Washington · Nonprofit
SALISH SEA SCIENCES
SALISH SEA SCIENCES (Washington) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $196,200 to it, the largest being THE ISLAM FAMILY FOUNDATION ($64,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $229k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $196k
- Net assets
- $15k
What Salish Sea Sciences does
Mission
We fully exploit the physical and human resources of the Salish Sea to equip high school students with knowledge, skills, career awareness, and confidence for civic life and college and career success, most especially in STEAM fields. Salish Sea Sciences brings motivated high school students from all backgrounds together with scientists and other professionals to learn from and protect the Salish Sea, its creatures, and people in multi-week summer residential programs and intensive multi-week school-day programs in Seattle public schools focused primarily on marine field and lab research and ecology and conservation. We serve students from the San Juan Islands, the greater Salish Sea region, the state of Washington and multiple other states as well as other countries. Our mission is (1) grow a community of critical thinkers, 2) bring innovation to public engagement in science, 3) raise awareness of science as a career path, and 4) advance a more diverse cohort of investigators.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Residential Programs on San Juan Island include our flagship summer 4 week Marine Field & Lab Research program and the 2 week Marine Ecology & Conservation program. The 4-week program concludes with student presentations of science posters, completed to professional specifications, of independently designed and executed research projects to the public --including staff, contributing mentors, family, and community members. The 2-week Marine Ecology & Conservation program concludes with a public 5 minute elevator pitch with visualization of a preliminary project proposal, based on what they learned with us in the San Juan Islands, and that they (or someone their age) could reasonably implement in their home area, whether in concert with existing initiatives or independently. These projects are templated with prompts such as typically found in RFPs, grants, corporate departments, etc--such as accounting for potential budget needs. Benefit: 40 students (3 full scholarship); 37 contributing mentors (12 paid/25 volunteer; 6 staff). Contributing mentors represent multiple institutions and organizations, including University of Washington affiliated researchers and scientists from other…
$150,831 spent$211,006 earned by the program62% of program spendingSchool-based programming for Summit Public Schools: 2-week Ecology & Conservation intensive for Summit Atlas High School and 2-week Ecology & Conservation intensive for Summit Sierra High School, both of Seattle, WA. Marine Ecology & Conservation: engage students with marine science, ecology, and conservation institutions, practitioners, methods and tools, deepening students' scientific and ecological perspectives of their Salish Sea home and acquainting them with a wide array of professions related to understanding and protecting the Salish Sea, its creatures, and its people. Students create a 'preliminary project proposal' to present to classmates and guests on the last day, recommending an engagement pathway for high school aged students. Our goal is that with limited classroom time, extensive site-visits and engagement with multiple guest mentors representing a wide array of .edu, .gov, and .orgs, the personal stories of those guest mentors, and the students' individual project research and presentations will stimulate their connection to place and their personal agency as individuals and citizens to engage with their environment and communities. We aim for our programming to…
$0 spent0% of program spendingDuring School Year Development: As is always the case, the non-in-program period of the year requires focus on maintaining and cultivating our programming with a functional, up-to-date website, admissions, relationship building, grant writing, and ordinary administrative tasks. Outside of the usual tasks, our preoccupations for 2025's non-in-program months were as follows: 1) completion of report and review for Accreditation Mid-Cycle review period. (2) We continued effort regarding the Semester School, most especially as a new residential possibility presented itself. Activities in this regard focused most especially on possible rental agreement scenarios and how the availability, needs, and timing of the potential lessor property might or might not synch up with ours, especially given the academic calendar. This focus also included developing plans regarding the emergence of a new opportunity to grow Salish Sea Sciences' research, education, and outreach programs on yet another property that could serve these purposes for both Salish and other aligned organizations. (3) We also explored the possibility of short-term rentals for school-year programs like Summit's. (4) We…
$92,205 spent$17,797 earned by the program38% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $243,036.
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
Caroline C Grauman-Boss
Board Treasurer/Executive Director
Board chair
Billie J Swalla
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $14k → $49k.
3 of 7 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 SALISH SEA SCIENCES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 6 of 7 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
SALISH SEA SCIENCES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
67% 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 SALISH SEA SCIENCES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 57% · 2019 59% · 2020 80% · 2021 67% · 2022 52% · 2023 80% — 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.
Where its funders are
70% of SALISH SEA SCIENCES's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $61k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
SALISH SEA SCIENCES's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like SALISH SEA SCIENCES
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
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SALISH SEA SCIENCES: 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 SALISH SEA SCIENCES?
- SALISH SEA SCIENCES (Washington) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $196,200 to it, the largest being THE ISLAM FAMILY FOUNDATION ($64,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SALISH SEA SCIENCES have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $196,200 in grants to SALISH SEA SCIENCES, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SALISH SEA SCIENCES?
- THE ISLAM FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $64,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SALISH SEA SCIENCES 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 Salish Sea Sciences →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2025–2025), and the filings of 7 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