1. I believe extraterrestrial life exists. It probably exists closer than we think. Even here on Earth we are finding life at the bottom of the oceans feeding off chemical and thermal energy. There are plenty of places in our own solar system that may have similar conditions.
2. I'm not sure if sending beacons is such a good idea; especially if what we get in reply is hostile. :)
3. Running SETI to be part of a team. It is fun to see how many WU's you can crunch.
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.