California · Nonprofit
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,259,752 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($4,083,190). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $39M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $126M
What California School of Mechanical Arts does
Mission
A private school with public purpose, lick-wilmerding high school "lwhs" develops the head, heart and hands of highly motivated students from all walks of life, inspiring them to become life-long learners who contribute to the world with confidence.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Lwhs is a non-profit, independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school serving grades 9-12 with a tradition of integrating demanding academic courses with service learning and technical and fine arts. Endowed by san francisco entrepreneur james lick, the California School of Mechanical Arts opened its doors in 1895. Subsequently, the "lick school" merged with the wilmerding school of industrial arts and the lux school of industrial training. A private school with public purpose, lick-wilmerding high school develops the head, heart, and hands of highly motivated students from all walks of life, inspiring them to become lifelong learners who contribute to the world with confidence and (cont. On sch. O) compassion. Lwhs' rigorous head, heart, and hands curriculum equips students with the skills, habits of mind, and commitment to build lives of excellence and meaning. The school offers challenging, college preparatory classes in nine disciplines, with a unique technical arts program, part of its 129 year legacy, and rigorous honors level classes in all five academic departments. Students also participate in the four year public purpose program, a hands-on education and…
$32,638,591 spentof which $7,707,700 as grants$33,682,848 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $32,638,591.
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 $139M to $170M (+22%).
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.
8% of CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 22 funders, grant income fell $2.0M → $1.3M.
27 of 58 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 76% 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 SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
76% 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 SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 41% · 2019 28% · 2020 28% · 2021 23% · 2022 20% · 2023 21% — 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
50% of CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
76% of CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $4.1M that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $13M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS
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
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- 1 Charitable Remainder Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS: 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 SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS?
- CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS (California) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,259,752 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($4,083,190). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $17,259,752 in grants to CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $4,083,190 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ARTS 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.
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 58 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