Massachusetts · Nonprofit
THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC
THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 799 organizations whose IRS filings report $147,190,941 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($22,669,475). 525 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $42M
- Funders on record
- 799
- Grants received
- $147M
- Net assets
- $61M
What The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc does
Mission
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The climate and clean energy program works to limit the magnitude and impacts of climate change, to help communities build resilience in the face of unavoidable climate impacts, and to accelerate a rapid and fair shift in the way we power our lives by modernizing our electricity grid so it can operate reliably with large amounts of renewable energy. In addition, ucs works to make sure the major fossil fuel companies face legal, financial, reputational, and political consequences for misleading the public about climate science and solutions. We advance these efforts by combining rigorous scientific and technical analysis with advocacy and outreach efforts.
$19,005,040 spentof which $564,584 as grants43% of program spendingThe clean transportation program seeks to advance an ambitious and fair clean transportation agenda. We analyze advanced vehicle technologies, biofuels, and related oil-reduction strategies, and working with a broad set of stakeholders and partners advocate for effective and equitable transportation solutions that create new jobs and industries, save consumers billions of dollars at the gas pump, improve air quality and reduce global warming.
$6,497,795 spent15% of program spendingGlobal security program seeks to build a more secure and equitable future by reducing the risk of a nuclear war starting by accident or miscalculation, and ultimately eliminating these potentially civilization-ending weapons. We serve as an independent watchdog on a range of nuclear and weapons issues, combining technical analysis and policy expertise to reduce the threats posed by nuclear weapons.
$5,884,339 spent13% of program spendingThe center for science and democracy works for strong, independent public science, a robust, transparent democracy, justice for overburdened communities, the effective use of science in making policy that serves the common good, and advocates for science-based election and redistricting rule. The center produces original research and analysis and brings people together to discuss key issues such as ensuring public access to scientific information, keeping science free from distortion and manipulation by special interests, and promoting more effective use of science in policy making.
$4,571,442 spent10% of program spendingThe food and environment program works to secure a more resilient and just food system that manages land in a way that reliably delivers nutritious food, safe and dignified jobs, healthy ecosystems and climate solutions. Our science and advocacy aims to transform the food systems to make healthy food available to all and for fair treatment of farmers and farmworkers, without depleting farmlands or polluting our communities.
$4,470,206 spent10% of program spendingThe western states program helps design, inform and support many groundbreaking science-based policies to address climate change and pollution in the transportation, energy, and land-use sectors in california and in other us western states. The program coordinates and collaborates across issues states in the western region to craft policies and standards that serve as a model for other regions, states, and the federal government - an approach that multiplies policies in public interest.
$3,239,292 spent7% of program spendingLegislative - appearances before congressional committees, as well as meeting with individual congressmen and writing, printing, and mailing of legislative alerts to ucs sponsors.
$319,065 spent1% of program spending
The 7 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $43,987,179.
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 2020 to 2021, from $66M to $93M (+40%).
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: 2021 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Anne R Kapuscinski
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 242 funders to 342 funders, grant income fell $17M → $17M.
95 of 799 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.5M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Goldberg Family Foundation 217-48576810). These are real filings, and they are not money THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC raised.
From the IRS filings of THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 799 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 UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
58% 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 UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 27% · 2019 21% · 2020 10% · 2021 12% · 2022 33% · 2023 12% — 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
51% of THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
50% of THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC'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 $73M that is directly attributable, 88% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 45 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $74M arriving through sponsors registered in 29 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 UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC receives grants from 799 organizations whose IRS filings report $147M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 363 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $23 on record.
- DIRECT STATE SERVICES - NON-SALARY$23
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 THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS 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 THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC?
- THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 799 organizations whose IRS filings report $147,190,941 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($22,669,475). 525 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC have?
- IRS filings report 799 organizations giving $147,190,941 in grants to THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC, 525 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $22,669,475 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 799 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