California · Nonprofit
CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT
CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $617,274 to it, the largest being THE COETA AND DONALD BARKER FOUNDATION ($165,500). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $617k
- Net assets
- $3.9M
What Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert does
Mission
The Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert is a valuable community resource for children and families to experience the joy of learning about themselves and the world around them. The museum inspires personal growth by engaging curiosity and creativity through hands-on explorations of exhibits and programs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The museum's primary program service is to inspire and promote intellectual curiosity and self-expression through various inventive and interactive exhibits and programs at its facility in rancho mirage, california. The museum's educational program includes discovery camps, art and science camps, workshops, and field trips.
$1,540,292 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,540,292.
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 $5.3M to $6.1M (+15%).
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 4% · 2018 6% · 2019 4% · 2020 20% · 2021 64% · 2022 55% · 2023 59% · 2024 1% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 7 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
Cindy Burreson
CEO
Board chair
Catherine Robinson
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $79k → $85k.
4 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT’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
CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
44% 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'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 48% · 2019 54% · 2020 73% · 2021 54% · 2022 40% · 2023 32% — 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
29% of CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% 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
82% of CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $62k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT's funding base is broadening — from 7 funders to 9 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT
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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT: 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'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT?
- CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $617,274 to it, the largest being THE COETA AND DONALD BARKER FOUNDATION ($165,500). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $617,274 in grants to CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT?
- THE COETA AND DONALD BARKER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $165,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM OF THE DESERT 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 Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert →
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 22 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