California · Nonprofit
CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION
CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,743,585 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($898,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $1.0M
What Circle of Life Connection does
Mission
Circle of Life Connection provides support to charitable projects and campaigns working towards a more sustainable, just and peaceful world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Fiscal sponsorship program: Circle of Life Connection provides low-cost fiscal sponsorship, fundraising advising, and strategic support to mission-aligned charitable projects. In 2025, circle of life supported: foodshed cooperative, solidarity farm, arif urban agrarian collective, seed stewards, land & liberation and black to yoga.
$1,554,386 spentof which $1,548,781 as grants98% of program spendingAction support program: the action support program leverages the public notoriety of julia butterfly hill and provides ongoing advocacy for environmental and social justice causes.we engage online and at in-person at events and mutual aid opportunities. This program also directly supports aligned charitable projects via fundraising, programmatic, and marketing support. In 2025, circle of life also partnered with the team behind the broadway musical, redwood, to widely promote the message that nature is a source of healing and must be protected.
$38,773 spent2% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,593,159.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2022 to 2023, from $416k to $1.0M (+142%).
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: 2022 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 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
Ina Pockrass
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $21k → $1.4M.
12 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION’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
CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
62% 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 CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 95% · 2020 50% · 2021 35% · 2022 40% · 2023 21% — 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 CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION'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
55% of CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.7M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION
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
68%
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 CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION: 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 CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION?
- CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,743,585 to it, the largest being THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($898,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $3,743,585 in grants to CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION?
- THE SCHMIDT FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $898,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CIRCLE OF LIFE CONNECTION 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 2020–2025), 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