ERGO IMPACT INC

Institutional Archetype

THE ADVISER WITH A SEAT ON EVERY RELATED BOARD — Ergo Impact says it does one thing: “We find, fund, and scale the most promising people and solutions to the world’s most pressing problems” (Ergo Impact). Its return says the same in its own words and names the subjects: “to support solutions to large, global problems and promote the safe use of artificial intelligence, emerging biological technology and other emerging technologies in our society” (ProPublica, Ergo Impact TY2025 Form 990). What the public record shows is a small charity with two people on its payroll at the top and the same two names in office at four other charities. Co-founder and CEO Max Henderson and co-founder and President Kellie Liket are Ergo’s two named officers; the same names hold seats at Halcyon Futures, Fathom and Sentinel Bio, and Henderson sits on the board of AVERI. Ergo’s TY2025 Schedule R lists Fathom AI, Halcyon Futures, Sentinel Bio and Seismic Catalyst Foundation as related tax-exempt organizations (ProPublica, Ergo Impact TY2025 Schedule R). This profile scores the position, not the two officers, the related charities or any grantee.

The finding is a node, not a checkbook. Ergo paid out $10,000 in grants in 2025. What it holds is a place in the middle of a cluster of charities that fund, sponsor or sit on the boards of the evaluators, with the two officers who run it also running or sitting on the others. The cluster is set out from the evaluators’ side in the evaluator alliances map; this page reads it from the middle.

Mandate & Origin

Self-description. The home page’s pitch is “Philanthropy at the scale of today’s challenges.” Its stated problem is “Humanity faces problems of collective action that neither markets nor governments will solve.” Its offer is “Ergo provides the world’s most ambitious philanthropists with a new way of deploying capital impactfully at scale.” Its method is three words: “We create flywheels of capital, talent, and ideas,” with “Rigorous prioritization of problems markets and governments leave behind” as the ideas column. It calls itself “a team of scientists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists who believe philanthropy must rise to the occasion” (Ergo Impact). The site is one page: no portfolio, no grantee list, no named donor, no annual report and no list of related organizations. The Form 990 mission line adds one sentence: “Ergo Impact will help find, fund and scale solutions to important global problems” (ProPublica, Ergo Impact TY2025 Form 990).

Origin. Ergo Impact Inc, San Francisco, EIN 99-2339731, Delaware, formed 2024 per Part I line L of its return, tax exemption issued July 2024 (ProPublica, Ergo Impact Inc; ProPublica, TY2025 Form 990). The return’s first-year text: “Tax year 2024 was the first year of operations for Ergo Impact,” and the organization “assisted in the starting up of two related organizations that are dedicated to the safe use of artificial intelligence and biological technology, consistent with its mission” (ProPublica, Ergo Impact FY2024 Form 990, Schedule O and Part III). The return does not name the two. Its own page says Liket “co-founded Effective Giving before launching Ergo” (Ergo Impact); the page does not say what Effective Giving was or whether it is the same legal entity.

Who runs it. The home page lists three people: Max Henderson, “CO-FOUNDER, CEO,” who “built his career in senior product and GTM roles at Google Cloud, McKesson, and Oracle, before founding CovidActNow”; Kellie Liket, “CO-FOUNDER, PRESIDENT,” who holds “a PhD in impact measurement from Erasmus University”; and Nancy de Ruiter, “FOUNDING BOARD DIRECTOR,” described as “an international social investor and entrepreneur” (Ergo Impact). Sentinel Bio’s people page gives the same two offices in its own words: “Dr. Kellie Liket is the President at the philanthropic advisor Ergo Impact” and “Max Henderson is the CEO at Ergo Impact” (Sentinel Bio, people). AVERI’s team page: “Max is a board member at AVERI and the founder of Ergo Impact,” and “has helped incubate, operate, and fund close to $1B of social good efforts across causes such as global health, science, nuclear security, and AI” (AVERI, team). Coefficient Giving’s team page describes a former Ergo officer: “Previously, he was COO of Ergo Impact, a philanthropic fund incubator focused on emerging tech risks”; the page says he joined Coefficient Giving in July 2025, and Ergo’s TY2025 return lists a David Teter as Chief Operating Officer (“end May 2025”), the same name and the same title at the same organization (Coefficient Giving, David Teter; ProPublica, Ergo Impact TY2025 Form 990).

Governance on the return. The TY2025 return reports three voting members of the governing body, one of them independent, and no family or business relationship among officers, directors and key employees. It lists Max Henderson as Chief Executive Officer (40 hours a week) and principal officer and signer, Kellie Liket as President (40 hours), Nancy De Ruiter as Director (one hour, $0) and David Teter as Chief Operating Officer, end May 2025 (40 hours). Part VI answers No to a written conflict-of-interest policy (line 12a), a written whistleblower policy (line 13) and a written document retention and destruction policy (line 14); the FY2024 return gives the same three answers. Line 15 answers Yes to review and approval of CEO and officer compensation by independent persons with comparability data, and Schedule O says: “Compensation for the organization’s officers, including the chief executive officer, was determined through a professional compensation study obtained by the organization.” The return reports no excess-benefit transactions, no loans or grants to officers and no business transactions with officers (Part IV lines 25 to 28 all No) (ProPublica, TY2025 Form 990; ProPublica, FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule O).

Funding & Backers

Money in. TY2025 (calendar 2025, submitted 13 May 2026): revenue $3,731,127, every dollar contributions; expenses $1,455,723 (program services $1,021,645, management and general $355,088, fundraising $78,990); net income $2,275,404; year-end assets $3,224,771, liabilities $12,466, net assets $3,212,305. Net assets were $2,390,042 without donor restrictions and $822,263 with donor restrictions; the balance sheet carries $822,263 as pledges and grants receivable (Part X line 3) and $2,225,206 as cash. FY2024 (submitted 5 May 2025): revenue $1,858,577, all contributions; expenses $921,676; net assets $936,901 (ProPublica, TY2025 Form 990; ProPublica, FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Ergo Impact Inc). Revenue doubled in the second year; Part VIII reports no program-service revenue, no investment income and no fee income either year.

Who the donors are. The public copy of Schedule B prints the word “RESTRICTED” in the contributor and total columns for its one listed entry, in both years, and no donor is named on Ergo’s site (ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule B; ProPublica, FY2024 Schedule B; Ergo Impact). Ergo does not appear as a recipient in the Survival and Flourishing Fund recommendation tables for 2024, 2025 or 2026, and Coefficient Giving’s site search for “Ergo” and “Ergo Impact” returns only the staff page above and unrelated posts (Survival and Flourishing Fund, SFF-2024; SFF-2025; SFF-2026; Coefficient Giving, search “Ergo”). One related person is a named donor elsewhere: Sentinel Bio’s organization page lists “Max Henderson” among its current supporters, beside the Hewlett Foundation, the AI Safety Tactical Opportunities Fund and Craig Falls (Sentinel Bio, organization). See Survival and Flourishing Fund and Open Philanthropy (Coefficient Giving) for the funders that print their lists.

Money out. Grants and similar amounts paid: $0 in FY2024 and $10,000 in TY2025. The one recipient on Schedule I: Voice of the Earth Foundation (Claymont, Delaware, EIN 99-4900594), $10,000, “general operating support” (ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule I). ProPublica’s page for that EIN lists a Delaware 501(c)(3) with exemption issued July 2025, an arts-and-culture classification and no Form 990 data (ProPublica, Voice Of The Earth Foundation). Schedule I’s monitoring line reads: “The organization monitors the use of grant funds through discussions with the grantee.” The return’s one program narrative says: “During tax year 2025, Ergo Impact continued its work finding, funding and scaling the most promising people and solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.” The rest of its money goes to people and premises: officer compensation is $1,093,416, 75.1 percent of expenses, and occupancy is $107,623.

Activities outside the United States. The return answers Yes to an office, employees or agents abroad and to more than $10,000 of foreign program spending (Part IV lines 14a and 14b). Schedule F lists, for TY2025, one office and one employee or agent in “North America,” program services described as “AI and biotechnology safety,” $261,502; for FY2024, one office and one employee or agent in “Europe (including Iceland and Greenland),” the same program description, $101,086. Neither year reports a grant to a foreign organization or individual (Part IV lines 15 and 16 are No) (ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule F; ProPublica, FY2024 Schedule F). The schedules do not name the countries.

Compensation, as printed. Schedule J, TY2025: Max Henderson, CEO: base $516,000, bonus and incentive $160,000, retirement and deferred $873, nontaxable benefits $20,275, total $697,148; Part VII reports $676,000 reportable compensation and $21,148 other. Kellie Liket, President: base $325,653, retirement and deferred $3,468, nontaxable benefits $1,146, total $330,267; Part VII reports $325,653 and $4,614 other. David Teter, COO to May 2025: $65,787 and $214. FY2024: Henderson $245,130 and $0 other; Liket $105,464 and $10,268 other; Teter $116,071 and $435 other. The related-organization column (Part VII column E) is $0 for every person in both years, and the Halcyon, Fathom and Sentinel Bio returns list Henderson and Liket at $0 (ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule J; ProPublica, TY2025 Form 990; ProPublica, FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Halcyon FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Fathom FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Sentinel Bio FY2024 Form 990).

Institutional Voice & Intent

Ergo’s public register is the manifesto and the headshot: one page of mission language, three biographies, a Margaret Mead quotation and one email address. It publishes no research, no grants list and no policy position under its own name.

• On the problem: “Humanity faces problems of collective action that neither markets nor governments will solve” (Ergo Impact).
• On the product: “Ergo provides the world’s most ambitious philanthropists with a new way of deploying capital impactfully at scale. We rigorously prioritize the problems where high-leverage philanthropy can have outsized impact, attract world-class talent to solve those problems, with a clear ’theory of victory’” (Ergo Impact).
• On its team: “We have started companies, overseen large businesses, and advised on hundreds of millions of dollars in philanthropic grants” (Ergo Impact).
• On its sibling charities, the page says nothing. Its Schedule R names them; the site does not.

Stated intent: Find, fund and scale “the most promising people and solutions” to global problems, in AI, emerging biological technology and other emerging technologies, with philanthropists’ capital.

Observed intent: A two-officer vehicle whose own return shows $10,000 granted in 2025 and $1,093,416 of officer compensation, and whose officers hold the same posts at a funder, a policy sponsor, a biosecurity fund and a public-opinion campaign charity, each of which Ergo’s return lists as related.

Gap: Ergo’s stated model is deploying philanthropists’ capital. Its public record shows the capital arriving ($3,731,127 in 2025) and a $10,000 grant leaving, with the donors restricted on Schedule B, and the related charities’ own pages and returns carry the other half of the picture. The one transaction among them that any return read reports is on Seismic’s filing: Seismic Catalyst Foundation’s Schedule R reports a $87,500 gift from Halcyon Futures Inc, and Ergo’s own Schedule R reports none with anyone. What the pages do not say is what makes the five related, what Ergo does for each, or whether Ergo is paid by any of them. The gap is structural: an organization whose purpose is to find, fund and scale discloses its funding and its finding mostly through its relatives.

Interest: Ergo argues no policy position in its own pages, and no policy text found carries its name. The positions its network argues belong to the other pages. What each would pay, as documented:

• AI governance as a state-by-state market. Position, in Fathom’s words: “an independent nonprofit advancing policies to ensure AI is safe, secure, and trusted” (Fathom). What it pays: Fathom, two of whose board members by its FY2024 return are Ergo’s CEO and President, and the evaluators the designation system would license; see Fathom. Best case, Fathom’s own. Who else gains: the evaluators that qualify.
• Public demand for AI governance. Position, in Seismic Foundation’s words, from its own return: its “mission is to make responsible AI a human priority by mobilizing public demand for meaningful global AI governance that ensures AI will be safe and beneficial for all” (ProPublica, Seismic Catalyst Foundation TY2025 Form 990). What it pays: the audience for the policy ask that the evaluators and Fathom make; Seismic describes itself as “a center of marketing excellence” (Seismic Foundation). Best case, Seismic’s: “Awareness is one thing, raising cultural salience is another.” Who else gains: advocacy groups and policymakers that get a prepared public.
• Biosecurity capital to the biology evaluators. Position, in Sentinel Bio’s words: “all of our funding is unrestricted” (Sentinel Bio, organization), and SecureBio says it is “primarily funded by Coefficient Giving, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and Sentinel Bio” (SecureBio); see Sentinel Bio. What it pays: the demand for biology evaluation, in which an Ergo officer is Treasurer. Best case, Sentinel’s own. Who else gains: SecureBio, a Forum member.

Interest is a documented fact about each position, not a claim about motive, and not a verdict that the argument is wrong. Each best case is stated at the strength its author states it.

Position in the Apparatus

The five returns, side by side. Each organization’s own most recent return, as printed (years differ by filer):

(ProPublica, Ergo Impact TY2025 Form 990; ProPublica, Ergo Impact TY2025 Schedule R; ProPublica, Halcyon FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Fathom FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Sentinel Bio FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Seismic Catalyst Foundation TY2025 Form 990). Hours are the average weekly hours each return prints for that person at that filer.

The relation is stated by the filers, never explained. Every Schedule R in the cluster that lists another member prints “LINE 7” in the public-charity-status column and “N/A” in the direct-controlling-entity column, and none gives a basis in Part VII (Ergo’s Part VII is blank). The listings run in different directions:

• Ergo’s FY2024 Schedule R lists Fathom AI, Halcyon Futures and Sentinel Bio; its TY2025 Schedule R adds Seismic Catalyst Foundation (ProPublica, FY2024 Schedule R; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule R).
• Halcyon’s FY2024 Schedule R lists Fathom, Ergo Impact and Sentinel Bio (ProPublica, Halcyon FY2024 Schedule R).
• Seismic’s TY2025 Schedule R lists Ergo Impact, Halcyon Futures, Fathom AI and Sentinel Bio (ProPublica, Seismic TY2025 Schedule R).
• Fathom’s and Sentinel Bio’s FY2024 returns each answer No to the related-organizations question (Part IV line 34) (ProPublica, Fathom FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Sentinel Bio FY2024 Form 990).

Three of the returns print a shared mailing address for the neighbours: Ergo’s Schedule R prints Fathom AI at “447 Sutter St Ste 405” in San Francisco, and Halcyon’s and Seismic’s Schedules R print Ergo Impact at the same street address and suite; Ergo’s own return gives 1449 Montgomery St (ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule R; ProPublica, Halcyon FY2024 Schedule R; ProPublica, Seismic TY2025 Schedule R). The addresses are as the filers printed them.

The one dollar figure among them. Seismic’s Schedule R, Part V, answers Yes to “gift, grant, or capital contribution from related organization(s)” and lists one line: Halcyon Futures Inc, transaction type C, $87,500, method of determining amount “COST” (ProPublica, Seismic TY2025 Schedule R). Ergo’s Schedule R, Part V, answers No to every transaction type, including gifts and grants to and from related organizations and sharing of paid employees, in both years (ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule R).

Seats. Henderson sits on AVERI’s three-person board with Mike McCormick and Grace Werner, and AVERI’s team page ties him to Ergo (“the founder of Ergo Impact”); Halcyon’s about page lists him as Venture Partner and “Co-founder and CEO of Ergo Impact” (AVERI, team; Halcyon Futures, about). AVERI’s about page lists its funders; Fathom and Halcyon Futures are named, and Ergo is not (“Our funders include the AI Underwriting Company, Coefficient Giving, Craig Falls, Geoff Ralston, Good Forever Foundation, Fathom, Halcyon Futures, Sympatico Ventures”) (AVERI, about). The evaluator side: AVERI and Transluce are Forum members; Sentinel Bio is a named primary funder of SecureBio (SecureBio, GPT-6 Astra assessment). See AI Evaluator Forum and SecureBio.

Beside the larger checkbooks. Ergo’s $10,000 of grants and $3.7MM of revenue sit beside the Survival and Flourishing Fund’s $63.13MM round and Coefficient Giving’s AI and biosecurity commitments; it is a small allocator at a large junction (Survival and Flourishing Fund; Coefficient Giving, Emily Oehlsen, Sep 9 2026). See Survival and Flourishing Fund, Open Philanthropy (Coefficient Giving) and the evaluator-by-evaluator overlap in Evaluator Alliances.

Actions & Leadership Choices

CONDUCT: STRUCTURAL — ONE CHARITY, TWO OFFICERS AND FOUR RELATED CHARITIES ACROSS THE EVALUATOR LAYER’S FUNDING, POLICY AND GOVERNANCE. No wrongdoing is alleged. The structural point is the middle position: a charity that describes itself as finding, funding and scaling solutions, whose two officers hold seats at a seed funder, a policy sponsor, a biosecurity fund and a public-opinion campaign charity, each listed on its return as related, with one of them on the board of an evaluator, while the evaluators and the funder publish standards that tell readers to look at funding relationships and organizational control. Ergo’s own best case is the plain one: the seats are public, the returns list the relatives, the officers are paid by Ergo and by none of the others, and a charity that incubates organizations will naturally sit on their boards.

Related charities in two years. By its own FY2024 narrative, Ergo “assisted in the starting up of two related organizations” in its first year, and its return then lists three related charities; the TY2025 return lists a fourth that was formed in 2025 (exemption August 2025). The same two names are in office at each.

Pay is the one thing Ergo discloses most plainly. Officer compensation was 51.8 percent of FY2024 expenses and 75.1 percent of TY2025 expenses, $1,093,416 against $10,000 in grants (ProPublica, Ergo Impact Inc). Schedule O attributes the CEO’s pay to “a professional compensation study obtained by the organization.” No related organization pays either officer anything on its own return. The comparison is a filing fact: it measures what Ergo spends on its team, not the value of what the team does.

The disclosure sits with the relatives. The related charities’ own returns and pages carry what Ergo’s page does not: Halcyon’s, Fathom’s and Sentinel Bio’s returns list the two officers; Sentinel Bio’s people page names both and their Ergo offices; AVERI’s team page names Henderson’s Ergo role. A reader who starts at Ergo finds the mission and a team page; a reader who starts at any relative finds Ergo.

Seismic’s one-way listing. Seismic’s return prints a related-organization list that includes Ergo, and a $87,500 gift from Halcyon; Ergo’s return lists Seismic as related and reports nothing exchanged. Seismic’s return reports three voting members, all three independent, and its directors by name are Michael Mccormick, Maximillian Henderson and Kellie Liket (ProPublica, Seismic TY2025 Form 990). The filing does not say how independence was assessed; the name “Maximillian Henderson” is matched to Max Henderson on name only.

Alliance Map

These run at the same time. One charity, two years on the IRS record, pays its two officers $1.09MM, grants $10,000, and lists four other charities as related, each with the same two names in office: a seed funder that sits on two evaluators’ boards, a policy sponsor whose model licenses evaluators, a biosecurity fund that funds a third, and a public-opinion campaign charity that Halcyon paid $87,500. The relatives disclose the individual ties themselves. The overlap is the finding.

Reach Assessment

Institutional: $3,731,127 of TY2025 contributions and $10,000 of grants; two officers on the boards of four related charities (three by printed name, a fourth by same-name match), one seat at an evaluator; four related charities whose latest returns print $30,088,790 in gross receipts between them (years differ). Memetic: a one-page site and a team page; no social account is linked from the page, no publication, no events (Ergo Impact).

Civilizational: For scale, the Survival and Flourishing Fund organized about $216MM since 2019 and Coefficient Giving says its technical AI safety, security and fieldbuilding commitments were $351 million in 2025 (Survival and Flourishing Fund; Coefficient Giving, Emily Oehlsen, Sep 9 2026). Ergo’s own money is a rounding error beside either; its weight is that it is the one organization on whose return all four others appear.

Score note. Attack 4, defense 3 and hp 3 on first-hand receipts: the TY2025 return’s revenue, grants, compensation and governance answers, Schedule B, Schedule R, and the related charities’ returns. Peers: Halcyon Futures (5/4/3, hazard 40) is the funder with $611,455 in grants, a written conflict policy and two of three directors independent; Sentinel Bio (5/6/3, hazard 46.7) funds a Forum evaluator and names its supporters and a donor cap; Fathom (7/7/6, hazard 66.7) sponsors a state statute and has $12.1MM in receipts. At person level, Max Henderson (5/5/4, hazard 46.7) scores above the charity because his seats at AVERI and at Halcyon, Fathom and Sentinel Bio outlast any one return. Hazard 33.3 sits below Halcyon: reach one point lower and insulation one lower, entrenchment level.

Score basis. Atk 4 is reach: Ergo paid $10,000 in grants and spent $1,021,645 on programs, so its reach is the four related charities on its Schedule R and the seats its two officers hold on them and on AVERI’s board; no statute, procurement rule or pre-release gate obliges a lab or agency to use any of their output, and its outlay is below Halcyon’s (ProPublica, TY2025 Form 990; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule R; AVERI, team). Def 3 is funding insulation: 100 percent of revenue is contributions from donors the public Schedule B does not name, $822,263 of net assets is donor-restricted pledges, one of three voting directors is independent, and the return answers No to written conflict, whistleblower and retention policies, so independence from whoever funds it cannot be shown, against Halcyon’s 4 and Sentinel Bio’s 6 (ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule B; ProPublica, TY2025 Form 990). Hp 3 is entrenchment: formed 2024, two returns, a balance sheet of cash and one receivable, and nothing in statute or contract holding the seats or the related charities in place (ProPublica, Ergo Impact Inc).

Sources: Ergo Impact; ProPublica, Ergo Impact Inc; ProPublica, Ergo Impact TY2025 Form 990; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule B; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule F; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule I; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule J; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule O; ProPublica, TY2025 Schedule R; ProPublica, Ergo Impact FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, FY2024 Schedule B; ProPublica, FY2024 Schedule F; ProPublica, FY2024 Schedule R; ProPublica, Seismic Catalyst Foundation; ProPublica, Seismic TY2025 Form 990; ProPublica, Seismic TY2025 Schedule R; Seismic Foundation; ProPublica, Voice Of The Earth Foundation; ProPublica, Halcyon FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Halcyon FY2024 Schedule R; ProPublica, Fathom FY2024 Form 990; ProPublica, Sentinel Bio FY2024 Form 990; Sentinel Bio, people; Sentinel Bio, organization; AVERI, team; AVERI, about; Halcyon Futures, about; Coefficient Giving, David Teter; Coefficient Giving, search “Ergo”; Coefficient Giving, Emily Oehlsen (Sep 9 2026); Fathom; SecureBio, GPT-6 Astra assessment; Survival and Flourishing Fund; SFF-2024; SFF-2025; SFF-2026