Alaska · Nonprofit
Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute
Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute (Alaska) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,672,706 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($650,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.9M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $27M
What Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute does
Mission
The Prince William Sound Science and Technology Institute (d.b.a. Prince William Sound Science Center) (the Center) was formed in 1989 as an Alaska not-for-profit scientific research and education corporation to contribute to the comprehensive description, sustained monitoring, and ecological understanding of Prince William Sound, the Copper River, and Gulf of Alaska. Establishment of the Center followed the Exxon Valdez oil spill, although planning of this institution preceded that event. The underlying philosophy of the Center is to serve as a model for long-term ecosystem management.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council Programs:Gulf Watch AlaskaThe Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC) is supporting a long-term monitoring program in the Gulf of Alaska region affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The monitoring program, called Gulf Watch Alaska, involves more than 25 scientists from multiple agencies, universities, and non-profits and seeks to provide data to identify and help understand the impacts of multiple ecosystem factors on the recovery of injured resources. This program is expected to be 20 years in length but is planned and funded in five-year increments. It builds a legacy of restoration research and monitoring by the EVOSTC and federal and state agencies dating back to 1989. The program includes sites in Prince William Sound, lower Cook Inlet, the Gulf of Alaska, and the outer Kenai Peninsula coast. This year has an overlap between two five-year segments. Mariculture ReCon The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC) is supporting a mariculture research program. The overall objective of the Mariculture Research and Restoration Consortium (Mariculture ReCon) is to support resporation, habitat enhancement, and economic…
$3,494,711 spent58% of program spendingGovernment Programs:EVOSTC New FacilitiesThe Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council is supporting the development of new facilities for the Prince William Sound Science Center. The new facilities include warehouse, office, and research and education spaces. Over $23 million has been pledged to cover costs associated with the new campus. The funds are being administered by the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development. CORaL NetworkThe Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council is supporting an education and outreach program titled, Community Organized Restoration and Learning [CORaL] Network. The purpose is to create and maintain an ongoing framework that builds the capacity of existing resources withing the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill impacted region to ensure that current scientific information, skills, and activities are publicly accessible and serve ongoing needs as identified by local communities. These funds are being administered by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.BSEE Herder/BurnerThis is a Joint Industry Program that uses funding from OSRI, ExxonMobil, Shell, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and Clean Caribbean Americas for the…
$1,085,165 spent$177,018 earned by the program18% of program spendingOil Spill Recovery Institute Programs:Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI)This program funds the administration and awards of the Oil Spill Recovery Institute, a federally established program to support research, education, and demonstration projects designed to respond to and understand the effects of oil spills in Arctic and sub-Arctic marine environments. Initiated in 1997, funding is provided directly from the interest earnings on a $35.3 million principal allocationadministered by the U.S. Coast Guard (from the National Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund). The Institute is governed by an Advisory Board which includes representatives from Federal and State agencies, Alaska Native and PWS communities, and industry representatives appointed by the Governor of Alaska. The Advisory Board Chair is a U.S. Department of Commerce representative.PWSSC OSRI Program ManagerThe OSRI Program Manager supports OSRI by identifying research needs, working with the Work Plan Committee to develop annual work plans, and track progress on contracts. The Program Manager also interfaces with other research efforts to share the information learned by OSRI.PWSSC H2O Headwaters to Ocean Program & Education…
$917,701 spentof which $605,052 as grants15% of program spendingOther Programs: CommunicationsPWSSC maintains a communications program to outreach the research and education efforts and maintain awareness of our activities to our members. This program is responsible for maintaining our website, producing the Delta-Sound Connections paper, and the Breakwater newsletter among other things. Lectures on the area and the Science Center activities are provided to cruise patrons and other interested parties.Hydroponic FarmPWSSC was able to purchase an established hydroponic farming facility to develop a capacity for providing greater regional resilience through food security of items normally shipped into the community.PWSRCAC Marine BirdsPrince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council funded PWSSC for winter surveys of marine birds in Prince William Sound. The funding allows for winter marine bird surveys along the tanker lanes to identify their presence outside of the summer season when most surveys occur.PWSRCAC Weather BuoyThe Prince William Sound Citizens Advisory Council funded PWSSC to assemble and deploy two weather buoys in the Port of Valdez. These buoys provide weather information necessary to understand potential oil spill…
$546,553 spent$225,820 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,044,130.
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 2020 to 2021, from $5.0M to $16M (+214%).
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 90% · 2018 82% · 2019 80% · 2020 79% · 2021 95% · 2022 91% · 2023 84% · 2024 83% · 2025 80%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Katrina Hoffman
CEO
Board chair
Todd Telesz
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $77k → $867k.
11 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $33k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute). These are real filings, and they are not money Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute raised.
From the IRS filings of Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 27 of 28 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
Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
82% 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 Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 53% · 2019 48% · 2020 61% · 2021 43% · 2022 36% · 2023 75% — 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
58% of Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
57% of Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute'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 $1.1M that is directly attributable, 75% of it comes from Alaska funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $37.5M on record.
- Department of Commerce$35.7M
- Department of the Interior$1.1M
- Environmental Protection Agency$477k
- Department of Agriculture$144k
- Denali Commission$100k
- Department of Defense$38k
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 Prince William Sound Science & Technology 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 Alaska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 Prince William Sound Science & Technology 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 Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute?
- Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute (Alaska) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,672,706 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($650,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $2,672,706 in grants to Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $650,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Prince William Sound Science & Technology Institute find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alaska. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
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 28 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