Paul Allen provided a lot of the funding for SETI Institute's radio array design and construction, but operational budget has been really tough. It's not quite

Paul Allen provided a lot of the funding for SETI Institute's radio array design and construction, but operational budget has been really tough. It's not quite enough to build the instruments. We have to fund the ongoing science, too. Philanthropy does play a role here, too, of course: endowments for academic research, but generally not as inspiring as making Very Large objects.