California · Nonprofit
National Center for Science Education
National Center for Science Education (California) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,200,774 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($444,896). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $3.9M
What National Center for Science Education does
Mission
The National Center for Science Education NCSE is a not-for-profit organization that helps ensure students across the country receive an accurate and effective evolution and climate science education. We do this by supporting teachers with resources and best teaching practices by monitoring and mobilizing against efforts to undermine science education, whether at the statehouse or in the classroom and by engaging in research to understand, maintain, and improve science education. NCSE's supporters are scientists, teachers, and citizens with diverse political affiliations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Science Education Outreach: Science Education Outreach: Our Science Education Outreach program worked to provide professional development opportunities to teachers around the country focused on its curriculum, Story Shorts, which are modular, flexible standards-aligned units of practice, and on its DataWISE science and media literacy tool and associated NCSE-developed activities. (Continued at Schedule O.)
$440,277 spent48% of program spendingCommunications: NCSE is the go-to source for the public generally, and the news media in particular, for up-to-date information on threats to the integrity of the science classroom and proactive solutions to helping students better understand climate science and evolution. In 2025, we launched a podcast that focused on educating the public to dispel common misconceptions about climate change and evolution. Over two seasons and 17 episodes, the podcast was downloaded 18,000 times. (Continued at Schedule O.)
$292,734 spent32% of program spendingCatalyzing Action: Our longest-tenured program, Catalyzing Action monitors state and local actions affecting science education and is the go-to source for the public generally, and the news media in particular, for up-to-date information on threats to the integrity of the science classroom. (Continued at Schedule O.)
$112,110 spent12% of program spendingInvestigating Science Education: In 2025, the Investigating Science Education program started to unpack the results of its 2024 survey of public school science educators addressing not only evolution and climate change but also the nature of science, published a book chapter offering a synoptic discussion of challenges to evolution and climate change education in the United States, and published two articles on evolution acceptance in collaboration with a team of outside researchers.
$64,632 spent7% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $909,753.
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 $2.9M to $4.0M (+38%).
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: 2019 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of National Center for Science Education’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (68% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $41k → $246k.
8 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 National Center for Science Education’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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
National Center for Science Education has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
65% 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 National Center for Science Education.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 33% · 2018 47% · 2019 25% · 2020 23% · 2021 15% · 2022 18% · 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
51% of National Center for Science Education's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
63% of National Center for Science Education'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 $823k that is directly attributable, 69% of it comes from funders outside California, across 18 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
National Center for Science Education runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 234 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 234 science & tech nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like National Center for Science Education
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
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 50 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for National Center for Science Education: 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 National Center for Science Education?
- National Center for Science Education (California) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,200,774 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($444,896). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does National Center for Science Education have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $2,200,774 in grants to National Center for Science Education, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of National Center for Science Education?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $444,896 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like National Center for Science Education 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 National Center for Science Education →
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 53 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