California · Nonprofit
EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION
EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $600,000 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($275,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $480k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $600k
- Net assets
- $470k
What Experiment Foundation does
Mission
The Experiment Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reimagining how science is funded and who gets to participate. Through partnerships with philanthropies, federal agencies, and companies, the foundation facilitates innovative grantmaking models-including challenge grants and patronage programs supporting independent researchers and novel scientific ideas, the Experiment Foundation helps unlock scientific creativity and builds new pathways for public engagement in science.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024, most funding activities were conducted through the Experiment Foundation's former fiscal sponsor. During this transition year, the foundation focused on organizational development, fundraising, and establishing its independent operations. Despite operating with a small part-time team, we made meaningful progress across our core program areas.science angel program our flagship initiative, the science angel program, empowers subject matter experts to identify and support early-stage scientific projects. In 2024, we supported more science angel categories across domains such as conservation biotech, ocean sensors, and community biology. These programs provided catalytic grants to early-stage research projects.greenhouse gas removal ideation prize a major initiative in 2024 was running the ghg removal ideation prize. This prize uniquely focused on advancing many promising early-stage ideas. We awarded over 60 grants and prizes to individuals and teams in this program alone.throughout the year, the foundation also began publishing insights from our work to inform broader science funding practices and launched a successful fundraising campaign that culminated in our first…
$9,062 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $9,062.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION’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
EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
58% 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 EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION.
“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
58% of EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION'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. Of the $250k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from California funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $350k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $600k to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 science & tech nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION: 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 EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION?
- EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $600,000 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($275,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $600,000 in grants to EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $275,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EXPERIMENT FOUNDATION 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.
Play a game about who funds Experiment →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2024–2024), 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