California · Nonprofit
ABILITYFIRST
ABILITYFIRST (California) receives grants from 118 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,061,375 to it, the largest being SELMA E ANDREWS TRUST ($6,989,020). 70 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $17M
- Funders on record
- 118
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $99M
What Abilityfirst does
Mission
Abilityfirst provides a variety of programs designed to help people with disabilities achieve their personal best throughout their lives. We do this by creating targeted programming to help an individual successfully transition from childhood to adult life.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
During 2024, Abilityfirst transferred the sponsored housing properties (crown house & sierra rose) to easter seals with no further rights or obligations remaining. In addition, as of 12/31/24, manufacturing operations ceased and 100% of the inventory balances were reserved for.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Abilityfirst operated five community centers in los angeles county serving 1229 children and adults. Our person-centered programs empowered individuals with developmental disabilities to discover what was important to them and to develop the skills needed to achieve their goals. Programs included adult day services, afterschool and summer day camp programs for school-aged youth, social recreation programs and community aquatics.
$7,098,464 spent$5,112,266 earned by the program45% of program spendingAbilityfirst's supported employment program provided 360 adults and youth with disabilities with vocational assessments, job placement and on-the-job support in competitive industries within their communities. The college to career program supported 82 students with developmental disabilities at community colleges and universities in southern california. In addition to the student's academic coursework, the program incorporated self-discovery and community exploration to empower students to achieve their academic and career goals. The possability program served 74 adults in pasadena and los angeles through community integration, volunteering, and interest-based activities.
$6,730,220 spent$5,535,196 earned by the program43% of program spendingCamp paivika, located in the san bernardino mountains, offered overnight summer camp programs for children and adults with developmental disabilities, including swimming, arts and crafts, adaptive sports, nature, and theater activities. In additional to traditional sleep-away summer camp, camp paivika offered virtual "paivika at home" camp along with friends and family, ski, mom's, and weekend camps during the non-summer months. In 2024, camp paivika served 486 individuals.
$1,790,467 spent$417,034 earned by the program11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $15,619,151.
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 $80M to $102M (+27%).
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: 2018 0% · 2019 1% · 2020 6% · 2021 9% · 2023 17% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
23% of ABILITYFIRST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Kathryn Sanders Platnick
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 29 funders to 54 funders, grant income rose $428k → $2.4M.
17 of 118 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 ABILITYFIRST’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 118 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
ABILITYFIRST leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 54%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 47% · 2018 67% · 2019 61% · 2020 23% · 2021 47% · 2022 53% · 2023 47% — 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
48% of ABILITYFIRST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
ABILITYFIRST draws 70% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
ABILITYFIRST's funding base is broadening — from 29 funders to 54 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,289 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding ABILITYFIRST receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $48k on record.
- Assistance Payments$48k
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 ABILITYFIRST
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
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 ABILITYFIRST: 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 ABILITYFIRST?
- ABILITYFIRST (California) receives grants from 118 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,061,375 to it, the largest being SELMA E ANDREWS TRUST ($6,989,020). 70 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ABILITYFIRST have?
- IRS filings report 118 organizations giving $15,061,375 in grants to ABILITYFIRST, 70 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ABILITYFIRST?
- SELMA E ANDREWS TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $6,989,020 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ABILITYFIRST 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 Abilityfirst →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 118 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