Indiana · Nonprofit
SCIENCE CENTRAL INC
SCIENCE CENTRAL INC (Indiana) receives grants from 69 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,715,549 to it, the largest being EDWARD D & IONE AUER FOUNDATION MONARCH CAPITAL DAVID MEYER TRUSTEE ($1,315,809). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 69
- Grants received
- $5.7M
- Net assets
- $7.5M
What Science Central Inc does
Mission
Science central is a regional resource that provides inspiring and fun hands-on science education for all people of all ages.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Science central's mission is to be a "regional resource that provides inspiring and fun hands-on science education for all people of all ages." our purpose is to engage our community and the surrounding region with stem concepts in ways that inspire lifelong learning and future careers. Our science center provides visitors with over 200 permanent exhibits that explore and demonstrate the physical, natural, and applied sciences. We provide an annual measurable impact to 135,000 people in the region and through our virtual programs. In 2023, new exhibits include a ball wall that teaches visitors about potential and kinetic energy, friction, inertia and gravity. The complimentary gear wall exhibit uses gears of varying shapes and sizes that can be arranged into countless alignments to demonstrate the function of this simple machine element. A new catenary arch interactive exhibit teaches visitors the science of geometry and construction. Through team building activities, visitors are able to successfully construct the strongest of architectural forms. The light stick exhibit uses leds to flash a portion of a larger image that is imprinted on the viewers eyes to compile the complete…
$1,497,160 spent$721,213 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,497,160.
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 2021 to 2022, from $5.6M to $7.1M (+25%).
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 19% · 2022 12% · 2023 31% · 2024 3% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of SCIENCE CENTRAL INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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 11 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $268k → $433k.
11 of 69 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 SCIENCE CENTRAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 69 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
SCIENCE CENTRAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 32% · 2019 35% · 2020 20% · 2021 66% · 2022 13% · 2023 14% — 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
58% of SCIENCE CENTRAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
64% of SCIENCE CENTRAL INC's grant income comes from Indiana funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $513k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
SCIENCE CENTRAL INC is better cushioned than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like SCIENCE CENTRAL INC
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 Indiana
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
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 SCIENCE CENTRAL INC: 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 SCIENCE CENTRAL INC?
- SCIENCE CENTRAL INC (Indiana) receives grants from 69 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,715,549 to it, the largest being EDWARD D & IONE AUER FOUNDATION MONARCH CAPITAL DAVID MEYER TRUSTEE ($1,315,809). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SCIENCE CENTRAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 69 organizations giving $5,715,549 in grants to SCIENCE CENTRAL INC, 50 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SCIENCE CENTRAL INC?
- EDWARD D & IONE AUER FOUNDATION MONARCH CAPITAL DAVID MEYER TRUSTEE is the largest funder on record, with $1,315,809 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SCIENCE CENTRAL INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Indiana. 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 Science Central →
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 69 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