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California · Nonprofit

GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY

GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY (California) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $376,926 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($103,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$557k
Funders on record
10
Grants received
$377k
Net assets
$2.3M
7/10 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 15%
01What it does

What Guiding Light Academy does

Mission

Mission / Objectives Guiding Light aims to provide a space where individuals are able to strengthen their bond with Allah (God), understanding & implementing the word of Allah (God) and the traditions of the final Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah (God) be upon him).In addition, Guiding Light works to strengthen the social fabric of the western Muslim community by providing a religiously inspired gathering space for Muslims of all ages and backgrounds.Achievements2024, our 12th year in operation, was filled with continued progressive growth. 1) Hifdh Program: In September 2014, we began a full-time Hifdh (memorization of the Quran) program at Guiding Light. We currently have ten full-time students who attend Monday to Friday . In addition we have now graduated some of our students from the program and continue to graduate 3 students on an average a year. (subject to successful memorization)2) Maktab Program (Quran Classes): Our weekday evening Quran recitation classes for children

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. "allah guides to his light whom he wills" (quraan 24:35) this verse is the inspiration behind our name, guiding light. Our mission is to illuminate a path to allah (god) with the light of the holy quaran and the radiant sunnah (prophetic tradition).

    $231,747 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $231,747.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($83k) Expenses 100 ($65k) Net assets 100 ($98k)2018 Revenue 189 ($157k) Expenses 103 ($67k) Net assets 203 ($198k)2019 Revenue 247 ($205k) Expenses 127 ($82k) Net assets 340 ($331k)2020 Revenue 511 ($424k) Expenses 157 ($102k) Net assets 679 ($663k)2021 Revenue 819 ($680k) Expenses 370 ($240k) Net assets 1198 ($1.2M)2022 Revenue 441 ($367k) Expenses 327 ($212k) Net assets 1357 ($1.3M)2023 Revenue 642 ($534k) Expenses 430 ($279k) Net assets 1635 ($1.6M)2024 Revenue 627 ($521k) Expenses 399 ($259k) Net assets 1959 ($1.9M)2025 Revenue 671 ($557k) Expenses 357 ($232k) Net assets 2382 ($2.3M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (671)Expenses (357)Net assets (2382)Peer revenue range

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 $663k to $1.2M (+76%).

$98k
$198k
$331k
$663k
$1.2M
$1.3M
$1.6M
$1.9M
$2.3M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

85% of GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (100% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 15,288 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$18k
’17
$91k
’18
$123k
’19
$322k
’20
$440k
’21
$155k
’22
$255k
’23
$262k
’24
$326k
’25
40
months of
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.

2019202020212022202320242025
Listed5566666
Joined·+0+1+0+0+0+0
No longer listed·000000
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $12k → $61k.

7 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 98% 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 GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY’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

GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 27% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

98% 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 GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY.

27%
largest funder
70%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 51% · 2022 41% · 2023 32% — 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

40% of GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y

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 GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY'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 $6k that is directly attributable, 62% of it comes from California funders.

NJ
CT
CA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’21
’22
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $371k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 7,334 religion nonprofits its size.

Operating margin58% · top quartile
Months of reserve40.2mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)27% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,334 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

100% of spending goes to programs.

Program 100%Management 0%Fundraising 0%

Governance

6
board members
0%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

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 GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY: 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.

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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 GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY?
GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY (California) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $376,926 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($103,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 98% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY have?
IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $376,926 in grants to GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY?
AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $103,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like GUIDING LIGHT ACADEMY 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 Guiding Light Academy →

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 10 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