California · Nonprofit
Science Council for Global Initiatives
Science Council for Global Initiatives (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $775,000 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($720,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $164k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $775k
- Net assets
- $154k
What Science Council for Global Initiatives does
Mission
SCGI is dedicated to informing the public and policymakers about technologies and strategies that can lead to an energy-rich world. SCGI provides a forum for many of the world's prominent scientists, authors, and activists to collaborate and share their knowledge regarding solutions to the world's energy, resource, and environmental problems. That input is used to facilitate information sharing between nations and to encourage cooperation that can lead to accelerated deployment of advanced technologies to markedly improve the condition of both human societies and the environment.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Educate public/policy makers - In February, 2024, SCGI's president, Tom Blees, met again with Congressman Garamendi (D-CA) in Washington to discuss how the ORCA water diversion project could overcome political obstacles. (The ORCA project is elucidated on the SCGI website. Heres a link: tinyurl.com/bde5btcv). He also held further discussions at the Department of Energy to deal with the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) and their reticence to provide plutonium from the START treaties to fuel Terrapowers new fast-neutron nuclear power plant in Wyoming.Blees also met with Ed McGinnis, formerly acting Secretary of Energy and now the CEO of Curio Energy, to discuss how Curio might collaborate with LIST, the laser isotope separation project that Blees originally worked on over a decade ago. LIST (Laser Isotope Separation Technologies) finally succeeded in funding the project to demonstrate and commercialize a fuel enrichment technology that, if successful, will make centrifuge enrichment systems obsolete. By the end of 2024 the company had established a laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and is proceeding apace. Talks on collaboration possibilities are proceeding with Orano and…
$62,461 spent48% of program spendingInternational collaboration - SCGI continued consultations with nuclear advocacy organizations and individuals around the globe. Despite the reduction in communication with Russian energy scientists due to the Ukraine invasion, Blees maintained contact with friends and colleagues in Russia in hopes that stable relations would resume. He continues to participate in the Global Energy Prize deliberations as a member of its international selection committee.
$20,694 spent16% of program spendingOther Technologies and Projects - Blees continued research for his new book, Threshold, about the need for global energy abundance. He also continues to be involved with the Thorcon advanced reactor project, which plans to have its design finalized and ready to build by the end of 2025. Blees also regularly participates in nuclear energy webinars organized by the American Nuclear Society and other organizations involved in energy issues.
$48,285 spent37% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $131,440.
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 2023 to 2024, from $134k to $156k (+17%).
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.
100% of Science Council for Global Initiatives’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $154k → $169k.
2 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 Council for Global Initiatives’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
Science Council for Global Initiatives leans on a few funders — its largest provides 93% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder 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 Science Council for Global Initiatives.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 94% · 2022 100% · 2023 85% — 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.
Where its funders are
100% of Science Council for Global Initiatives'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $775k 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
Science Council for Global Initiatives runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Science Council for Global Initiatives
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Science Council for Global Initiatives: 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 Council for Global Initiatives?
- Science Council for Global Initiatives (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $775,000 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($720,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Science Council for Global Initiatives have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $775,000 in grants to Science Council for Global Initiatives, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Science Council for Global Initiatives?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $720,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Science Council for Global Initiatives find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Council for Global Initiatives →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 2 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