Missouri · Nonprofit
DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER
DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER (Missouri) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $58,697,427 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($20,311,929). 78 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $64M
- Funders on record
- 111
- Grants received
- $59M
- Net assets
- $613M
What Donald Danforth Plant Science Center does
Mission
Improve the human condition through plant science/research: feed the hungry and improve human health, preserve and renew our environment and enhance our region's economy.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
See schedule oin 2024, danforth center teams made scientific advances that lay the foundation for improved agricultural traits, increased productivity of international staple crops like cassava and teff, and more sustainable farming systems. Impact in global food and agriculture was realized, for example, through delivery of improved cowpea varieties in expanded west african geographies. Impact locally was realized through startup company creation based on center technology and growth of training programs for the next-generation scientists. Our influence was evident through many incredible achievements: the successful launch of improved cowpeas in ghana; bold steps to heal the planet through work on mosses, perennials, and cover crops; and new momentum in innovation - from promising technologies like fielddock to startups like metablify that are shaping the future of agtech.
$55,273,871 spentof which $8,684,217 as grants$5,938,752 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $55,273,871.
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.
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 $504M to $657M (+30%).
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 23% · 2018 50% · 2019 33% · 2020 30% · 2021 9% · 2022 42% · 2023 31% · 2024 33%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
57% of DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (52% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Ms Penny Pennington
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 31 funders to 54 funders, grant income rose $2.5M → $8.4M.
20 of 111 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 111 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
DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
35% 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 DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 75% · 2019 77% · 2020 37% · 2021 22% · 2022 38% · 2023 28% — 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
61% of DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Missouri, across 22 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $12M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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.
Against its field
DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER's funding base is broadening — from 31 funders to 54 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 149 science & tech nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $161.4M on record.
- National Science Foundation$67.1M
- Department of Energy$56.7M
- Department of Agriculture$13.3M
- Department of Defense$12.2M
- Agency for International Development$9.6M
- Department of Commerce$1.5M
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 DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER
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 Missouri
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
52%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Lewis and Clark Plant Sciences Fund I LP · partnership
- St Louis Internet2 Access Consortium LLC · partnership
- Dsc Investments Holdings LP · partnership
- Danforth Technology Company · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER: 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 DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER?
- DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER (Missouri) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $58,697,427 to it, the largest being GATES FOUNDATION ($20,311,929). 78 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 111 organizations giving $58,697,427 in grants to DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER, 78 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER?
- GATES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $20,311,929 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Missouri. 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 111 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing