California · Nonprofit
EXCEPTIONAL MINDS
EXCEPTIONAL MINDS (California) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,688,845 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,260,260). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $7.7M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What Exceptional Minds does
Mission
To provide young adults on the autism spectrum with customized instruction and hands on experience to earn a living in the fields of mutli-media, computer animation and post production.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Full time vocational program: our full time program provides skills based training and behavioral support to teens and adults with autism spectrum disorder. It is a three year program (10 months per year) where students receive comprehensive training in digital arts and post production, along with workplace readiness skills to prepare them for careers in the creative industry.
$1,836,302 spentof which $155,667 as grants$1,765,900 earned by the program58% of program spendingStudio programs: graduates of the full time program apply the skills acquired at Exceptional Minds to generate program revenue through paid client projects, typically for major motion pictures and television shows. Graduate artists also receive ongoing support and training from supervisors and Exceptional Minds staff, with the goal of eventual placement in competitive outside employment.
$737,696 spent$435,083 earned by the program23% of program spendingPart time skills and vocational programs: students participate in after school and saturday classes designed to build specialized skills related to animation and visual effects career pathways. Students may also receive one on one tutoring to develop specific competencies needed to advance in the program. The part time offerings include a six week summer program where teens and adults with autism spectrum disorder gain foundational skills to become animators and media artists.
$587,847 spent$672,204 earned by the program19% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,161,845.
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 $3.4M to $5.1M (+48%).
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: 2018 0% · 2019 1% · 2020 0% · 2022 6% · 2023 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of EXCEPTIONAL MINDS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Board chair
Patricia Turney
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $622k → $1.2M.
13 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 48% 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 EXCEPTIONAL MINDS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 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
EXCEPTIONAL MINDS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
51% 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 EXCEPTIONAL MINDS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 48% · 2019 59% · 2020 41% · 2021 52% · 2022 37% · 2023 44% — 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
39% of EXCEPTIONAL MINDS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
EXCEPTIONAL MINDS draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.7M 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
EXCEPTIONAL MINDS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like EXCEPTIONAL MINDS
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
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 EXCEPTIONAL MINDS: 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 EXCEPTIONAL MINDS?
- EXCEPTIONAL MINDS (California) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,688,845 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($3,260,260). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EXCEPTIONAL MINDS have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $7,688,845 in grants to EXCEPTIONAL MINDS, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EXCEPTIONAL MINDS?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,260,260 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EXCEPTIONAL MINDS 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 Exceptional Minds →
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 49 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