California · Nonprofit
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
FOOD FOR THOUGHT (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $302,770 to it, the largest being THE MARISLA FOUNDATION ($175,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2026
- $68k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $303k
- Net assets
- $118k
What Food for Thought does
Mission
FOOD FOR THOUGHT was organized to improve the nutritional status and food awareness of children in the Ojai Unified School Distict. With the help of staff, board volunteers and donors, our program has helped raise the importance of healthy childhood nutritional practices and the intregal role of agriculture in our community. Our program components are nutrition education, garden-based learning, agricultural literacy through farm field trips, advocating fresh local seasonal produce in all school meals, and minimizing the ecological footprint of our school system by minimizing landfill waste, use of toxic chemicals, conserving energy, water, paper and other resources.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Food for Thought Ojai operates and maintains school gardens at public schools in Ojai, CA. for the purposes of educating children about good nutrition, garden-based foods, and healthy eating choices. For the current school year, we were active on 3 Ojai Unified School District elementary school campuses, Topa Topa, Mira Monte, and Meiners Oaks. Our employee duties include setting up activities for school children in the garden on a weekly basis, regular garden maintenance, and interacting with staff and community.Our tools are standard garden tools such as small shovels and rakes, wheelbarrows, watering cans, etc. Twice a year, our staff provides nutrition lessons in the classroom for grades k-6, in addition to the weekly garden lessons.
$91,890 spentof which $10,000 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $91,890.
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 2024 to 2025, from $71k to $152k (+114%).
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.
100% of FOOD FOR THOUGHT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (65% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 10 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 4 funders, grant income rose $35k → $50k.
4 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 FOOD FOR THOUGHT’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
FOOD FOR THOUGHT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2019 71% · 2020 55% · 2021 99% · 2022 63% · 2023 70% — 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
40% of FOOD FOR THOUGHT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
98% of FOOD FOR THOUGHT's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $32k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
FOOD FOR THOUGHT's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,015 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2026
Organizations like FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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.
Public support
0%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FOOD FOR THOUGHT: 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 FOOD FOR THOUGHT?
- FOOD FOR THOUGHT (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $302,770 to it, the largest being THE MARISLA FOUNDATION ($175,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOOD FOR THOUGHT have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $302,770 in grants to FOOD FOR THOUGHT, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOOD FOR THOUGHT?
- THE MARISLA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $175,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOOD FOR THOUGHT 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 Food for Thought →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2026 (financials across 2017–2026), and the filings of 12 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