California · Nonprofit
FORMATIVE FOUNDATION
FORMATIVE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,496,628 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,729,204). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $488k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $3.5M
- Net assets
- $4.1M
What Formative Foundation does
Mission
The foundation's mission is to provide funding, connections and guidance in support of transformative learning experiences in steam (science, technology, engineering, art and math) for people of all ages to develop the critical thinkers and creative problem solvers needed to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
To support the dpea by providing financial resources, long term direction, and enabling systems and structures. Continuing costs are incurred ongoing to upgrade and maintain the facility and equipment and to pay instructor's salaries pursuant to the memorandum of understanding between the foundation and the school district.
$504,630 spentof which $270,614 as grants61% of program spendingMechatronics program - the new capstone project for senior year students. This project involves the comprehensive design, prototyping, fabrication and exhibition of a museum-quality kinetic exhibit.
$321,251 spentof which $225,820 as grants39% of program spendingSteam museum - the foundation and the santa barbara unified school district are collaborating on improving and expanding the academy facilities through the addition of a new state-of-the-art career technical education pavilion facility that will support the product innovation and design and media arts pathways at dphs. As planned, the facility will include a first-of-its-kind, steam teaching and learning museum in which students will display and demonstrate their professional-quality work and serve as docents and guides. The facility will be open to serve the community and be experienced as a year-round maker faire. The facility will also serve as a training institute for teachers from around the country.
$4,725 spentof which $2,489 as grants1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $830,606.
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 $1.8M to $7.0M (+285%).
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.
62% of FORMATIVE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% 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.
Chief executive
Gary Simpson
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $70k → $144k.
11 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 85% 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 FORMATIVE FOUNDATION’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
FORMATIVE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 78% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
85% 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 FORMATIVE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 40% · 2019 49% · 2020 65% · 2021 91% · 2022 59% · 2023 28% — 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
36% of FORMATIVE FOUNDATION'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
85% of FORMATIVE FOUNDATION'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 $522k that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from funders outside California, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
FORMATIVE FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like FORMATIVE FOUNDATION
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
52%
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 FORMATIVE FOUNDATION: 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 FORMATIVE FOUNDATION?
- FORMATIVE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,496,628 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,729,204). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FORMATIVE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $3,496,628 in grants to FORMATIVE FOUNDATION, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FORMATIVE FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,729,204 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FORMATIVE FOUNDATION 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 22 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