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More than 150,000 people have counted bees for us. The science they've built is real — and it needs to keep going. The Great Sunflower Project is one of the largest and longest-running citizen science programs tracking pollinator health in North America. For nearly two decades, volunteers in backyards, school gardens, rooftop plots, and community parks have been submitting careful observations that no professional research team could afford to collect. Those observations have produced peer-reviewed science. They've shaped how we understand pesticide risk. They've helped identify which plants matter most for bees in different parts of the country. None of it runs on its own. Your donation keeps it running. |
Bombus melanopygus — Photo: Hartmut Wisch |
What your gift makes possible
We'll be direct about where the money goes, because you deserve to know.
Right now, our most pressing need is rebuilding and expanding our data platform. We've been running on aging infrastructure for years — the kind of technical debt that quietly limits everything: how easily volunteers can submit counts, how quickly we can analyze data, how well we can share findings with researchers, land managers, and the public. A modernized platform means better science, faster — and a program that can grow with the scale of the problem we're trying to solve.
Beyond the platform, your support funds:
- Data analysis and scientific coordination — turning your observations into publishable findings
- Regional plant list development — building the place-specific, data-backed planting guides that gardeners and restoration ecologists actually need
- Volunteer support and outreach — helping new participants get started, especially in regions where our data is thinnest
- Educator resources — curriculum, identification guides, and tools for teachers bringing pollinator science into classrooms
| What your support funds | |
| $25 | Covers data storage and processing costs for an entire season of counts from one volunteer site |
| $50 | Helps develop identification resources that make it easier for volunteers to recognize what they're seeing |
| $100 | Supports the data analysis that turns raw counts into scientific findings we can publish and act on |
| $250 | Funds development of a regional plant list — a data-backed, state-specific guide to what actually works for pollinators in your area |
| $500+ | Makes a meaningful contribution to rebuilding the platform that makes all of this possible — faster, more capable, built to last |
Every amount matters. The Great Sunflower Project has always run lean. We don't have an endowment or a major institutional funder. What we have is a community of people who care about bees — and whose support, at whatever level they can give, is what makes the science happen.
Donate now — it takes two minutes →
How to donate
Online: Use our secure donation form. When you reach the "Write in alternative designation" field, please designate The Great Sunflower Project. You may enter any amount — the suggested amounts on the form are set by the University and don't reflect any expectation on our part.
By check: Make your check payable to The Great Sunflower Project and mail it to:
Great Sunflower Project
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132
Please include a note designating your gift to the Great Sunflower Project.
Tax deductibility: The Great Sunflower Project is fiscally sponsored by San Francisco State University, a 501(c)(3) organization. Your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law. EIN: 94-1384645.
San Francisco State University will provide a receipt for your records. They will not use your contact information for future solicitations.
The bees don't know how much data we still need to collect, or how many regions of the country remain understudied, or what it takes to keep a citizen science program running year after year. But you do. Thank you — genuinely — for being part of this.