I believe we'll first find evidence that others once existed (Now extinct or 'gone'), and later at some point we will contact or will be contacted by another species.
I run seti@home because: 1. It is an excellent idea; a means to aide seti in meeting their goals. 2. I have the resources. and 3. Because I hope one day we do prove that intelligent life exists/existed elsewhere.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.