14,073,376 | Stable [5] |
| 2023 | $14,073,376 | $14,863,376 | Increased $790K [5] |
| 2024 | $0 | $0 | Loan converted to donation — $14M+ forgiven [5] |
The 2020 restructuring — an $8.1 million increase in “Original principal” appearing on the same filing as the entity’s name change from Y Combinator Research to Open Research Lab — has no public explanation. [5][7]
The November 2024 Anonymization
For seven consecutive years (2016–2022), Schedule L Part II identified the borrower as “Sam Altman” by name. In the 2023 filing (filed November 15, 2024), the name was replaced with “Board Member.” The same tax preparer (Fontanello Duffield & Otake LLP) had used Altman’s name for all seven prior filings. [5][7]
The anonymization occurred on the same filing date (January 30, 2026) as a 2023 amendment that retained the Schedule L with full detail — meaning the preparer actively reviewed and retained the loan disclosure while simultaneously removing the name. This was not an oversight. [7]
Financial History
| Year | Revenue | Expenses | Net Assets | Key Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $1.01M | $4.95M | -$3.94M | Founding year [5] |
| 2016 | $0.20M | $3.89M | — | HARC launched, Rhodes hired, $5.2M loan initiated [5] |
| 2017 | $0.16M | $1.18M | — | HARC defunded [5] |
| 2018 | $0.14M | $1.19M | — | Skeleton crew operations [5] |
| 2019 | $0.88M | $3.32M | — | UBI study preparation [5] |
| 2020 | $0.11M | $4.14M | — | UBI study launches; $1M grant to TrialSpark; loan restructured to $14M; entity renamed [5][15] |
| 2021 | $10.16M | $2.97M | -$4.58M | $10.14M in contributions (99.7% of revenue) — donor(s) UNKNOWN. Schedule B restricted. [5][19] |
| 2022 | $0.19M | $3.58M | -$8.51M | Back to normal revenue [5] |
| 2023 | $0.49M | $4.77M | -$12.23M | Study winds down; Altman name anonymized on Schedule L [5][7] |
| 2024 | $18.3M | $3.8M | +$2.9M | $14M+ loan converted to donation — net assets turn positive for first time [5] |
Two spike years require explanation:
FY2021: $10.14 million in contributions from unknown donor(s). This is a 92x increase from the prior year’s $110,000. Revenue dropped back to $190,000 the following year. The donor identities are protected by Schedule B restrictions on the public filing. This spike occurred in the same fiscal year that Altman led the $156 million Series C for TrialSpark. This is confirmed as SEPARATE from the Altman loan — total liabilities barely changed that year ($15.09M → $14.60M), meaning the credit line was not drawn down or converted to produce this income. It is genuinely separate money from an unidentified source. The same year also showed the first-ever “program service revenue” of $25,000 — the nature of this service has not been identified. [5][17][19]
Possible sources for the $10.14M include Jack Dorsey’s Start Small foundation ($15M total to OpenResearch per Forbes) or an anonymous donor-advised fund. Three $15M amounts circulate in the network: $15M anonymous DAF to UBI Charitable, $15M Start Small to OpenResearch, and $15M Start Small to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. Whether these overlap or represent separate tranches has not been confirmed. [6][19][20]
FY2024: $18.3 million in revenue, driven by the conversion of Altman’s $14M+ loan to a donation. This single transaction shifted OpenResearch’s net assets from negative $12.23 million to positive $2.9 million. [5]
Total organizational funding was approximately $60 million per Forbes, with $10 million from the OpenAI nonprofit arm, $15 million from Jack Dorsey’s Start Small foundation, and the remainder from Altman’s $25 million line of credit and other sources. Altman’s credit facility represented approximately 42% of total organizational funding from a single individual who also serves as an uncompensated Director. [6]
Governance Concerns
Form 990 review process (per Schedule O): “The 990 will first be reviewed by the COO with the preparer and then the COO will present it to the board finance committee for review.” Chris Clark personally reviews with the tax preparer BEFORE the board finance committee sees the filing. [5][7]
Conflict of interest policy (per Schedule O): “The Treasurer and COO remind board members and officers annually of the policy and answer any questions.” Clark administers the COI policy AND certifies the Form 990 that reports on COI compliance. The same person administering the conflict policy is the person certifying that conflicts were properly handled. [5][7]
Board independence: All three board members are unpaid. The organization’s negative net worth was entirely caused by Altman’s loan. A director who is also the entity’s largest creditor — and whose loan creates the entire negative net worth — has structural leverage regardless of title or compensation. [5][7]
The UBI–AI–Worldcoin circularity: Altman simultaneously created AI that may displace human workers (OpenAI/ChatGPT), funded UBI research studying how to compensate displaced workers (OpenResearch), and launched a cryptocurrency token system to distribute payments to verified humans (Worldcoin). The self-referential structure — AI displaces jobs, Altman’s research studies the displacement, Altman’s tokens compensate displaced workers, Altman profits from all three — is analytically significant regardless of intent. [5]
Compensation policy (per Schedule O): “Determined by the board using comparability data.” No independent compensation consultant is disclosed. [5]
Related Entity: UBI Charitable
UBI Charitable was launched in 2020 with Chris Clark as President AND Treasurer. It has no website, no salaried employees, no volunteers, and an address identical to OpenResearch. [7][11][20]
UBI Charitable EIN: Not yet confirmed in public filings reviewed. Entity shares address with Open Research Lab Inc. [20]
In 2020, OpenAI donated $10 million to UBI Charitable — nearly one-third of OpenAI’s nonprofit assets at the time. This was previously unreported until TechCrunch’s February 2023 investigation. In the same year, an anonymous donor-advised fund contributed $15 million to UBI Charitable. The donor’s identity is protected by DAF structure. Total: $25 million to a zero-staff nonprofit with no web presence. [7][11][20]
Chris Clark simultaneously served at all three entities: OpenAI (Head of Strategy), OpenResearch (President/COO), and UBI Charitable (President/Treasurer). A single individual linking three Altman-connected organizations across nonprofit and for-profit lines. TechCrunch: “UBI Charitable’s president and treasurer is Altman’s long-time friend and ex-Mountain View mayor, Chris Clark. Clark is also director of OpenResearch, as well as head of strategy at OpenAI itself.” [7][11]
The $25 million question: $10 million from OpenAI’s nonprofit arm plus $15 million from an anonymous DAF flowed into a nonprofit with no staff, no website, and no independent operational footprint — administered by the same person who runs OpenResearch and formerly ran strategy at OpenAI. The $10 million represented nearly one-third of OpenAI’s nonprofit assets. The anonymous $15 million donor has never been identified. [7][11][20]
The Entity Name Change
The rename from “Y Combinator Research Inc.” to “Open Research Lab Inc.” occurred in the 2019–2020 window — the same period as Altman’s departure from YC and the loan restructuring from $5.95M to $14.07M. [2][5][7]
OpenResearch’s website states the rename was done “to better reflect its independence” from Y Combinator. [1]
This creates a structural tension with Altman’s subsequent “wasn’t aware” defense regarding the false YC chairman claim on the AltC SEC S-1 (May 2021): if Altman was aware enough of his changed YC relationship to scrub “Y Combinator” from the entity’s name in 2020, the claim that he “wasn’t aware” his title had been inflated to “chairman” on a federal securities filing one year later becomes harder to sustain. [2][7][21]
The 2020 Cluster
The TrialSpark grant did not occur in isolation. FY2020 was a year of convergent structural changes: [5][7][15][20]
- OpenResearch renamed from Y Combinator Research to Open Research Lab
- Altman’s loan principal restructured from $5.95M to $14.07M — an unexplained $8.1M increase
- The $1M TrialSpark grant was issued — the only grant that year
- OpenAI sent $10M to UBI Charitable — administered by the same person (Chris Clark)
- An anonymous DAF contributed $15M to UBI Charitable — donor identity protected
- Project Covalence launched and was trademarked by TrialSpark
Each can be explained individually. The ethical concern is the cluster — the concentration of structural changes, capital movements, and nonprofit-to-for-profit flows within a single fiscal year, all involving the same governance personnel, the same accounting firm, and the same network of entities. [5][7][15][20]
Sources
- [Archive] OpenResearch website “About Us”: https://www.openresearchlab.org/about
- [Archive] OpenResearch website: “renamed in 2020 to better reflect its independence”
- [Archive] Fortune: “Meet the woman running Sam Altman’s universal basic income study,” Feb 9, 2024: https://fortune.com/2024/02/09/sam-altman-ubi-study-elizabeth-rhodes-openai-openresearch
- [Archive] CBS News: “Sam Altman’s universal basic income experiment finds that money can indeed buy happiness,” Jul 23, 2024: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sam-altman-universal-basic-income-study-open-research/
- [Archive] ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Open Research Lab Inc. Form 990 filings (2015–2024), EIN 81-0861414: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810861414
- [Archive] Forbes / Sarah Emerson: “OpenAI Founder Sam Altman Gave Thousands Of People Free Money. Here’s What Happened,” Jul 22, 2024: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2024/07/22/openai-founder-sam-altman-gave-thousands-of-people-free-money-heres-what-happened/
- [Archive] ProPublica: Open Research Lab Inc. Form 990 Schedule L Part II (interested-person loan, 2016–2024) and Schedule O (governance): https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810861414
- [Archive] TechCrunch: “The nonprofits accelerating Sam Altman’s AI vision,” Feb 21, 2023: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/21/the-non-profits-accelerating-sam-altmans-ai-vision/
- [Archive] YC Blog: “YC Research,” Oct 7, 2015 (updated Jun 5, 2020): https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/tag/yc-research
- [Archive] NewDEAL Leaders: Chris Clark profile (confirms OpenAI tenure ended 2024)
- [Archive] TechCrunch Feb 2023: “UBI Charitable’s president and treasurer is Altman’s long-time friend and ex-Mountain View mayor, Chris Clark. Clark is also director of OpenResearch, as well as head of strategy at OpenAI itself.”
- [Archive] Wikipedia: Patrick Scaglia — chairman of HARC, former HP executive
- [Archive] YC Blog: “OpenAI,” Dec 11, 2015: “The first group affiliated with YC Research is OpenAI.”
- [Archive] YC Blog: “HARC,” May 11, 2016 (Sam Altman): https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/harc
- [Archive] ProPublica: Open Research Lab Inc. Form 990 Schedule I, FY2020 (TrialSpark $1M grant): https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810861414/202113209349301966/IRS990ScheduleI
- [Archive] Canadian Intellectual Property Office: Trademark Registration 2101445 (Project Covalence); USPTO Application 90062822; WIPO International Registration 1587792
- [Archive] PR Newswire: “TrialSpark raises $156MM Series C Funding led by Sam Altman and Lachy Groom,” Sep 30, 2021
- [Archive] FinSMEs: “TrialSpark Raises $156M in Series C Funding,” Sep 30, 2021
- [Archive] ProPublica: Open Research Lab Inc. Form 990, FY2021 — $10.14M contributions (99.7% of revenue)
- [Archive] TechCrunch Feb 2023: UBI Charitable $10M from OpenAI + $15M anonymous DAF
- [Archive] AltC Acquisition Corp SEC S-1, May 2021: Altman described as “chairman” of Y Combinator
- [Archive] YC Blog: “YC Changes,” Sep 13, 2016 (Sam Altman): “We’re currently supporting 4 groups — OpenAI, Basic Income, HARC, and Cities”: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/yc-changes
DISCLAIMER
This analysis does not constitute evidence of illegal action. The opinions expressed here are the professional opinions and analytical conclusions of the author, a published corporate ethics researcher and analyst specializing in business leadership ethics, governance structures, and nonprofit compliance. Readers are encouraged to examine the primary sources cited above and draw their own conclusions.
A conflict does not become less important because it was routed through a quieter entity. It becomes more important to map.
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