California · Nonprofit
ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND
ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND (California) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $208,910 to it, the largest being DJ AND T FOUNDATION ($200,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $57k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $209k
- Net assets
- $162k
What Animals Are First Fund does
Mission
The Animals Are First Fund (arff) provides support services for animals cared for and housed at animal shelters operated by san bernardino county animal care and control (acc). Arff promotes responsible pet ownership, pet adoption, and spaying/neutering in san bernardino county. Arff also provides other charitable activities associated with these goals, as allowed by law. Arff has no paid staff and is 100% supported by volunteers who desire to help the homeless animals cared for at county animal shelter facilities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
In the calendar year 2025, the Animals Are First Fund (arff) participated in subaru loves pets campaign, clear the shelter, and california adopt a pet day where arff covered the adoption fee making it free adoptions for adopters. Arff generously helped setup misters in the zen garden play yard. Arff funded incentives for outreach efforts providing pet waste bags and dispenser to pet owners in the community. Arff supported the county shelters with funding emergency supplies during the funding emergency supplies during the cold winter and when the heaters were not functioning properly as well as with funding to purchase kuranda dog beds for the pets in their care. Arff funded educational workshops through the county's telling tails program, a veterinary gathering to help the county expand their veterinary partners, and the replacement of plexiglass on the county's adoption trailer.
$34,245 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $34,245.
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 2020 to 2021, from $143k to $284k (+98%).
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.
100% of ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $2k → $287.
1 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND leans on a few funders — its largest provides 96% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
97% of ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $910 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,315 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,315 animals nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND
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.
Public support
61%
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 ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND: 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 ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND?
- ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND (California) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $208,910 to it, the largest being DJ AND T FOUNDATION ($200,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $208,910 in grants to ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND?
- DJ AND T FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ANIMALS ARE FIRST FUND 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 Animals Are First →
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 4 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