California · Nonprofit
GROWING PLACE
GROWING PLACE (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $556,046 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($268,607). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.4M
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $556k
- Net assets
- $5.0M
What Growing Place does
Mission
Early childhood education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The 2024-25 school year was one of changes for Growing Place. Julie baczewski was appointed the interim executive director in august 2024 as pauline mcpeake moved on to take a position elsewhere. Our board of directors conducted a nationwide search to find a new permanent executive director and dr. Cris lozon took that position in july 2025. Amanda honda, the lab school campus director, resigned at the end of the year and was replaced by interim campus director, lynette bravo.the year will be remembered as that of the palisades fires which erupted in january 2025. Several of our families and employees were displaced by this natural disaster, including julie baczewski. The fires led to the replacement of the sand in all our sand areas at an extra expense.for the first time ever, we initiated a parent n me class on our ocean park campus. Although it was a year of change, it was also a year of steadiness as julie maintained the status quo while waiting for the new ed.
$7,440,157 spent$7,491,648 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $7,440,157.
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 2023 to 2024, from $4.0M to $8.1M (+105%).
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: 2017 5% · 2018 6% · 2019 6% · 2020 43% · 2021 19% · 2022 12% · 2023 5% · 2024 3% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
10% of GROWING PLACE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Jane Meng
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $6k → $118k.
7 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 83% 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 GROWING PLACE’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
GROWING PLACE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 GROWING PLACE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 50% · 2020 39% · 2021 97% · 2022 51% · 2023 48% — 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
33% of GROWING PLACE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
83% of GROWING PLACE'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 $94k that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from California funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $462k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
GROWING PLACE runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like GROWING PLACE
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
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 GROWING PLACE: 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 GROWING PLACE?
- GROWING PLACE (California) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $556,046 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($268,607). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 83% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GROWING PLACE have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $556,046 in grants to GROWING PLACE, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GROWING PLACE?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $268,607 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GROWING PLACE 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 Growing Place →
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