AAAS Receives Record Contributions,
Funding Support for Special Initiatives

Despite a continued recessionary period marked by both slashed budgets and low charitable contributions, AAAS received a record number of individual donations in 2002.

From January to December of last year, the organization received $500,000, up 5 percent from 2001 and up 60 percent from 2000. The number of donors in 2002 was 1,200—up 3 percent from 2001.

"This increase in our major gifts program is a clear sign that our members value the work of AAAS," says Dr. Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of AAAS. "We see this as a great vote of confidence by our members. Clearly, they support what we are doing."

Money donated by members funds a number of the organization's special initiatives, including the Center for Science, Technology, and Congress, which serves as a scientific resource for the U.S. Congress, and Kinetic City, the web-based science education game produced by AAAS and funded by the National Science Foundation.

Members interested in donating can get information from this website.

—Susan Davis

4 February 2003