Arizona · Nonprofit
Planetary Science Institute
Planetary Science Institute (Arizona) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,050,483 to it, the largest being JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ($2,275,687). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $17M
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $6.1M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Planetary Science Institute does
Mission
The Planetary Science Institute exists to: enable our researchers to study the origin, characteristics, and evolution of planetary systems, including our solar system, Earth itself, and planetary systems around other stars; enable our educators to convey the resulting knowledge to the scientific community, and to the public at large to promote science education and science literacy; enable our people to use this knowledge to advance human activity in space and shape the future of robotic exploration of the solar system.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) is an independent nonprofit science research and educational organization with an established record of excellence in solar system exploration, comparative planetology, science education and public outreach. PSI has scientists in more than 30 states, the District of Columbia, and other locations around the world. PSI scientists were awarded research grants and contracts to conduct diverse research and laboratory studies covering the Moon, Mars, asteroids, comets, meteorites, outer planet satellites, solar system dynamics, solar system origins, planets around other stars, and other areas. In the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, PSI scientists operated instruments on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and Juno missions and provided science team support for these missions along with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Perseverance Rover, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Psyche, New Horizons, and Europa Clipper missions and ESA's Mars Express. PSI scientists are developing insights into the origin of life, have discovered widespread water on the Moon, found a new population of impact craters on Venus and studied the possibilities for life on…
$15,392,652 spent$16,871,209 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $15,392,652.
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.
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 $3.6M to $5.6M (+56%).
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: 2021 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Scott Fouse
Trustee/Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $539k → $809k.
5 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% 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 Planetary Science Institute’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
Planetary Science Institute leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders 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 Planetary Science Institute.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 40% · 2019 31% · 2020 42% · 2021 46% · 2022 32% · 2023 41% — 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
67% of Planetary Science Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% 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
Planetary Science Institute draws 91% of its grant income from funders outside Arizona, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $505k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.
Government funding Planetary Science Institute receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $103.7M on record.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$97.4M
- National Science Foundation$6.3M
- Department of the Interior$32k
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 Planetary Science Institute
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 Arizona
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% 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 Planetary Science Institute: 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 Planetary Science Institute?
- Planetary Science Institute (Arizona) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,050,483 to it, the largest being JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ($2,275,687). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Planetary Science Institute have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $6,050,483 in grants to Planetary Science Institute, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Planetary Science Institute?
- JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY is the largest funder on record, with $2,275,687 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Planetary Science Institute find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Arizona. 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 Planetary Science Institute →
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 18 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