Colorado · Nonprofit
THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY
THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY (Colorado) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $350,185 to it, the largest being AMATEUR RADIO DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS ($350,049). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $61k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $350k
- Net assets
- $412k
What The Deep Space Exploration Society does
Mission
Foster the scientific exploration and understanding of space through education and the promotion of research, development and the application of standards. This includes: disseminating space-related information to the public; supporting present and future amateur scientific research and space missions; encouraging the development of knowledge and skills related to science, tehcnology, engineering and mathematics (stem) in related fields including astronomy, astrophysics, engineering, communications, physics, and space-based technology
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Operations center building project - construction started in 2023 and the open house took place octover 5, 2024. This building provided a new operations center for the dses 60-foot radio dish antenna in haswell, colorado. The facility improved working conditions, supported education prorams, and enabled technical uprades. It has already hosted multiple international experiments, public outreach events, and school field trips.
$257,185 spent94% of program spendingEarth-venus-earth project - this pioneering effort aimed to achieve interplanetary radio communications via venus. Funding was granted october 28, 2024, with a tight 5-deadline to get everything ready to align with venus's optimal obit position in april 2025. Much of the work to prepare for the april 2025 transmission attempt was completed november and december 2024.
$12,055 spent4% of program spending30-foot parabolic dish antenna retrieval - 8 dses members traveled to ignacio, colorado in june 2024 to remove a 30-foot parabolic dish antenna worth approximately 27,500. The dish was being donated to dses, but dses was responsible for removing it and relocating it. Dses members completed this in 4 days.
$4,602 spent2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $273,842.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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.
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.
97% of THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (89% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $60 → $22.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY’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
THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 100% 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 THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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
THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 1 state in all.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $136 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 660 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 660 science & tech nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY
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 Colorado
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
98%
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 THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY: 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 THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY?
- THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY (Colorado) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $350,185 to it, the largest being AMATEUR RADIO DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS ($350,049). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $350,185 in grants to THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY?
- AMATEUR RADIO DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS is the largest funder on record, with $350,049 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. 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 Deep Space Exploration Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2022–2024), 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