The government is the dominant funder of stem cell research post-Bush (In addition to state funding of stem cell research like inNY, TX, & CA). For example, se

The government is the dominant funder of stem cell research post-Bush (In addition to state funding of stem cell research like inNY, TX, & CA). For example, see http://stemcells.nih.gov/Pages/Default.aspx http://stemcells.nih.gov/Pages/Default.aspx I think the bigger issue is that private philanthropy of science is at least ~2 orders of magnitude smaller than yearly philanthropic donations. The US spends ~$100B/year, while I would be surprised if private philanthropy totals $1B/year to R&D. Commercial R&D expenditures on the other hand are probably higher in aggregate. Thus the role of private philanthropy on a lot of research has been catalytic funding for new ideas.