California · Nonprofit
THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT
THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT (California) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,517,667 to it, the largest being APHORISM FOUNDATION ($10,005,300). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $21M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $22M
- Net assets
- $18M
What The Earth Species Project does
Mission
The Earth Species Project (ESP) develops frontier AI to amplify the voices of nature, creating new pathways for the transformation of our systemsand ourselves. We envision a relationship with the rest of nature that allows the diversity of life to thrive.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Organizational Growth and Development: Strategy Development and Theory of Change: In 2024, we developed a new organizational strategy that will guide ESP into the future by allowing us to advance not just the science of animal communication, but the broader change we hope to see in the world. The new strategy relies on three pillars to achieve impact: Research to Decode, Building The Field, and Preparing Society for Impact. Scaling our team: In 2024, we added six new full time employees bringing our total team to 23 across communications, research, and impact. Notably we brought on key leadership roles including Olivier Pietquin, our Chief Scientist and head of research, and Brittany Solano, our Director of Communications. Growing our board: Over the course of 2024, we worked actively working to grow our Board of Directors to better support our mission. This has led to us welcoming two visionary leaders to our Board of Directors in 2025: Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief who led the Paris Agreement, and Thomas Zurbuchen, former head of NASAs Science Mission Directorate. Their expertise and global perspectives strengthen ESPs ability to bridge frontier science, policy,…
$3,829,285 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,829,285.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $2.4M to $18M (+653%).
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: 2020 6% · 2021 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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
Katherine Zacarian
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 9 funders, grant income rose $100k → $2.4M.
9 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 EARTH SPECIES PROJECT’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 EARTH SPECIES PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
32% 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 EARTH SPECIES PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 89% · 2022 75% · 2023 46% — 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
60% of THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 53% 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
91% of THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.
Organizations like THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT
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.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
69%
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 EARTH SPECIES PROJECT: 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 EARTH SPECIES PROJECT?
- THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT (California) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,517,667 to it, the largest being APHORISM FOUNDATION ($10,005,300). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $21,517,667 in grants to THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT?
- APHORISM FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10,005,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT 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 Earth Species Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 17 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