California · Nonprofit
Childrens Creativity Museum
Childrens Creativity Museum (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,047,254 to it, the largest being THE YERBA BUENA GARDENS CONSERVANCY ($1,705,368). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 24
- Grants received
- $3.0M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Childrens Creativity Museum does
Mission
The childrens creativity museum (CCM) is a hands-on, multimedia arts and technology museum for children. Its mission is to nurture creativity and collaboration in all children and families. We believe that creative expression, innovation, and critical thinking are core to fostering the next generation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Creativity Museum and Creativity Theater:The Childrens Creativity Museum (CCM) was founded originally as Zeum through a downtown San Francisco community redevelopment effort in the 1990s. Our 25+ years operating at the cross-section of art, design, and innovation infuses a look - and please touch! experience rarely found in museums. By providing a safe environment for children, youth, and families to engage in play-based learning, explore their curiosities, and tackle hands-on design challenges, we build essential creative confidence and collaboration skills.CCM proudly connects with children and families in our community through school field trips (serving primarily Title I schools for free), (continued on Schedule O)
$1,192,023 spent$1,550,049 earned by the program64% of program spendingNetworks and Outreach:CCM works with colleagues at local, state, and national levels to expand opportunities for children and youth typically underrepresented in the arts and sciences. Nationally, we help lead NASAs National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net), serve as a founding member of the LEGO Playful Learning Museum Network, jointly manage howtosmile.org and its online STEM activities for all ages, and advise on a range of projects using analog and digital technology to engage children and caregivers in art-and-science learning. Regionally, we facilitate a community of practice to leverage the power of play in museums throughout Northern California. Locally, we amplify the voices of AAPI communities in partnership with the SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District. (continued on Schedule O)
$628,891 spentof which $281,700 as grants34% of program spendingHistoric Carousel:Originally destined for downtown San Francisco in 1906, Yerba Buena's Looff carousel enjoyed nearly six decades as a signature ride at Playland at the Beach along the Citys western edge. Now in residence on the corner of 4th & Howard, the carousel has served as a Yerba Buena landmark since 1998. The carousel, renamed in 2014 in honor of San Francisco Redevelopment Commissioner and civil rights advocate LeRoy King, operates on weekends and select holidays throughout the year.
$44,534 spent2% of program spendingCreativity Museum and Creativity Theater(continued from Form 990 Page 2)discounted group visits for youth-serving organizations such as YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs, and free festivals in our courtyard, Creativity Theater, and adjacent carousel plaza. When our community gathers to play, creativity and collaboration follows regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or income.Networks and Outreach(continued from Form 990 Page 2)We regularly participate in neighborhood festivals, local outreach events, online webinars, and nationwide conferences to promote joyful, open-ended learning.
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,865,448.
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 $933k to $2.0M (+110%).
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 28% · 2018 28% · 2019 37% · 2020 12% · 2021 20% · 2022 52% · 2023 15% · 2024 32% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
43% of Childrens Creativity Museum’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Carol Tang
Executive Director
Board chair
Raj Kapoor
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 5 funders, grant income rose $38k → $713k.
9 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 Childrens Creativity Museum’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
Childrens Creativity Museum leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
72% 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 Childrens Creativity Museum.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 45% · 2019 33% · 2020 53% · 2021 27% · 2022 57% · 2023 67% — growing more concentrated.
“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
45% of Childrens Creativity Museum's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
84% of Childrens Creativity Museum's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $352k 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
Childrens Creativity Museum runs a healthier operating margin than half 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
Government funding Childrens Creativity Museum receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $457k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$431k
- National Endowment for the Arts$26k
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 Childrens Creativity Museum
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
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 Childrens Creativity Museum: 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 Childrens Creativity Museum?
- Childrens Creativity Museum (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,047,254 to it, the largest being THE YERBA BUENA GARDENS CONSERVANCY ($1,705,368). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Childrens Creativity Museum have?
- IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $3,047,254 in grants to Childrens Creativity Museum, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Childrens Creativity Museum?
- THE YERBA BUENA GARDENS CONSERVANCY is the largest funder on record, with $1,705,368 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Childrens Creativity Museum 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 24 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