California · Nonprofit
DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 54 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,753,632 to it, the largest being Inland Empire Community Foundation ($1,047,958). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.1M
- Funders on record
- 54
- Grants received
- $2.8M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Desert Scholarship Foundation does
Mission
The mission of Desert Scholarship Foundation is to administer and manage scholarship programs to facilitate more opportunities for neighbors to better themselves through education.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Provide scholarships to students for post-secondary education, education counseling, primary education, continuing education and adult basic education.
$1,208,975 spentof which $914,288 as grants$2,363,014 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,208,975.
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 $7.5M to $13M (+71%).
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.
94% of DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Chief executive
Blair Moss
President & CEO
Board chair
Gay Weake
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $95k → $143k.
18 of 54 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 86% 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 DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 54 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
DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
86% 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 DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 35% · 2019 37% · 2020 36% · 2021 32% · 2022 34% · 2023 32% — 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
31% of DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 37% 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
86% of DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION'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 $389k that is directly attributable, 65% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,761 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,761 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
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
97% 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 DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION: 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 DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION?
- DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 54 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,753,632 to it, the largest being Inland Empire Community Foundation ($1,047,958). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 54 organizations giving $2,753,632 in grants to DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION?
- Inland Empire Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,047,958 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DESERT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION 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 Desert Scholarship →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 54 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