California · Nonprofit
CHILDREN NOW
CHILDREN NOW (California) receives grants from 103 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,772,721 to it, the largest being THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT ($4,745,000). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $9.9M
- Funders on record
- 103
- Grants received
- $49M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Children Now does
Mission
Children Now harnesses our collective power to advance equitable solutions for California's kids. Children Now breaks down systemic barriers so that all children have the services and supports they need to reach their full potential. By employing a game-changing, whole-child, antiracist, connector model, we are transforming childrens advocacy, bringing together millions of diverse voices, and creating power for California kids.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
HealthChildren Nows health program focuses on ensuring that children pre-natal to age 26 have meaningful and equitable access to high-quality, culturally responsive, affordable health care, including physical, behavioral, and oral health care services, and other key services like home visiting and developmental screenings that are vital for Californias youngest children. Through our research, analysis, policy development, education, outreach, and advocacy efforts, we have achieved the following: worked with the legislature and Governor on updating current law, ensuring that children enrolling in transitional kindergarten (TK) receive oral health assessments; secured funding for 54 community-based organizations that serve infants and toddlers through $55 million in early childhood wraparound services, with the latest awards from the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative; crafted a bill to remove barriers to youth seeking support for substance use issues; built a strong coalition and communications campaign to vocalize issues around accessing mental health care under employer-sponsored coverage; led policy development efforts to allow non-licensed professionals, like…
$2,770,803 spent$138,608 earned by the program42% of program spendingEducationChildren Nows education program aims to ensure every child has access to high-quality early learning opportunities, a rigorous TK-12 education, including high-quality STEM, afterschool and summer programs, and access to affordable higher education. Through research and analysis, policy development, education and outreach, communications, convenings, and advocacy, we have worked to dismantle inequitable and racially discriminatory systems and achieved the following: protected $8.8 billion in funding for public schools during state budget negotiations; improved the distribution of LCFFs $300 million of equity multiplier funds that provide additional dollars to schools with high needs students; secured the inclusion of science on the California School Dashboard, the statewide school accountability system, benefiting 5.8 million students in the California public education system; protected the states commitment to expanding child care indefinitely; significantly improved school accountability via changes to the LCAP, requiring districts to focus on closing achievement gaps and evaluation the effectiveness of their actions of a three-year period; played a leadership role in…
$2,739,194 spent$143,670 earned by the program41% of program spendingChild WelfareChildren Nows child welfare program works to address the comprehensive health, education, and social service needs of children in the child welfare system. Through our research, policy development, education, and communications efforts, we have achieved the following: successfully protected the Family Urgent Response System (FURS), a 24/7 in-person helpline and response system for foster youth and families, which was proposed for elimination in the 2024-25 state budget despite the programs success in answering nearly 5,000 calls a year; successfully opposed an additional $178.5 million in proposed cuts to child welfare programs; helped prevent the elimination of the Housing Navigation and Maintenance Program and reductions to the Emergency Child Care Bridge Program, the Bringing Families Home Program, and Caregiver Approvals; supported coalition efforts to lift up multiple bills to protect and strengthen family economic support efforts, including creating HOPE accounts and supporting the GAINS Act for Parents Success; supported a coalition to oppose the Taxpayer and Government Accountability Act, which would have rolled back funding for programs serving children and…
$1,001,794 spent$1,666 earned by the program15% of program spendingResearch and Data CollectionChildren Nows research program produces comprehensive reports, factsheets, infographics, and data-driven policy briefs on topics related to our program areas. We produce two marquee publications: 1) the California Childrens Report Card, which is the states most comprehensive report on childrens health, education, and well-being, and provides up-to-date data on the status of Californias children, highlights outcomes disparities resulting from decades of institutional racism, addresses recent policy developments, and delivers research and data-driven recommendations for improving childrens well-being, and 2) the California County Scorecard of Childrens Well-Being, which provides policymakers and a diverse range of community leaders and other stakeholders a unique and consumable analysis with county data over time, by race and ethnicity, and relative to other counties. This interactive online tool provides a user-friendly interface so viewers can understand counties unique strengths and vulnerabilities in meeting childrens needs, as well as serious inequities in child well-being. The organization also released several research briefs and data profiles,…
$141,104 spent$20,000 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,652,895.
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 2021 to 2022, from $13M to $17M (+24%).
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 0% · 2018 1% · 2019 2% · 2020 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of CHILDREN NOW’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Jason Salzetti
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 26 funders to 49 funders, grant income rose $5.4M → $5.8M.
20 of 103 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 CHILDREN NOW’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 103 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
CHILDREN NOW has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
25% 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 CHILDREN NOW.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 17% · 2019 18% · 2020 13% · 2021 10% · 2022 12% · 2023 14% — 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
57% of CHILDREN NOW's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
81% of CHILDREN NOW's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.5M 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.
Against its field
CHILDREN NOW runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,274 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,274 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like CHILDREN NOW
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
90%
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
- Children Now Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHILDREN NOW: 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 CHILDREN NOW?
- CHILDREN NOW (California) receives grants from 103 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,772,721 to it, the largest being THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT ($4,745,000). 72 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHILDREN NOW have?
- IRS filings report 103 organizations giving $48,772,721 in grants to CHILDREN NOW, 72 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN NOW?
- THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT is the largest funder on record, with $4,745,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN NOW 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 103 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