They state on their own website they are funded by the CSIRO and a bunch of public universities.
http://theconversation.com/who-funds-the-conversation-13921
On top of that :
"The Conversation has received an additional $850,000 from the Victorian Government, three years after being granted $3m in public funding, Mumbrella understands"
"The Conversation first launched in Australia in 2011 and was provided with funding by the federal government before that was pulled in the 2015 budget"
https://mumbrella.com.au/the-conversation-receives-victorian-government-funding-lifeline-553786
It's been funded by govt directly(Gillard and now Andrews in Victoria) and now mostly indirectly through universities.
