Washington · Nonprofit
PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION
PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION (Washington) receives grants from 101 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,894,451 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($1,728,035). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $19M
- Funders on record
- 101
- Grants received
- $8.9M
- Net assets
- $21M
What Pacific Science Center Foundation does
Mission
Pacific science center (pacsci) ignites curiosity in every child and fuels a passion for discovery, experimentation, and critical thinking in all of us.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exhibits - pacific science center is washington's leading institution for hands-on, informal science learning for people of all ages. In 2025, 473,596 guests ignited their curiosity while visiting our iconic seven-acre campus. Pacsci provides the only opportunity in washington state to experience a tropical butterfly house and imax theater, the largest domed laser theater in the world, and one of three planetarium experiences in king county. Guests engage in hands-on exhibits, touching live marine animals, trying hands-on engineering challenges, exploring the depths of outer space, and more. 4,362 households who receive public assistance or host foster or unhoused youth participated in the access memberships program, where they receive deeply discounted or free memberships that provide unlimited access for one year.
$7,933,397 spent$4,951,971 earned by the program48% of program spendingEducation programs - for decades pacsci has expanded access to highimpact, hands-on stem learning in schools and community centers. In 2025, pacsci served 150,769 curious minds, with 75% of those served from low-income communities or schools where programs were provided for free. School field trips to pacsci's iconic campus are a timehonored tradition. Science on wheels traveling workshops reach students in every corner of the state. Live virtual stem learning workshops deepen in-person learning experiences. In 2025, summer camps for curious minds hosted 3,837 campers, and awarded 327 full scholarships to our award-winning, hands-on camp programs at five locations in king county.
$5,049,341 spent$2,459,593 earned by the program31% of program spendingTheaters - pacific science center is home to seattle's ultimate imax experience, which offers guests the opportunity to explore distant magical worlds like antarctica, travel back in time to when dinosaurs roamed the earth, journey to the farthest reaches of the universe, and immerse themselves in a cinematic experience like no other. Films come to life in both 2d and 3d in pacsci's paccar and boeing imax theaters with giant screens, crystal clear imagery, and 12,000 watts of digital surround sound. Pacsci's laser dome is home to the most full-color lasers permanently installed in any laser dome in america and offers guests a wide variety of exciting musical programming experiences day and night.
$3,505,096 spent$2,000,951 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $16,487,834.
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 $39M to $52M (+32%).
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 8% · 2018 7% · 2019 4% · 2020 1% · 2021 63% · 2022 55% · 2023 20% · 2024 17% · 2025 20%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
50% of PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION’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. 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.
Chief executive
Will Daugherty
President & CEO
Board chair
Sarah Buhayar
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 28 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $813k → $1.1M.
17 of 101 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 101 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
PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% 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
69% 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 PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 65% · 2019 19% · 2020 26% · 2021 32% · 2022 32% · 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
44% of PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
54% of PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER 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 $4.1M that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION's revenue fell 24% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $940k on record.
- National Science Foundation$565k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$335k
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$40k
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 PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER 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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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
- Psc Concessions LLC · disregarded
- Charitable Remainder Unitrust (1) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER 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 PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION?
- PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION (Washington) receives grants from 101 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,894,451 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($1,728,035). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 101 organizations giving $8,894,451 in grants to PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,728,035 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION 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.
Play a game about who funds Pacific 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 101 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