Funding search
Find who already funds work like yours.
Private foundations don’t post open calls, so nobody can search them. We read IRS filings instead — 9.6 million grants from 174,053 foundations and grantmaking charities, searchable by what the money was actually for.
12 funders with a record of paying for “telescope”
Where the money went
Association of Universities for ResearchWashington, DCCharity · may take applications
440 matching grants · $145.4M · through 2023Largest: $52,991 to LAS CUMBRES OBSERVATORY GLOBAL TELESCOPE NETWORK — scientific research on data from hubble space telescope
Largest: $178,989 to Smithsonian Institution — in support of critical new elements of the event horizon telescope, a global network of radio dishes that forms an earth-sized virtual telescope aimed at taking the first images of…
Barnard CollegeNew York, NYCharity · may take applications
22 matching grants · $960,851 · through 2024Largest: $149,988 to BOARD OF REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM — mri consortium: development of a wide field-of-view camera for the schwarzschild-couder gamma ray telescope
Largest: $1.6M to LAS CUMBRES OBSERVATORY GLOBAL TELESCOPE NETWORK INC — to fabricate, install, and commission the muscat4 imager on the faulkes south telescope
Largest: $132,373 to MICHAEL RUBEL — the purpose of the telescope project is to enhance scientific observations in deep space for scientific and educational purposes.
Macalester CollegeSt Paul, MNCharity · may take applications
3 matching grants · $111,596 · through 2024Largest: $44,480 to MACRO CONSORTIUM — maintain and provide access to robotic telescope for education and research
The Kavli FoundationLos Angeles, CA
2 matching grants · $1.3M · through 2023Largest: $922,200 to KAVLI INSTITUTE FOR ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE RESEARCH AT MIT — science and technology at astronomys frontier: the mit kavli institute and the u.s. extremely large telescope program
Marin Community FoundationNovato, CACharity · may take applications
2 matching grants · $70,000 · through 2024Largest: $50,000 to SETI INSTITUTE — allen telescope array and project support
Largest: $22,000 to FONDATION OPEN COLLECTIVE EUROPE (ON BEHALF OF DIMENSION PARABOLE F4KLO) — support hands-on demonstrations of amateur radio, earth-moon-earth communication, and radio astronomy through a restored radio telescope.
Largest: $1.4M to UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA FOUNDATION — support for large fiber array spectroscopic telescope (lfast) development
Largest: $20,000 to FORT BEND ASTRONOMY CLUB — to replace the 18-inch telescope and telescope mount
Largest: $450,000 to THE UNIVERISITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN — telescope and lady bird johnson wildflower center.
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Source: IRS Form 990-PF Part XV and Form 990 Schedule I, tax years 2019–2025. These are grants already paid, a record of what an organization funds rather than an open call. Private foundations rarely accept unsolicited applications and the route in is usually a program officer; grantmaking charities and associations more often run real application cycles, so check their website. How this data is built, and its limits →