New York · Nonprofit
SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC
SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC (New York) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,345,684 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($1,679,186). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.2M
- Funders on record
- 48
- Grants received
- $8.3M
- Net assets
- $9.4M
What Science Friday Initiative Inc does
Mission
The mission of the organization is to provide a public platform for discussion and understanding of the latest discoveries, innovations, and controversies in science. Leveraging the science friday radio program, the organization aims to make science more accessible, fun, and interactive for young people using new media technologies and live events.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Science friday weekly radio broadcast and podcastfor over 30 years, the science friday audio program has been at the core of science friday programs. Hosted by award-winning hosts ira flatow and flora lichtman this includes 52 two-hour broadcasts and 260+ podcast episodes annually. Science friday provides our millions of listeners with daily opportunities to listen to and participate in discussions with experts on science and technology, environment, medicine, policy, and other science news and research. The program's unique format and audience outreach has proven popular for first-hand interaction between listeners and scientists.
$1,931,067 spent$1,167,827 earned by the program83% of program spendingScience friday education and experiencesour education and outreach work creates educational programming, content, and experiences to invite communities, parents, educators, and the public to participate in science through doing and learning. Our original lesson plans and activities have been included in dozens of national curriculum and out of school time activity repositories serving tens of millions of educators, including share my lesson, pbs learning media, american association of chemistry teachers, newsela, and code.org. Science friday's events and experiences include the hosting of monthly live and virtual learning events with experts, a national book club, citizen science initiatives, field trips and live discussions around the country.
$372,726 spent$104,370 earned by the program16% of program spendingScience friday digital content and websitescience friday's digital platforms publish original reporting, newsletters, book excerpts, as well as multimedia additions to audio segments. Our website, sciencefriday.com, is the public's one stop-shop for everything that science friday creates, including original digital reporting that gives readers a flavor of the challenges and achievements by scientists working to solve big problems. Our website receives 350,000 pageviews/month and we have a social following of over a million combined followers on facebook, instagram, bluesky, x and tiktok.
$30,079 spent$6,528 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,333,872.
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 2024 to 2025, from $8.8M to $11M (+20%).
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 2% · 2018 3% · 2019 1% · 2020 10% · 2021 12% · 2023 2% · 2024 1% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (68% for the typical peer).
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.
Chief executive
Danielle Dana Johnson
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $435k → $1.9M.
13 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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 FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 38% · 2019 36% · 2020 28% · 2021 36% · 2022 29% · 2023 20% — 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
46% of SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC draws 61% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 234 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 234 science & tech nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $294k on record.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$294k
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 SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
63% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
54%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE 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 FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC?
- SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC (New York) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,345,684 to it, the largest being ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION ($1,679,186). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC have?
- IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $8,345,684 in grants to SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC?
- ALFRED P SLOAN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,679,186 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SCIENCE FRIDAY INITIATIVE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Friday Initiative →
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 48 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