California · Nonprofit
California Poets in the Schools
California Poets in the Schools (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $886,922 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($244,175). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $203k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $887k
- Net assets
- $566k
What California Poets in the Schools does
Mission
California Poets in the Schools develops and empowers a multicultural network of independent Poet-Teachers, who bring the many benefits of poetry to youth throughout the state. As a membership network we offer opportunities for professional development, peer learning and fundraising assistance for Poet-Teachers in California. We also cultivate relationships with school districts, foundations and arts organizations which can fund and support our members professional practices.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
California Poets in the Schools currently serves an active network of 100+ California poets and writers, who live and work in nearly all regions of the state. Poet-Teachers teach poetry at institutions of all types including elementary, middle and high schools, as well as state prisons, juvenile jails and universities. These poets have chosen to give back to their local communities as professionally-trained Poet-Teachers with California Poets in the Schools.In addition to active Poet-Teachers, our network includes over 500 California poets and writers who engage as participants in the various networking, professional development and creative opportunities that CalPoets offers throughout the year.Calpoets offers a professional network for poets and writers that is open, inclusive and approachable. We provide a wide variety of events annually, including professional development, networking and creative opportunities. We host a beloved and well-attended poetry symposium each year where we engage our network in over 20 hours of skill-building and creative poetry-related workshops led by California poets.We hosted over 20 free, virtual monthly gatherings in 2022. Specifically, each 2nd…
$231,809 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $231,809.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $367k to $718k (+96%).
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 27% · 2018 5% · 2019 13% · 2021 14% · 2022 10% · 2023 39% · 2024 12% · 2025 34%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $48k → $76k.
5 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% 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 California Poets in the Schools’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
California Poets in the Schools leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
73% 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 California Poets in the Schools.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 53% · 2019 59% · 2020 34% · 2021 36% · 2022 35% · 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
38% of California Poets in the Schools's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
California Poets in the Schools draws 71% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $370k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Organizations like California Poets in the Schools
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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 California Poets in the Schools: 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 California Poets in the Schools?
- California Poets in the Schools (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $886,922 to it, the largest being MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($244,175). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does California Poets in the Schools have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $886,922 in grants to California Poets in the Schools, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of California Poets in the Schools?
- MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $244,175 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like California Poets in the Schools 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 California Poets in the Schools →
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 22 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