California · Nonprofit
BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL
BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $31,623 to it, the largest being William McCaskey Chapman and Adaline Dinsmore Chapman Foundation ($30,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $32k
- Net assets
- $563k
What Big Sur Charter School does
Mission
The school designs and implements academically challenging programs tailored to students'individual learning needs. Engaging families and community organizations as partners in learning, the school promotes creativity, understanding, and action in the arts and environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Big Sur Charter School provides k-12 public education that promotes civic engagement and self-directed learning. Teachers, students, and families collaborate to provide a personalized learning environment that recognizes each child's unique interests, abilities and ways of learning, while promoting active participation in the local and global community. The school's education programs may include small group instruction, standards-based personalized learning plans, community-based learning programs, distance learning, individualized tutoring, computer assisted instruction and independent study. All students are provided a standards-based curriculum in core subjects and have access to a resource library. Big Sur Charter School services to enable studnets to become self-motivated, competent, and lifelong learners. These educational approaches reflect Big Sur Charter School's concept of what it means to be an educated person in the 21st century.
$1,030,418 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,030,418.
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 $297k to $404k (+36%).
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 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 99% · 2020 99% · 2021 100% · 2022 93% · 2023 91% · 2024 90% · 2025 91%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Rory Griffiths
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $246 → $10k.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL’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
BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 95% 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: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 97% — 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.
Where its funders are
99% of BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL's grant income comes from California funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1k 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
BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL
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
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Big Sur Unified School District · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL: 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 BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL?
- BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $31,623 to it, the largest being William McCaskey Chapman and Adaline Dinsmore Chapman Foundation ($30,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $31,623 in grants to BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL?
- William McCaskey Chapman and Adaline Dinsmore Chapman Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $30,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BIG SUR CHARTER SCHOOL 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 Big Sur Charter School →
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 3 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