Maryland · Nonprofit
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS (Maryland) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $856,448 to it, the largest being BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE FOR PLANT RESEARCH INC ($339,832). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.9M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $856k
- Net assets
- $18M
What American Society of Plant Biologists does
Mission
Promote the growth and development of plant biology, to encourage and publish research in plant biology, and to promote the interests and growth of plant scientists in general.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Publications - oxford university press (oup) produce and disseminate two of aspb's journals - plant physiology and the plant cell. A third journal, plant direct, is published in partnership with the society for experimental biology and wiley. Plant physiology primarily publishes full-length papers containing new results in plant physiology, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, biophysics, synthetic and systems biology, and environmental biology of plants and associated organisms. The plant cell publishes cutting-edge research papers in cellular, molecular, and developmental biology of plants. Plant direct covers all of these areas; it is a sound science, open access journal. In 2024 plant physiology published four focus issues, and the plant cell published two. Aspb also publishes a quarterly print and online newsletter (aspb news) and a weekly email newsletter (the signal) that include general society news items, profiles of prominent plant scientists, and other information of value to the community it serves. In prior years, aspb has also self- and co-published a number of text books related to various aspects of plant biology.
$1,959,671 spent$3,518,536 earned by the program36% of program spendingAnnual meeting - the annual plant biology conference provides a forum for the presentation of scientific data, education, the exchange of information, professional development, and networking among plant scientists from around the world. Plant biology 2024, which was convened in honolulu, hi, incorporated a public outreach event - plant science saturday - that was held in partnership with a local farmers' market, and it drew attendees from more than 40 countries around the world.
$1,059,608 spent$883,857 earned by the program20% of program spendingAwards and fellowships: the society provides several awards and fellowships each year for various endeavors related to the science and study of plant biology. Honorary awards recognize service, research excellence, teaching, and mentoring. Travel awards help to lower the financial barriers for early career researchers from all backgrounds to attend the plant biology conference. The summer undergraduate research fellowship supports undergraduate students in a 10-week summer research program, as well as their travel to the following year's conference.
$851,135 spentof which $370,427 as grants16% of program spendingMembership and marketing: includes services related to providing services to members, including support for regional and sub-disciplinary sections, an ambassador program, and awards. Benefits of aspb membership include access to special sections of the aspb.org website, including an online membership directory; a job bank; and numerous free and discounted publications, products, and events.
$1,540,662 spentof which $32,331 as grants$206,880 earned by the program28% of program spendingRoot&shoot research coordination network - this award to aspb from the us national science foundation supports the establishment of a network of plant science and partner organizations aimed at seeding and cultivating cultural change at the organizational level. The primary goal of the grant is to work with plant science organizations to help them change the discipline to be more welcoming to all. During 2024, the recommendations of the inclusive confernce working group continued to be implemented, including a series of bystander intervention trainings and the drafting of a manuscript describing the efforts; the travel award program continued, providing funds for student pairs to attend one of the plant science conferences organized by the research coordination network participating societies; and a working group worked to develop a training program focused on impacts of cultural and social challenges.
Legislative affairs/science policy - provides a means for the society and its members to engage with the us congress and the executive branch of the us government on priorities for plant science research and funding. The society's leaders and members of its science policy committee have also testified at congressional hearings on issues ranging from plant science funding to biotechnology and genetically modified organisms, and the society routinely submits written testimony in support of specific annual funding levels for several federal agencies. In 2024, aspb co-sponsored a congressional "lunch-and-learn" seminar that focused on gene editing technology and its uses in both fundamental and applied research, including the development of novel agricultrual products.
Education and outreach - aspb's education and outreach activities are funded by an annual board-authorized earnings allocation from the society's long-term investment portfolio. Among these activities, plant bloome provides grants in support of educational projects that are aimed at enhancing public awareness and understanding of the essential roles of plants in all areas of life.
Good works and exploratry programs - the good works activity is funded by an annual board-authorized earnings allocation from the long-term investment portfolio for projects that were originally brought forward by committees and approved by the board of directors. In 2024 an additional drawdown from the long-term investment portfolio funded a number of additonal projects, supplemented existing programs, and supported work for new business development.
Digital ecosystem: this program, which is funded on an ongoing basis by a board designated allocation from the earnings on the long-term investment portfolio and from job bank earnings, includes the society's digital content and engagement platform, plantae. Plantae supports broad engagement of the global plant science community, beyond the society's membership. There are two components, a content platform via which information and resources are shared with the community, and a community networking platform for ongoing engagement of plant scientists, primarily in self-organized groups.
Meetings and events - aspb ceased offering administation and management services support to our community during 2021, although we remain open to one-off opportunities to support organizations active in the plant science space. We have one remaining long-term client in a relationship that is being phased out. In 2024, aspb hosted a meeting of principle investigators of a u.s. Department of agriculture-supported plant biologists on the shoulder of the plant biology conference in honolulu.
The 10 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,411,076.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $20M to $24M (+24%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 3% · 2018 1% · 2019 2% · 2021 7% · 2022 5% · 2023 7% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Crispin Taylor
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $5k → $8k.
3 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
68% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 93% · 2019 55% · 2020 62% · 2021 100% · 2022 58% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
20% of AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Maryland, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $84k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Government funding AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.7M on record.
- National Science Foundation$2.5M
- Department of Agriculture$194k
- Department of Energy$51k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
48%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 47 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS?
- AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS (Maryland) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $856,448 to it, the largest being BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE FOR PLANT RESEARCH INC ($339,832). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $856,448 in grants to AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS?
- BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE FOR PLANT RESEARCH INC is the largest funder on record, with $339,832 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 8 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing