Washington · Nonprofit
EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH
EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH (Washington) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $178,624 to it, the largest being THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ($152,616). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $179k
- Net assets
- $365k
What Earth & Space Research does
Mission
Increase societal understanding of the earth system through scientific research and education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Nasa: [1] produce icesat2 iceberg draft estimates around antarctica to improve water depth estimates, improving navigation in the southern ocean; understanding & modelling eddy-sea ice interplay using icesat2; swoticesat-2 comparisons to improve satellite retrievals. [2] calibration and validation of nasa smap datasets: development of novel methods and platforms to compare with in situ measurements; production of continuous data record from all salinity satellites.[3] esr produces the oscar ocean surface current analysis, informing both freshwater transport and supporting maritime industries.[4] linking north atlantic salinity and eddies to arctic freshwater transport, a key driver of density which controls sea ice formation.[5] evaluate salinity & sea ice formation in the arctic. [continued][1] as part of esr's effort to observe and quantify interactions between sea ice, ice shelves, icebergs and the ocean around antarctica using icesat-2 altimetry, novel techniques were developed to process icesat-2 data to estimate iceberg drafts in coastal antarctic regions to improve water depth estimates. These estimates can inform maritime traffic in the southern ocean and provide ocean…
$917,163 spent81% of program spendingNational science foundation (nsf):earth and space scientists supported a field season in south-west greenland in support of the icecaps-melt program. Icecaps-melt is a collaborative effort to understand atmospheresnow interactions on the greenland ice sheet, with a focus on melt processes in the high interior. Esr scientists curated and published in-situ snow property datasets and ran high-resolution snow and energy-budget models, integrating observations from autonomous observatories at summit station and camp raven and leveraging citizen science. This work provides critical context for satellite measurements and improves predictions of how surface melt will evolve.
$135,876 spent12% of program spendingNorwegian polar institute: earth and space research scientists installed and supported the integrated cloud and boundary-layer observatory at the troll observing network, a research station in antarctica that is operated by the norwegian polar institute. The observation station combines state-of-the-art sensors including scanning cloud radar, microwave radiometry, depolarization lidar, and automated radiosonde systems to provide continuous observations of antarctic clouds, radiation, and boundary-layer processes. Esr scientists collaborate on installation, data analysis, and modeling, delivering real-time datasets that help unravel how antarctic clouds regulate energy exchange and contribute to global weather patterns.
$79,106 spent7% of program spendingEsr summer institute:the summer institute is a mentored research and training program that engages students in geoscience and data science projects addressing real-world challenges. In 2025, we developed the skills of four students, resulting in externally visible outcomes, including blog publications, conference presentations, and peer-review articles, while strengthening the earth science workforce pipeline.
$155 spent$4,568 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,132,300.
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 2019 to 2020, from $682k to $546k (−20%).
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 99% · 2018 96% · 2019 99% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% · 2024 100% · 2025 99%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $215 → $16k.
3 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH’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
EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH leans on a few funders — its largest provides 85% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 99% — 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.
Where its funders are
100% of EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $179k 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.
Against its field
EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH's revenue fell 34% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 science & tech nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $11.8M on record.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$10.6M
- National Science Foundation$1.2M
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 EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH
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 Washington
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
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH: 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 EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH?
- EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH (Washington) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $178,624 to it, the largest being THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ($152,616). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $178,624 in grants to EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH?
- THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK is the largest funder on record, with $152,616 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EARTH & SPACE RESEARCH find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 3 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