California · Nonprofit
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (California) receives grants from 330 organizations whose IRS filings report $97,148,673 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($18,458,957). 175 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES's funding base is broadening — from 81 funders to 121 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 501 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Crankstart Foundationshared funders
- Earthwatch Institute Incportfolio match
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared funders
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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
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 9% · 2018 9% · 2019 11% · 2020 10% · 2021 22% · 2022 18% · 2023 16% · 2024 13% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
48% of CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 81 funders to 121 funders, grant income rose $9.3M → $15M.
29 of 330 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $4.7M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Silicon Valley Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES raised.
From the IRS filings of CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 330 funders by total. 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
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
51% 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 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 36% · 2019 23% · 2020 21% · 2021 15% · 2022 19% · 2023 24% — diversifying over time.
“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
47% of CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
82% of CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $45M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 330 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Crankstart Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 115 organizations that share your funders
- Earthwatch Institute Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Tisbest Philanthropyshared fundersWA · backs 107 organizations that share your funders
- United Way of the Bay Areashared fundersCA · backs 89 organizations that share your funders
- Give Lively Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 162 organizations that share your funders
- Sonoma County Community Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 85 organizations that share your funders
- Kpmg US Foundation Incshared fundersNJ · backs 77 organizations that share your funders
- Freedom Together Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 71 organizations that share your funders
- The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New Yorkshared fundersNY · backs 82 organizations that share your funders
- President and Fellows of Harvard Collegeshared fundersMA · backs 70 organizations that share your funders
- Tiaa Charitable Incshared fundersNC · backs 159 organizations that share your funders
- Ernst & Young Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 109 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $11.3M on record — $11.3M federal, $1k state.
- National Science Foundation$8.3M
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.6M
- Department of Commerce$702k
- Department of Defense$398k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$250k
- Department of the Interior$59k
- TRAVEL - OUT OF STATE - GENERAL $1k
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 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
72%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 8 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- California Academy of Sciences Endolith Endowment Fund LP · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES?
- CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (California) receives grants from 330 organizations whose IRS filings report $97,148,673 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($18,458,957). 175 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES have?
- IRS filings report 330 organizations giving $97,148,673 in grants to CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 175 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $18,458,957 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 330funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing