California · Nonprofit
City Surf Project
City Surf Project (California) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,975,860 to it, the largest being Endaoment Inc ($320,419). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 64
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $362k
What City Surf Project does
Mission
To ensure equitable access to the coastline and improve the health and well-being of Bay Area youth, through surf instruction. We use surfing as a vehicle to foster respect for nature, healthy living, personal growth, diversity, equity and inclusion.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Youth Surfing: Programs consist of two separate program models, Intro to Surfing and Surfing 101, and serves 300 students per year. Youth Surfing serves middle and high school students, through partnerships with San Francisco Unified School District and community-based organizations. On average Youth Surfing conducts five surf outings a week and serves 12 different schools. Surfing allows students to accomplish something new and challenging, and see themselves and their peers from a different perspective. Summer Camps: Every summer, City Surf Project works to provide access to the ocean and surfing through week-long surf camps. During the summer we focus on Bay Area community-based partner organizations.
$483,156 spent$66,605 earned by the program65% of program spendingLeadership Development Programs: City Surf Project offers leadership development programs for both high school and transitional-aged youth. These programs offer job skills, career exploration, personal growth, and mentorship. By investing in the leadership skills of youth participants, CSP is building a pipeline of young surfers who will continue to lead and grow the surf community and our organization.a. SILT Program: SILT (Surf Instructors in Leadership Training) is an internship program serving 12 high school students who have previously participated in a CSP Youth Surfing program. Students are trained to be successful surf instructors and mentors, including First Aid/CPR and lifeguard training. Students assist CSP core staff and Alumni Surf Coaches as junior surf instructors during our summer camps. At the end of the six-week program, SILTs receive a stipend for their summer work.b. Alumni Program: CSPs Alumni program uses two approaches to provide transitional aged youth (ages 18-24) access to surfing after high school. Alumni Surf Days are offered on a regular basis and are open to any former CSP Youth Surfing participants. CSP provides equipment, transportation, and snacks…
$258,237 spent35% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $741,393.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2020 to 2021, from $425k to $731k (+72%).
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: 2018 22% · 2019 36% · 2020 19% · 2021 18% · 2022 20% · 2023 30% · 2024 34% · 2025 41%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of City Surf Project’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $106k → $250k.
14 of 64 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 City Surf Project’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 64 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
City Surf Project has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 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 City Surf Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 23% · 2019 22% · 2020 16% · 2021 21% · 2022 54% · 2023 16% — 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
40% of City Surf Project'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
73% of City Surf Project's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $979k 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
City Surf Project has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,767 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like City Surf Project
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
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 City Surf Project: 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 City Surf Project?
- City Surf Project (California) receives grants from 64 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,975,860 to it, the largest being Endaoment Inc ($320,419). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does City Surf Project have?
- IRS filings report 64 organizations giving $1,975,860 in grants to City Surf Project, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of City Surf Project?
- Endaoment Inc is the largest funder on record, with $320,419 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like City Surf Project 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 City Surf Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 64 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