California · Nonprofit
CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS
CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $770 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($770). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $30M
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $770
- Net assets
- $23M
What Connecting Waters Charter Schools does
Mission
To help students become educated individuals who are intrinsically motivated to learn, and who have diverse yet well-developed interests. The organization is open to all students in grades k-12 seeking a non-traditional educational setting from the following california counties: stanislaus, merced, mariposa, tuolumne, calaveras, san joaquin, alameda and santa clara.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
To help students become educated individuals who are intrinsically motivated to learn, and who have diverse yet well-developed interests. The organization is open to all students in grades k-12 seeking a non-traditional educational setting. The organization operates three charter schools: connecting waters charter school, connecting waters east bay, and connecting waters central valley. For the year ended june 30, 2025, connecting water charter schools provided instruction to approximately 2,000 students over a course of 175 days.
$26,501,457 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $26,501,457.
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 2019 to 2020, from $15M to $24M (+59%).
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 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% · 2024 100% · 2025 99%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $215 → $246.
1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS’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.
Where its funders are
100% of CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $770 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS: 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 CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS?
- CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $770 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($770). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $770 in grants to CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS?
- AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $770 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CONNECTING WATERS CHARTER SCHOOLS 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 Connecting Waters Charter Schools →
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 1 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