California · Nonprofit
Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek
Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,318,457 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($990,345). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $226k
What Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek does
Mission
Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek works at the intersection of social,environmental, and climate justice, grounded in strong university and communitypartnerships, to deliver education, green infrastructure, and climate safeneighborhoods. Groundworks mission is to bring about the regeneration, improvementand management of the environment through community-based partnerships which empowerpeople, businesses and organizations to promote economic and social well-being.Groundwork is committed to revitalizing the Chollas Creek Watershed and itscommunities.Groundwork San Diego has spent 18 years building trusted relationships in the Chollas Creek Watershed through environmental and climate justice initiatives led by and for the community. Our flagship EarthLab Climate Action Center, developed on previously vacant land at Millennial Tech Middle School, has educated thousands of students and families about environmental science and climate resilience. We maintain active partnerships with local
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Watershed InfrastructurePlanning, design, and construction of community-driven climate resilience projectscontinue to be a central component of Groundworks work in the Chollas Creek Watershed. One of only a select group of NGOs approved to deliver capital projects approved to improve City assets, Groundwork has generated over $11.2M in funding to restore and transform Chollas Creek and support its neighborhoods by advancing climate-resilient parks; active transportation bikeways; expanded tree canopies. These projects aim to reconnect communities through climate-resilient infrastructure and honor the Kumeyaay history in the watershed through cultural signage.EducationThe Groundwork EarthLab Educators deliver place-based learning experiences and projects during the school day, after school, and in the summer to over 1500 K-12 youth of the San Diego Unified School Districts Lincoln Cluster. The Experiential Early Learning Program provided students with outdoor STEAM education that increased understanding of ecological dynamics affecting their community. The Middle School project-based learnn program empowered students in grades 68 to tackle real-world, local climate action topics…
$1,858,740 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,858,740.
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 2021 to 2022, from $599k to $1.3M (+125%).
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: 2020 58% · 2021 74% · 2022 56% · 2023 61%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% 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.
Chief executive
Leslie Reynolds
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $15k → $460k.
4 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek’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
Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
99% 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 Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 59% · 2021 34% · 2022 52% · 2023 52% — 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
75% of Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
53% of Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek'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 $1.1M that is directly attributable, 86% of it comes from funders outside California, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek is better cushioned than half of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $121k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$121k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek
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
98% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek: 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 Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek?
- Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,318,457 to it, the largest being THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ($990,345). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $2,318,457 in grants to Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek?
- THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $990,345 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek 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 Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek →
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 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