I think it does exist. I believe we will find life. When? Who knows, but we must keep searching. I believe the SETI@home is a fun way for the average person to help in the search by using unharnessed computer downtime.
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.