How much does Seti Institute give?

Seti Institute reported 29 itemized grants totaling $2,034,080, out of $2,716,545 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 24 and 37 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Seti Institute fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Science & Tech (77%), Youth Development (15%), Education (7%).

Who are Seti Institute's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Girl Scouts of the United States of America ($2.9M), Honeybee Robotics Ltd ($2.5M), University of Washington ($1.6M).

Does Seti Institute fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 11% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Foundation Dossiers Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

California · Public charity

Seti Institute

To explore, understand and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe and the evolution of intelligence.

$2.7M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 29
Itemized grants FY2025: 28
Organizations funded FY2024: 11%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Itemized, FY2025: $2.0M; The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025: $38,012
Largest grant, FY2025: $196,500
Organizations funded a year: 24 to 37; FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 16
Total assets, FY2025: $247M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 11% of the organizations Seti Institute funded were first-time grantees, receiving 8% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $149k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

EducationScience & TechArts & CultureEnvironmentOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	29	$2.0M	17%
FY2024	28	$2.0M	11%
FY2023	28	$2.0M	14%
FY2022	37	$2.7M	16%
FY2021	35	$2.8M	23%
FY2020	33	$3.4M	21%
FY2019	32	$3.0M	38%
FY2018	24	$2.2M	13%

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Science & Tech$18MYouth Development$3.5MEducation$1.7MHealth$84k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Girl Scouts of the United States of America	$2,861,596	6	1%
Honeybee Robotics Ltd	$2,529,708	9	n/a
University of Washington	$1,622,624	7	n/a
Wested	$1,211,990	9	n/a
Trillium Technologies Inc	$1,158,835	2	n/a
University of Arizona	$786,722	8	n/a
Baja Technology LLC	$770,586	9	n/a
Girl Scouts of Northern California	$633,669	5	1%
The Uc Davis Foundation	$632,686	3	1%
Astronomical Society of the Pacific	$591,788	6	7%

Show all 73 grantees

All grantees of Seti Institute by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Girl Scouts of the United States of America	$2,861,596	6	1%
Honeybee Robotics Ltd	$2,529,708	9	n/a
University of Washington	$1,622,624	7	n/a
Wested	$1,211,990	9	n/a
Trillium Technologies Inc	$1,158,835	2	n/a
University of Arizona	$786,722	8	n/a
Baja Technology LLC	$770,586	9	n/a
Girl Scouts of Northern California	$633,669	5	1%
The Uc Davis Foundation	$632,686	3	1%
Astronomical Society of the Pacific	$591,788	6	7%
Planetary Science Institute	$563,317	8	1%
Regents of the University of California at Riverside	$539,402	7	n/a
University of Hawaii System	$450,836	5	n/a
University of Florida	$448,043	7	n/a
University of Massachusetts	$427,964	5	n/a
San Diego State University Foundation Sdsu Research Foundation	$378,780	5	0%
Other Orb LLC	$376,320	4	n/a
Trustees of Purdue University	$337,468	5	n/a
Board of Regents of Univ of Wisconsin System	$328,990	3	n/a
University of Wisconsin Madison	$318,433	3	n/a
Aries Scientific Inc	$312,311	6	93%
Arizona State University	$305,012	5	n/a
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc	$295,115	7	0%
Southwest Research Institute	$293,923	7	0%
Carnegie Mellon University	$290,454	4	0%
The University of Tennessee	$283,660	5	n/a
Smithsonian Institution	$256,846	4	0%
Leiden Measurement Technology	$254,788	5	n/a
Georgetown University	$238,817	5	0%
Regents of the University of Michigan	$193,832	4	n/a
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laborator	$191,080	5	n/a
Cornell University	$180,039	3	0%
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp	$168,403	3	n/a
Chabot Space & Science Center Foundation	$149,135	1	2%
University of Maryland College Park	$143,525	6	n/a
The University of Montana	$132,860	4	n/a
Georgia Tech Research Corporation	$128,484	5	0%
Universities Space Research Association	$126,315	6	0%
Million Concepts LLC	$125,889	2	n/a
University of Oklahoma	$121,411	5	n/a
The Research Foundation for The State University of New York	$112,171	4	0%
California Academy of Sciences	$111,303	1	0%
Space Science Institute	$110,063	4	1%
University of Texas	$108,757	3	n/a
University of Wyoming	$95,411	2	n/a
Fibernetics LLC	$94,733	3	n/a
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine	$83,816	3	0%
Metzger Geoscience Consulting LLC	$76,400	2	n/a
University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation Inc	$70,084	3	1%
Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia	$69,710	4	n/a
Oak Crest Institute of Science	$67,007	1	1%
Bay Area Environmental Research Institute	$63,937	2	0%
Cal Poly Pomona Foundation Inc	$61,528	2	0%
Stellar Solutions Inc	$60,000	1	n/a
Regents of the University of Idaho	$59,421	3	n/a
The Howard University	$54,187	2	0%
Regents of the University of California at Berkeley	$46,412	3	n/a
Villanova University	$42,170	3	0%
Regents of the University of California	$42,019	2	n/a
Williams College	$36,217	1	0%
Citrus College Foundation	$34,676	2	2%
San Francisco State University	$31,495	1	n/a
Trustees of Boston University	$30,000	1	0%
University of Georgia	$29,093	1	n/a
University of Central Florida	$25,309	1	n/a
James Madison University	$25,000	1	n/a
Lockheed Martin Corporation	$24,675	1	n/a
Noqsi Aerospace Ltd	$23,275	1	n/a
M3d Co Roger Matar	$21,578	1	n/a
Planetary Resource Engineering LLC	$13,778	1	n/a
University of Houston	$13,486	1	n/a
Iowa State University	$12,786	1	n/a
New Mexico State University	$8,469	1	n/a

Plus 1 recipient with no EIN on record ($78k), not named here.

Seti Institute supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 29 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 29.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Johns Hopkins UniversityMD36.1× affinity17 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Johns Hopkins University · Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc · West Virginia University Research Corporation · Trustees of Boston University · The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York · University of Delaware · American Chemical Society · Carnegie Mellon University · Cornell University · National Collegiate Athletic Association · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · Mathematical Association of America Inc

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Seti Institute with peer funders

About Seti Institute

How much does Seti Institute give?: Seti Institute reported 29 itemized grants totaling $2,034,080, out of $2,716,545 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 24 and 37 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Seti Institute fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Science & Tech (77%), Youth Development (15%), Education (7%).
Who are Seti Institute's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Girl Scouts of the United States of America ($2.9M), Honeybee Robotics Ltd ($2.5M), University of Washington ($1.6M).
Does Seti Institute fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 11% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Seti Institute?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Johns Hopkins University, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc, West Virginia University Research Corporation.
Where is Seti Institute based?: Seti Institute is based in CA.