California · Nonprofit
DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY
DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY (California) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,522,198 to it, the largest being Broadcom Foundation ($575,005). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $21M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $4.5M
- Net assets
- $53M
What Discovery Science Center of Orange County does
Mission
We inspire and educate young minds through engaging science-based programs and exhibits to create a meaningful impact on the communities we serve.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Discovery science center - to provide a world class, hands on educational science center designed to inspire a fascination with science and math and lay a foundation for future achievement in these areas.
$11,849,178 spent$6,033,580 earned by the program85% of program spendingEducation outreach - our goal is to complement elementary curriculum with hands on instruction in science and inspire children to pursue further education in science. The education department serves over 350,000 children in the orange county, riverside, san bernadino, san diego, ventura, and los angeles areas.
$2,163,258 spent$1,253,619 earned by the program15% of program spendingField trips to discovery science center - provide science field trips to over 68,000 elementary school children to complement the california elementary education curriculum.
$786,457 earned by the program
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,012,436.
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 $63M to $53M (−16%).
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 2% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2021 78% · 2022 28% · 2023 12% · 2024 28% · 2025 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Joe Adams
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Rick Baily
Board chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $237k → $712k.
13 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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
DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% 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
45% 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 DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 18% · 2019 52% · 2020 16% · 2021 16% · 2022 32% · 2023 36% — growing more concentrated.
“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
46% of DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
72% of DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 570 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 570 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.0M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$4.0M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$28k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Discovery Science Center Leveraged Lender LLC · disregarded
- Discovery Science Center of Los Angeles · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY: 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 DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY?
- DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY (California) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,522,198 to it, the largest being Broadcom Foundation ($575,005). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $4,522,198 in grants to DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY?
- Broadcom Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $575,005 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY 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 Discovery Science Center of Orange County →
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 53 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