Danforth Plant Science Center faces $7.7M in federal funding cuts

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is facing $7.7 million in cuts or delays to federal grant funding by Trump administration policies, prompting the nonprofit's leadership to change their approach to funding the nonprofit research institute.

Last month, the Danforth Center launched a $165 million capital campaign called "Future Forward" that, though in the works for years, is likely to play a bigger role in its strategy for filling the funding gap.

"The world has changed in four months," said Jim Carrington, CEO of the Creve Coeur-based research institute.

Grant funding last year accounted for $23.6 million of the Danforth Center's $48.9 million budget. Of that amount, 64% came federal agencies. But over the past two months, as the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency began slashing federal spending, the Danforth Center received notice that $2.4 million in grants previously awarded for this year had been canceled. Another $5 million has been "delayed" along with $300,000 in incremental disbursements from long-term grants, Carrington said.

"Now, the Future Forward campaign will be part of the solution for how we deal with cuts to federal research funding," he said. "We're directing more effort in raising from philanthropic sources funding that can backfill some of the lost federal grants. That's one example of how we're using the Future Forward campaign as, in part, a mitigation tool. So we've had to shift or rearrange some of the priorities within the campaign to deal with a future that likely has fewer federal grants."

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