California · Nonprofit
DREAM VOLUNTEERS
DREAM VOLUNTEERS (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $831,136 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($268,291). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 24
- Grants received
- $831k
- Net assets
- $333k
What Dream Volunteers does
Mission
Empowering the youth to be leaders and change agents around the world through academic scholarships, service-learning, leadership development, and travel opportunities. We equip young people to transform their communities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Young dreamers scholarship program exists to create leaders, and empower youth to become difference makers in their communities both locally and globally. It is made up chiefly of high school students. In chapters around the world that are connected form a network, they are identifying challenges our world faces and addressing these challenges through strategic actions. Our program entails leadership development, service-learning, international volunteer trips and academic scholarships for promising youth to attend quality secondary schools. These are youth who live in places where school is a privilege not a right, and their families are unable to pay for them to attend secondary school.
$311,542 spentof which $171,425 as grants23% of program spendingService trips are short-term travel programs for youth and families to engage in volunteer work and cultural immersion in the communities where we have young dreamer student groups. These trips range in length from one to three weeks, and typically take place during school holidays. The goal of these service trips is to open the eyes and hearts of the volunteers, and to empower the local people to become agents of change in their communities. Dream Volunteers currently operates these programs in costa rica, ghana, guatemala, india and vietnam.
$1,066,964 spent$863,871 earned by the program77% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,378,506.
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 2020 to 2021, from $157k to $895k (+469%).
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: 2021 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
23% of DREAM VOLUNTEERS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Brian Buntz
Executive director
Board chair
Karen White
Board president
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $12k → $124k.
8 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 77% 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 DREAM VOLUNTEERS’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.
How concentrated its funding is
DREAM VOLUNTEERS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
79% 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 DREAM VOLUNTEERS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 72% · 2018 59% · 2019 79% · 2020 27% · 2021 59% · 2022 47% · 2023 51% — 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
40% of DREAM VOLUNTEERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
77% of DREAM VOLUNTEERS'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 $189k that is directly attributable, 56% of it comes from funders outside California, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $641k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
DREAM VOLUNTEERS has grown faster than half of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like DREAM VOLUNTEERS
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
97%
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 DREAM VOLUNTEERS: 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 DREAM VOLUNTEERS?
- DREAM VOLUNTEERS (California) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $831,136 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($268,291). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DREAM VOLUNTEERS have?
- IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $831,136 in grants to DREAM VOLUNTEERS, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DREAM VOLUNTEERS?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $268,291 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DREAM VOLUNTEERS 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 Dream Volunteers →
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 24 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