New Jersey · Nonprofit
LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER
LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER (New Jersey) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,719,261 to it, the largest being Overdeck Family Foundation Inc ($3,057,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $40M
- Funders on record
- 99
- Grants received
- $20M
- Net assets
- $137M
What Liberty Science Center does
Mission
To inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers and excite learners of all ages about the power, promise, and pure fun of science and technology.lsc offers exceptional science learning onsite, offsite, and online as well as professional development for teachers.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Liberty Science Center has broad ambitions and sound strategies to change the face of science education in new jersey and beyond. In addition to its engaging exhibition and theater offerings, an important tool in achieving that objective is the center for learning and teaching. The 19,000-square-foot facility is dedicated to delivering educational programming for students, guests, teachers, and visitors. It is the home of lsc's internationally acclaimed "live from surgery" program, where students observe and discuss procedures and risk factors with operating staff via videoconferencing during live surgery. It also features seven working labs including the makerlab, as well as the studio for electronic field trips. In this space, lsc provides outstanding and affordable educator professional development opportunities. School residencies are available there for special needs, home schoolers, and other students. Liberty Science Center also conducts curriculum-linked onsite, offsite, and online programs including field trips, classroom and lab instruction, interpretive programs in both formal and informal settings, traveling science presentations, and early childhood science…
$25,445,182 spentof which $87,735 as grants$16,257,366 earned by the program98% of program spendingLiberty Science Center's scitech scity will be a "business optimizer", a new breed of innovation center that maximizes commercial success and social impact of science and technology startups. The word scity (pronounced "city"), from science + city, is lsc's portmanteau for a city infused with scientific creativity and actionable optimism about building a better future for all of us. Envisaged as a small-scale "city of tomorrow", scitech scity aspires to be an internationally recognized community where businesses test - and residents and visitors experience - new products and services before they come to market. The 30-acre innovation campus will consist of: Liberty Science Center, the most visited cultural institution in new jersey and the largest immersive science learning center in the nj-nyc metropolitan area, edge works, the economic and creative hub for scitech scity consisting of 120,000 square feet of multi-function workspace for technology startups, entrepreneurs and skunk works projects of established companies, and a state-of-the-art conference center and tech exhibition space; liberty science high school, a public high school for science-interested students in hudson…
$645,034 spent2% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $26,090,216.
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 2024 to 2025, from $151M to $169M (+12%).
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 50% · 2018 10% · 2019 12% · 2020 9% · 2021 13% · 2022 35% · 2023 17% · 2024 11% · 2025 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
39% of LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER’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. 0 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.
Chief executive
Paul Hoffman
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $733k → $3.4M.
18 of 99 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 99 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
LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
45% 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 LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 14% · 2018 17% · 2019 37% · 2020 33% · 2021 53% · 2022 25% · 2023 30% — growing more concentrated.
“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
37% of LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% 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
LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER draws 72% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $125.0M on record — $1.3M federal, $123.6M state.
- Department of Education$559k
- Department of Commerce$500k
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$274k
- NJ$123.6M
- DE$44k
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 LIBERTY 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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Scitech Scity LLC · disregarded
- Scitech Scity Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LIBERTY 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 LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER?
- LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER (New Jersey) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,719,261 to it, the largest being Overdeck Family Foundation Inc ($3,057,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 99 organizations giving $19,719,261 in grants to LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER, 50 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER?
- Overdeck Family Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $3,057,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 Liberty Science Center →
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 99 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