California · Nonprofit
THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION
THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,002,607 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($1,195,934). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $12M
What The Long Now Foundation does
Mission
The Long Now Foundation is a globally-recognized champion of long-term thinking and responsibility, operating within the context of the next and last 10,000 years a timespan we call the long now.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The interval - an award winning bar, cafe and event space in san francisco with 30,000 visitors annualy. It features craft cocktails, artisan coffee and tea, a bottle keep, a chalk board-drawing robot, an art installation by brian eno, a library that stretches from floor to ceiling, and exhibits on long term thinking that inspire curiosity and wonder.
$1,231,472 spent$833,770 earned by the program41% of program spendingPrograms - Long Now Talks, a lecture series featuring leading thinkers who share ideas with live audiences in San Francisco and millions worldwide; Centuries of the Bristlecone, an artwork by philosopher and conceptual artist Jonathon Keats commissioned by the Nevada Museum of Art in partnership with Long Now; Pace Layers, our annual journal of long-term thinking that gathers ideas, art, and insights; and other bold public projects that ignite imagination.
$601,071 spent$4,381 earned by the program20% of program spendingCommunications - Marketing, promotion and distribution of content and learnings from Long Nows programs, projects, and public resources, including our video and podcast episodes, and print and digital publishing, and long term digital archive.
$465,899 spent15% of program spendingUntitled - A Project Dedicated To Laying Foundations For A Deeper Ecosystem Of Thought Around Technology, Philosophy, And The Future.
$412,488 spent$860,410 earned by the program14% of program spendingThe clock of the long now - an immense mechanical monument, installed in mountain, designed to keep accurate time for the next ten millenia. Clock prototypes captivate millions of visitors online and at museums including smithsonian national air and space museum in london
$140,443 spent$145,521 earned by the program5% of program spendingLong now talks - the long now talks, launched by stewart brand in 02003, has invited more than 280 leading thinkers to share their work with a live audience and millions around the globe tuning in to our free poscast and youtube channel. Long now talks have been supported by over 12,000 members across 65 countries
$72,215 spent$238,437 earned by the program2% of program spendingSponsored Projects - umbrella category for Long Now fiscally sponsored projects.
$56,500 spent$56,500 earned by the program2% of program spendingDeep Time - a fiscally sponsored project dedicated to landing a 700-gram (1.54 lb.) aluminum time capsule containing 24 sapphire discs on the surface of the Moon.
$22,500 spent$22,500 earned by the program1% of program spendingSPECIAL EVENTS - Fundraising and network building onsite events
$9,898 spent0% of program spendingNevada - our nevada bristlecone preserve is a two mile long mountain habitat of the world's oldest living trees.
$8,853 spent$1,085,042 earned by the program0% of program spendingIDEAS - Online publication on long term thinking
$4,710 spent0% of program spendingLong bets - long bets is an online arena for accountable long-term predictions with all the stakes going to the victor's chosen non profit.
$3,052 spent$650 earned by the program0% of program spendingMANUAL CIVILIZATION - A small library of books which maybe needed to restart civilization from scratch
$2,578 spent0% of program spendingRosetta project - a collaboration with linguists to compile an archive of over 1,500 human languages and micro-etch it onto a series of artifacts which are distributed for long-term presentations. We mean seriously distributed - one lives on surface of the moon and another on a distant comet. You can also wear one around your neck
$321 spent$1,039 earned by the program0% of program spendingPanLex - PanLex is a nonprofit program whose mission is to overcome language barriers to human rights, information, and opportunities. Their purpose is to make it so that nobody should have their rights restricted because of the language they speak.
Membership - The Long Now Foundation's membership program has connected more than 11,000 long-term thinkers across more than 65 countries. Our global membership receives regular updates on key ideas around long-term thinking through our frequent talks, original writing and monthly newsletter, as well as special invitations to online video lectures and in-person gatherings. Each member also receives an etched stainless steel membership card featuring their unique member number. The Long Now membership program provides substantial financial support to the organization, its activities, and its programs.
Organizational Continuity Project - The Organizational Continuity Project hopes to discover the lessons behind the longest lived organizations, and build a discipline of shareable knowledge that will help contemporary institutions, companies, and governments develop into robust, long-lasting structures. In turn, we hope these institutions will be better equipped to address civilizational-scale problems with multi-generational thinking.
Future Fund - The purpose of these funds is to support efforts to convert Long Now from a successful start-up project into a sustainable institution that can survive for the long term.
$685,685 earned by the programNaming Names - a fiscally sponsored project by artists Eve Sussman and Simon Lee dedicated to investigating the act of naming through a theatrical and sonic performance connecting the Bay Area and Athens, Greece.
Fellowship - academics, authors, researchers, artists, and others dedicated to long-term thinking.
The 20 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,032,000.
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 2022 to 2023, from $11M to $21M (+91%).
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: 2018 0% · 2020 11% · 2021 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
38% of THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Katherine Fulton
Co chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $203k → $758k.
19 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 81% 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 LONG NOW FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
84% 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 LONG NOW FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 24% · 2018 26% · 2019 32% · 2020 47% · 2021 50% · 2022 29% · 2023 46% — growing more concentrated.
“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
40% of THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 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
81% of THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION'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. Of the $777k that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from funders outside California, across 14 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
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 LONG NOW FOUNDATION: 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 LONG NOW FOUNDATION?
- THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,002,607 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($1,195,934). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 81% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $4,002,607 in grants to THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION?
- CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA is the largest funder on record, with $1,195,934 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE LONG NOW FOUNDATION 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.
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 55 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