California · Nonprofit
A Reason To Survive
A Reason To Survive (California) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,394,105 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($981,119). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $3.4M
- Net assets
- $431k
What A Reason To Survive does
Mission
ARTS uplifts young people in the South County region of San Diego to become confident, compassionate, and courageous community builders through the transformative power of creativity.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Each year, over 1800 youth ages 6-24 benefit from our programs, which include: Community ARTS classes, workshops, and community design projects for youth ages 8-18 ARTS on Campus school-based mural workshops and onsite beautification projects ARTS@Work is our youth workforce development program, engaging 11th and 12th graders in creative sector internships around real-world design projects and, ARTS 4 Justice, creative arts education and social-emotional learning programming for youth ages 14-19 in the Juvenile Court and Community Schools District.
$1,237,115 spent$1,046,200 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,237,115.
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 2024 to 2025, from $475k to $649k (+37%).
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: 2022 0% · 2024 5% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
41% of A Reason To Survive’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 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
Lucy Eagleson
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 20 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $640k → $678k.
12 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 Reason To Survive’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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 Reason To Survive has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
48% 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 Reason To Survive.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 65% · 2019 53% · 2020 23% · 2021 52% · 2022 32% · 2023 38% — broadly stable.
“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
36% of A Reason To Survive's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
64% of A Reason To Survive's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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 Reason To Survive's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding A Reason To Survive receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $25k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$25k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like A Reason To Survive
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
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 Reason To Survive: 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 Reason To Survive?
- A Reason To Survive (California) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,394,105 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($981,119). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does A Reason To Survive have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $3,394,105 in grants to A Reason To Survive, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of A Reason To Survive?
- THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $981,119 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like A Reason To Survive 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 Reason To Survive →
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 46 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