Skip to content

California · Nonprofit

Child Creativity Lab

Child Creativity Lab (California) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,108,479 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM JEFF AND JENNIFER GROSS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($838,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.1M
Funders on record
32
Grants received
$2.1M
Net assets
$528k
23/32 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 69%
01What it does

What Child Creativity Lab does

Mission

To foster the next generation of critical thinkers, problem solvers, innovators, environmental stewards, and leaders through hands-on creativity enhancing exploration.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Child Creativity Lab continues to be a partner in the community for schools and other youth serving organizations with a focus on fostering problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation in children. The organization continues to meet the challenges of the rapidly moving landscape of the pandemic. Our team continues to improve on ways to serve students safely and efficiently, filling the void with hands-on tactile creativity, while also building our reach and awareness with online learning and providing free content on youtube. In 2025, the organization directly served 40,152 youth, including 85% coming from underserved communities. This was facilitated through our various programs, including delivering 746 educational programs, services facilitiated by 2,819 volunteers, and diverting 14,485 pounds of materials from landfills.

    $863,149 spent$320,168 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $863,149.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($244k) Expenses 100 ($193k) Net assets 100 ($108k)2018 Revenue 135 ($329k) Expenses 152 ($292k) Net assets 133 ($145k)2019 Revenue 135 ($330k) Expenses 148 ($286k) Net assets 174 ($188k)2020 Revenue 156 ($381k) Expenses 180 ($346k) Net assets 205 ($223k)2021 Revenue 212 ($517k) Expenses 216 ($415k) Net assets 301 ($327k)2022 Revenue 230 ($561k) Expenses 304 ($586k) Net assets 273 ($296k)2023 Revenue 410 ($1.0M) Expenses 428 ($824k) Net assets 436 ($473k)2024 Revenue 397 ($967k) Expenses 486 ($937k) Net assets 464 ($503k)2025 Revenue 451 ($1.1M) Expenses 556 ($1.1M) Net assets 487 ($528k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (451)Expenses (556)Net assets (487)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $411k to $617k (+50%).

$116k
$159k
$192k
$230k
$372k
$411k
$617k
$668k
$704k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

66% of Child Creativity Lab’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (97% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,024 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$51k
’17
$36k
’18
$44k
’19
$34k
’20
$102k
’21
−$25k
’22
$177k
’23
$30k
’24
$29k
’25
3.5
months of
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

Tracey Hill

CEO

Board chair

Suzanne Ellingson

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed81113141517182121
Joined·+6+7+1+7+7+4+6+5
No longer listed·35065335
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $5k → $411k.

10 of 32 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 Child Creativity Lab’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 32 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

Child Creativity Lab has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 40% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

29% 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 Child Creativity Lab.

40%
largest funder
53%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 59% · 2019 82% · 2020 34% · 2021 41% · 2022 52% · 2023 49% — 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

67% of Child Creativity Lab's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

94% of Child Creativity Lab's grant income comes from California funders.

NV
CA
MO
NC
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $522k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Child Creativity Lab has grown faster than half of the 479 civil rights nonprofits its size.

Operating margin3% · below the median
Months of reserve3.5mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)21% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 479 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Child Creativity Lab

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

81% of spending goes to programs.

Program 81%Management 10%Fundraising 10%

Governance

22
board members
95%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

99%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Child Creativity Lab: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Child Creativity Lab?
Child Creativity Lab (California) receives grants from 32 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,108,479 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM JEFF AND JENNIFER GROSS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($838,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Child Creativity Lab have?
IRS filings report 32 organizations giving $2,108,479 in grants to Child Creativity Lab, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Child Creativity Lab?
THE WILLIAM JEFF AND JENNIFER GROSS FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $838,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Child Creativity Lab 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 Child Creativity Lab →

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 32 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