Skip to content
Plinth
Funding

California · Nonprofit

DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY

DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY (California) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,409,398 to it, the largest being Broadcom Foundation ($575,005). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$21M
Revenue FY2025
53
Funders on record
$4.4M
Grants received
$53M
Net assets
32/53 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 5%

Against its field

DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 501 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin20% · above the median
Months of reserve1.9mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)6% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 501 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($14M) Expenses 100 ($17M) Net assets 100 ($46M)2018 Revenue 88 ($12M) Expenses 95 ($16M) Net assets 92 ($42M)2019 Revenue 120 ($16M) Expenses 86 ($15M) Net assets 92 ($42M)2020 Revenue 56 ($7.6M) Expenses 145 ($25M) Net assets 55 ($25M)2021 Revenue 94 ($13M) Expenses 45 ($7.7M) Net assets 67 ($31M)2022 Revenue 192 ($26M) Expenses 74 ($13M) Net assets 96 ($44M)2023 Revenue 101 ($14M) Expenses 81 ($14M) Net assets 97 ($45M)2024 Revenue 134 ($18M) Expenses 91 ($15M) Net assets 105 ($48M)2025 Revenue 157 ($21M) Expenses 101 ($17M) Net assets 116 ($53M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (157)Expenses (101)Net assets (116)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

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).

This organization
Typical peer · 816 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$3.3M
17
$4.1M
18
$1.7M
19
$17M
20
$5.1M
21
$14M
22
$34k
23
$2.9M
24
$4.4M
25
1.9
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

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)32% 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

46% 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.

13%
largest funder
34%
top three
~15
effective funders

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.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

71% of DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY's grant income comes from California funders.

IL
NV
PA
CA
MO
VA
DE
NC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
California out of state home

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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 53 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

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.

Federal$4.0M
grants $4.0Mcontracts $0
21
23
Top agencies
  • 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

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In California

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

82% of spending goes to programs.

Program 82%Management 12%Fundraising 6%

Governance

25
board members
96%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

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

CA

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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. 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 $4,409,398 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 $4,409,398 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.

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 53funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing