California · Nonprofit
A BETTER WAY INC
A BETTER WAY INC (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $863,859 to it, the largest being KAISER FOUNDATION HOSPITALS ($394,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $864k
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What A Better Way Inc does
Mission
To help children and families develop the insights, life skills and permanent relationships to promote their social, emotional, educational and economic well-being.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Mental health services - in fy 2024/2025, A Better Way Inc. Provided mental health services to children, and young adults ages 0-21 in alameda, san francisco, and solano counties. Services were delivered within a 90-mile service area to ensure timely access and meet clients where they are, using a no wrong door, community-based approach coordinated with county systems to support safety, permanency, and well-being.a better way behavioral health programs provides strength-based, family-driven, collaborative, and evidence-based/evidence-informed mental health services for children and young adults ages 0-21. Our treatment team consists of master's level clinicians supervised by licensed and doctoral-level supervisors, along with family partners and rehabilitation specialists.we offer prevention and early intervention, psychotherapy, and intensive care coordination to support behavioral and emotional well-being, placement stabilization, and permanency. Services occur in community-based settings, including offices, schools, and other community locations. Our programs operate in partnership with county-led systems, ensuring alignment with local child welfare and mental health services.
$7,761,908 spent61% of program spendingSocial services - social services - during 2024-25, our social services programs consisted of 4 different programs, the largest of which were the alameda county parent engagement program (pep) and the alameda county another road to safety (ars) program. Additional social services programs include, alameda county parent education services (pes), and santa cruz county parent partner program (scppp). The pep, pes and scppp are dedicated to improving outcomes for families navigating the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Ars is an early intervention / differential response service for families who are at risk of having their children removed from their care due to child abuse and neglect safety concerns. The pes program is a parenting education service designed to equip parents involved in the child welfare system with a variety of parenting skills to increase the parent's capacity to better manage family issues.for fiscal year 2024-25, the pep program received a total of 149 families referred for services of which 99 families were enrolled and working towards reunification. Pep supported parents in 418 child family team meetings, facilitated 70 parent support groups which…
$3,435,104 spent27% of program spendingPermanency - A Better Way Inc. Foster family program, a licensed foster family agency (ffa), provided foster care, adoption, and transitional housing services to children and youth involved in the child welfare system during fiscal year 2024-2025. The program supported child safety, permanency, and well-being through reunification, permanency planning, and adoption services.during the year, the program maintained 21 approved resource family homes and served 23 children in care. The program worked in coordination with county placing agencies and resource families to meet the needs of children and youth.
$850,555 spentof which $553,786 as grants7% of program spendingA better way training programs provide hundreds of courses annually, focused on improving services to children and families involved in child welfare systems. Training audiences include: court dependent families; social services professionals; mental health clinicians; resource families/foster families; parents and caregivers; & system-involved youth. Courses are open to the community, though priority registration is given to our primary intended audience; caregivers and professionals who are or plan to be involved in lives of foster children and youth. Additionally, mental health first aid certification courses are provided upon request. 2024/25 data (title iv-e alameda, title iv-e solano, acbh training): hours delivered: 3262.5; number of people trained: 3853; number of courses provided: 420; number of agencies served:286
$598,409 spent$2,500 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,645,976.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $3.8M to $6.1M (+58%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 90% · 2018 85% · 2019 85% · 2020 84% · 2021 85% · 2022 84% · 2023 87% · 2024 85% · 2025 99%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of A BETTER WAY INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
David Channer
President/CEO
Board chair
Bryan Saalfeld
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 3 funders, grant income fell $109k → $30k.
7 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of A BETTER WAY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 18 of 19 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
A BETTER WAY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
66% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund A BETTER WAY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 90% · 2018 90% · 2019 97% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 52% · 2023 53% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
33% of A BETTER WAY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
96% of A BETTER WAY INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $172k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
A BETTER WAY INC's revenue grew 48% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,396 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like A BETTER WAY INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for A BETTER WAY INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds A BETTER WAY INC?
- A BETTER WAY INC (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $863,859 to it, the largest being KAISER FOUNDATION HOSPITALS ($394,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does A BETTER WAY INC have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $863,859 in grants to A BETTER WAY INC, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of A BETTER WAY INC?
- KAISER FOUNDATION HOSPITALS is the largest funder on record, with $394,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like A BETTER WAY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds A Better Way →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 19 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing