California · Nonprofit
CALSTART INC
CALSTART INC (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,537,032 to it, the largest being CLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION ($5,596,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $490M
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $22M
- Net assets
- $5.3M
What Calstart Inc does
Mission
For more than 30 years, calstart has partnered with industry, government, and community leaders to advance and accelerate the development and deployment of advanced clean transportation technologies and programs. Calstart designs and implements vehicle infrastructure programs that reduce emissions, grow supply chains, and improve operational efficiency. Calstart provides technical, regulatory and policy support to scale commercially viable, clean transportation solutions that benefit the transportation industry, local economies, and the public.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Market acceleration: enabling fleet transformation-calstart designs, leads, and implements clean vehicle and infrastructure programs for trucks, buses, cars, off-road equipment, and the corresponding infrastructure for international, federal, state, and local governments. These programs support private and public fleets, helping reduce operating costs and expanding clean vehicle and infrastructure manufacturing and implementation. Highlights from fy2025 include: - in 2025 calstart was awarded the washington zero-emission incentive program (wazip) to administer $112 m program that provides point-of-sale incentives for medium-and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles and off-road equipment. - the communities in charge project, with an $88 million investment from the california energy commission (cec) and the energiize project ($276 million investment through 2026) provides incentives via reimbursement for ev and h2 infrastructure to support medium/heavy-duty zevs. - in partnership with the massachusetts clean energy center (masscec), calstart continued operating the ride clean mass program, an initiative aimed at helping the vehicle-for-hire (vfh) industry switch to zero-emission…
$472,919,900 spent$3,425 earned by the program98% of program spendingTechnology development and demonstration program- calstart provides independent analysis and guidance to help government and industry accelerate the deployment of commercially viable clean technologies. We work with companies, agencies, and fleets to manage prototype demonstrations or pilot field trials of advanced technology vehicles/components, renewable fuels, infrastructure, and systems. Calstart supports industry projects and actions with program management, business case analysis, market assessment, infrastructure development, commercialization planning, and systems performance evaluation.in 2025, calstart hosted two large-scale ride and drive events in anaheim, ca with over 900 attendees and oakland, ca, featuring 60+ zero-emission vehicles and equipment for fleet operators, demonstrating real-world product readiness and performance. Utilizing our expertise in this area, we educated and sponsored four clean cities coalitions in states across the us (new york, colorado, louisiana and maine) in how to produce ride and drive events to educate attendees on clean transportation technologies.in 2025, calstart convened the global mou summit in arnhem, the netherlands, bringing…
$7,010,381 spent1% of program spendingPromoting advanced transportation technologies champions (member services, publications, and conferences)- calstart provides a wide range of networking and strategic opportunities for its member organizations, strategic partners and fellow stakeholders. Our community of clean transportation advancers work alongside calstart's experts to gather unique research, analyze data, and solve problems to progress our mission of advancing clean transportation for all people and businesses. Calstart also conducts webinars to inform members and others of the latest developments, opportunities, and forecasts about clean transportation. In 2025, calstart published updates to its industry-leading zeroing in on zero-emission trucks and zeroing in on zero-emission buses reports, both of which provide concise and current snapshots of zero-emission vehicle deployment statistics across the united states. These reports offer insights into key trends driving growth in adoption, as well as opportunities to further accelerate this growth that can help inform policymakers, manufacturers, fleet owners, and financial stakeholders. Calstart also developed a groundbreaking financial model, published in…
$1,399,439 spent0% of program spendingOther program services
$2,836,488 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $484,166,208.
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 2023 to 2024, from $81M to $168M (+107%).
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 90% · 2018 87% · 2019 90% · 2020 97% · 2021 96% · 2022 91% · 2023 95% · 2024 99% · 2025 99%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of CALSTART INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (3% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Chief executive
John Boesel
President and CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $450k → $4.5M.
4 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 CALSTART INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 18 of 20 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
CALSTART INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 26% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
48% 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 CALSTART INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 45% · 2019 52% · 2020 42% · 2021 33% · 2022 49% · 2023 56% — 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.
How long its funders stay
67% of CALSTART INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
91% of CALSTART INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $358k 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.
Against its field
CALSTART INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 12 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 12 unclassified nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding CALSTART INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $24.5M on record — $24.1M federal, $381k state.
- Department of Transportation$12.3M
- Department of Energy$11.7M
- Environmental Protection Agency$117k
- NJ$343k
- DE$38k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CALSTART INC
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
99% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 CALSTART INC: 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 CALSTART INC?
- CALSTART INC (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,537,032 to it, the largest being CLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION ($5,596,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CALSTART INC have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $21,537,032 in grants to CALSTART INC, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CALSTART INC?
- CLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,596,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CALSTART INC 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 Calstart →
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 20 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