California · Nonprofit
Californians for the Arts
Californians for the Arts (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,028,750 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($545,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Californians for the Arts does
Mission
Our mission at Californians for the Arts is to ensure that the arts are accessible to all Californians; are an ongoing part of the public dialogue and to encourage Californians to care about the arts as a critical component of their own lives and the lives of their communities. We fight for arts resources and policies that benefit our members and all residents of California. Our work and support of civic engagement, arts education, cultural equity and the creative economy, positively impacts every community across the state.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
We conduct virtual and in person listening sessions in a program called Regional Conversations annually. We engage with our members and the public by commissioning surveys and producing a month long awareness campaign Arts Culture & Creativity Month and producing a summit and advocacy trainings and coordinating advocacy meetings.We coordinate statewide media campaigns to build awareness of the issues that impact the creative industries and are resource for the media and the industry to act as spokespeople for the arts and creative industries in California.We educate our members and the public by producing toolkits with data and narrative casemaking for awareness of the impact of the arts and creative industries in California; offer professional development trainings in building advocacy casemaking and tools; offer professional development webinars on current trends, research, policy and legislation that impacts the field.
$1,335,821 spentof which $53,333 as grants$128,942 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,335,821.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2024 to 2025, from $741k to $1.3M (+69%).
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: 2021 13% · 2022 52% · 2023 13% · 2024 42% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of Californians for the Arts’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 7 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
Julie Baker
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $90k → $515k.
2 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 Californians for the Arts’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
Californians for the Arts leans on a few funders — its largest provides 27% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 83% · 2020 73% · 2021 63% · 2022 29% · 2023 19% — 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 Californians for the Arts's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 75% 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
100% of Californians for the Arts's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $140k 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
Californians for the Arts has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Californians for the 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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- California Arts Advocates · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Californians for the 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 Californians for the Arts?
- Californians for the Arts (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,028,750 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($545,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Californians for the Arts have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $2,028,750 in grants to Californians for the Arts, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Californians for the Arts?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $545,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Californians for the 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.
Play a game about who funds Californians for the Arts →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 12 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