California · Nonprofit
CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC
CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $100,387 to it, the largest being LEGACY HEALTH ENDOWMENT ($100,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $17M
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $100k
- Net assets
- $16M
What Creative Alternatives Inc does
Mission
Creative alternatives, inc. Is organized for the purpose of child abuse prevention. The agency is engaged in providing care for children with emotional and social problems.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Creative alternatives operates fourteen short term residential therapeutic program (strtp) homes in stanislaus and merced counties.our strtp home environment is designed to prepare emotionally fragile youth for the transition from strtp living to reunification with their natural family, foster care, or in some cases, emancipation. In a nurturing environment, our children are taught independent living skills which range from basic daily functioning tasks to money management and job training. Youth are empowered, on an individualized basis, by learning appropriate communication and socialization skills, problem solving techniques and goal setting. Our youth are taught coping strategies which offer them alternatives to self-destructive behavior.
$6,855,287 spent47% of program spendingCreative alternatives foster family agency's mission is to deliver comprehensive therapeutic services in a nurturing environment to youth and young adults. Our view is that once a child's chaotic beginning has been stabilized, positive changes and healthy development can occur. When children are placed with our agency for the purpose of reunification, adoption or emancipation, we gear treatment plans toward the specific needs of the child. Our goal is to place all children in our care into home environments that encourage and allow them to develop healthy, positive social attachments.
$2,489,608 spent17% of program spendingReyn franca school (stanislaus county), reyn franca annex (stanislaus county), grace bishop school (merced county) and creative alternatives school (fresno county) are nonpublic schools designed to meet the special and unique needs of every student. The majority of the students we serve have a variety of emotional, social, and behavioral problems. We serve grades k-12 with the majority of placements in grades 3-12. Emphasis is placed on improving social skills by requiring students to be held accountable for their actions. A system of rewards and consequences is used to assist in improving their social skills. Academic subjects are given equal attention.
$4,443,012 spent$4,711,838 earned by the program30% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$827,323 spent$657,964 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,615,230.
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 2022 to 2023, from $15M to $20M (+37%).
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 67% · 2018 70% · 2019 72% · 2020 61% · 2021 69% · 2022 64% · 2023 70% · 2024 59% · 2025 54%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
54% of CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Stephanie Joy Biddle
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $108 → $78.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 2 of 3 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
CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 100% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
100% of CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC's grant income comes from California funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $387 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
CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,297 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,297 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC
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
96%
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 CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC: 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 CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC?
- CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC (California) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $100,387 to it, the largest being LEGACY HEALTH ENDOWMENT ($100,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $100,387 in grants to CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC?
- LEGACY HEALTH ENDOWMENT is the largest funder on record, with $100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CREATIVE ALTERNATIVES INC 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 Creative Alternatives →
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 3 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