Monthly Giving Program
SETI Stars are our monthly supporters who keep the search running. They sustain the researchers, instruments, and bold, interdisciplinary work that makes discovery possible — including new frontiers like the Discovery and Futures Lab.
They happen through sustained effort, careful observation, and the willingness to ask the biggest questions at the intersection of science and society. That is what SETI Stars make possible — a steady commitment that lets the SETI Institute pursue research that takes years to bear fruit.
For a small monthly commitment, you become part of that effort. Not as a bystander, but as someone the search depends on.
SETI Stars fund scientists working across astrobiology, technosignatures, exoplanets, and planetary exploration. This is the work that moves humanity's understanding forward, year after year.
From the Allen Telescope Array to LaserSETI, the instruments that scan the sky for signals require ongoing operational funding. Your monthly gift helps keep them pointed at the right places.
Flexible support allows the SETI Institute to take on this kind of bold, interdisciplinary work that's hard to fund anywhere else — like asking what a discovery would actually mean for humanity, and how we'd make sense of life beyond Earth.
Your support reaches students, educators, and communities through programs that bring the search for life to the next generation of scientists and thinkers, including internships and public events.
Secure 256-bit encryption. Gifts are tax-deductible.
Updates from behind the scenes, fresh research developments, and stories you won't find published anywhere else. Sent only to SETI Stars, so you stay close to the search as it unfolds.
Step inside the search through virtual conversations and private gatherings with the people who drive it, including SETI Institute scientists like Jill Tarter and Seth Shostak, plus special guests such as bestselling author Andy Weir.
Exclusive SETI Star swag and an invitation to our annual ice cream social, where we celebrate the supporters who keep the search going. It is our way of saying thank you and welcoming you onto the team.
The knowledge that you are one of the people keeping the search alive, not symbolically but materially. Your recurring gift sustains the patient research that unfolds over years.
"I think that contact with another intelligent civilization would be the most important scientific discovery of our lifetimes. So I decided to contribute what I could to further this important aspect of scientific exploration."
"Why pay $9 for coffee when you could help find ET? What could be bigger?"
"There are only a few big questions. One of them is, 'Are we alone?' SETI is the due diligence of the human race trying to answer that question."
Monthly giving is the most effective way to support the SETI Institute and the search it leads. It gives our interdisciplinary teams reliable funding, lets us plan for the long term, and makes your impact greater than a single gift of the same total amount.
Become a SETI Star today