California · Nonprofit
FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE
FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE (California) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,456,766 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($2,622,500). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.2M
- Funders on record
- 100
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $8.7M
What Foundation for Students Rising Above does
Mission
Sra empowers students facing systemic barriers to define and find success through their education, career, and in life. We envision a world in which every person can achieve economic and social equity. Our college completion and workforce (continued on schedule o) development programming helps students realize their potential by guiding and supporting them through their senior year of high school, college, and into the workforce. This programming consists of three pillars: a one-on-one advising program, a technology-based social enterprise tool that provides an online resource for students and partners nationwide, and a virtual advising program.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Sra's college completion and workforce development programming has three entry points: rising stars, which provides a one-on-one advising program; students online achieving results ("soar"), a virtual advising program; and, the sra hub, a technology-based social enterprise tool that provides an online resource for students and partners nationwide. Sra's rising stars program provides comprehensive one-on-one advising and mentoring, financial assistance, mental health support, and career development guidance to support students in college access, completion, and workplace development. Experienced college and career advisors collaborate with students from their final year of high school through college graduation. (continued on schedule o)soar is sra's virtual, cohort-based advising program designed to increase college persistance and graduation rates, along with support towards the path to career-ladder jobs. Each soar cohort is matched with a college and career advisor who facilitates the cohort's monthly, curriculum-based hangouts. Cohorts are arranged by school year, supporting high school students transitioning to college through four years of college to graduation. The…
$3,456,652 spentof which $951,506 as grants$175,013 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,456,652.
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 2019 to 2020, from $6.6M to $14M (+115%).
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 13% · 2023 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Julius Robinson
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 31 funders to 38 funders, grant income rose $1.7M → $2.9M.
26 of 100 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 100 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
FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
67% 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 FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 27% · 2019 32% · 2020 37% · 2021 23% · 2022 23% · 2023 20% — 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
44% of FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
63% of FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE'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 $6.5M that is directly attributable, 81% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE's revenue grew 16% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
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 FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE: 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 FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE?
- FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE (California) receives grants from 100 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,456,766 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($2,622,500). 60 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE have?
- IRS filings report 100 organizations giving $17,456,766 in grants to FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE, 60 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE?
- THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,622,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE 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 Foundation for Students Rising Above →
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 100 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