Not knowing much about non-profits, I wonder if donations this large ever create
political problems for the recipient?
Like I imagine tons of people will be hitting them up for pet projects of varying quality after this announcement.
Though looking at Wikipedia, they have been around since 1984, with many high profile donors, so maybe they are institutionally able to deal with huge variations in budget?
SETI received ~$28m in donations and contributions in 2022, according to their tax filings [1]
As mentioned in the press release, contribution will be used at least in part as an endowment, providing perpetual funding for ongoing programs.
Also, it is my understanding that large philanthropic gifts, particularly from estates, often come in the form of non-cash assets such as stocks or other financial instruments. So probably not a $200m check, but a very nice nest egg to fund SETI projects for decades to come.
I think past a certain size it doesn't matter, but my small church let me know that it would be ideal if a gift could be split across two tax years to avoid them hitting some kind of threshold that would trigger an audit they'd have to then pay an accountant a bunch of money to deal with.
I offered since my bank had already pitched me on establishing a charitable gift fund that would allow me to claim the tax credits this year but disburse the money to registered charities in the future.
I've worked for a few medium-sized non-profits that fund research. Getting lots of money once you're already established has no downsides. You probably already have a contingency plan for how to spend it, and if not you and your board establish a new process for calling for and approving projects. It's not rocket science (sorry - I don't want to appear dismissive of your post - I just couldn't resist that joke).
Like I imagine tons of people will be hitting them up for pet projects of varying quality after this announcement.
Though looking at Wikipedia, they have been around since 1984, with many high profile donors, so maybe they are institutionally able to deal with huge variations in budget?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI_Institute
My (uninformed) guess is that $200 M must to be the biggest gift by an order of magnitude, or maybe 2.
Or are these kind of estate gifts split up over multiple years, with strings attached? Either that or you just get one huge check :)