California · Nonprofit
ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE
ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE (California) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,511,529 to it, the largest being Park L Loughlin Charitable Foundation ($600,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 32
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $543k
What Adventure Risk Challenge does
Mission
To empower underserved youth through transformational literacy, leadership, and outdoor experiences
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
ARC's Summer Courses for Tahoe-Truckee youth integrate wilderness expeditions and academic basecamps. Based in Yosemite and Tahoe, these courses facilitate the development of essential leadership and academic skills in alternative classroom settings and on outdoor adventures. Rigorous activities require physical and mental commitment and interpersonal collaboration, while building an ethos for healthy lifestyles, personal empowerment, and environmental stewardship. Challenging leadership and life-skills training focuses on self-management, goal setting, personal responsibility, teamwork, communication, and resilience. Literacy sessions develop skills in critical thinking, reading comprehension, writing, and public speaking. After participating, ARC youth respond more positively to statements including, "I am developing good health habits", and "I deal with frustration in positive ways." They also show a statistically significant increase in all four of the internal asset categories on Search Institute's Developmental Assets Profile (DAP), with the largest increases in Positive Self Identity and Positive Values.
$291,822 spent29% of program spendingARC's Summer Courses for Central Valley youth integrate wilderness expeditions and academic basecamps. Based in Yosemite and Tahoe, these courses facilitate the development of essential leadership and academic skills in alternative classroom settings and on outdoor adventures. Rigorous activities require physical and mental commitment and interpersonal collaboration, while building an ethos for healthy lifestyles, personal empowerment, and environmental stewardship. Challenging leadership and life-skills training focuses on self-management, goal setting, personal responsibility, teamwork, communication, and resilience. Literacy sessions develop skills in critical thinking, reading comprehension, writing, and public speaking. After participating, ARC youth respond more positively to statements including, "I am developing good health habits", and "I deal with frustration in positive ways." They also show a statistically significant increase in all four of the internal asset categories on Search Institute's Developmental Assets Profile (DAP), with the largest increases in Positive Self Identity and Positive Values.
$235,129 spent23% of program spendingThe academic year Community Leadership Program of ARC in the Tahoe-Truckee region is an immersive, multi-year program progression that increases access to four goals areas - literacy development, outdoor experiences, leadership development, and community building - for rural, low-income and English Learner high school students. The academic-year program is embedded in two high schools in the region, offering thousands of participant program hours of outdoor and leadership instruction each year. The program is unique and impactful because: (1) ARC staff have long-term relationships with students, and they find belonging within ARC, among their peers and the adult staff members; and (2) The curriculum integrates literacy development (especially writing and public speaking) into the more traditional aspects of outdoor education (recreational activities and leadership development).
$258,475 spent26% of program spendingThe academic year Community Leadership Program of ARC in the Central Valley region is an immersive, multi-year program progression that increases access to four goals areas - literacy development, outdoor experiences, leadership development, and community building - for rural, low-income and English Learner high school students. The academic-year program is embedded in two high schools in the region, offering thousands of participant program hours of outdoor and leadership instruction each year. The program is unique and impactful because: (1) ARC staff have long-term relationships with students, and they find belonging within ARC, among their peers and the adult staff members; and (2) The curriculum integrates literacy development (especially writing and public speaking) into the more traditional aspects of outdoor education (recreational activities and leadership development).
$222,340 spent22% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,007,766.
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 $358k to $472k (+32%).
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 3% · 2018 3% · 2019 0% · 2020 6% · 2021 12% · 2022 9% · 2023 8% · 2024 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Chief executive
Sarah Ottley
Interim Executive Director
Board chair
Sarah Parkes
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $48k → $520k.
13 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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
ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
49% 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 ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 40% · 2019 40% · 2020 26% · 2021 28% · 2022 37% · 2023 38% — 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 ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
90% of ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $967k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE has grown faster than half of the 1,928 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,928 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE: 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 ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE?
- ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE (California) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,511,529 to it, the largest being Park L Loughlin Charitable Foundation ($600,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE have?
- IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $2,511,529 in grants to ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE?
- Park L Loughlin Charitable Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ADVENTURE RISK CHALLENGE 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 Adventure Risk Challenge →
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 32 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing