California · Nonprofit
Hero Workshop
Hero Workshop (California) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,300 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($6,100). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $794k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $10k
- Net assets
- $58k
What Hero Workshop does
Mission
The Hero Workshop is an interactive storytelling community where young people come together in a safe and welcoming space to play tabletop role-playing games. Through these shared adventures participants build confidence develop leadership skills and strengthen their collaboration and narrative abilities. Our programs foster essential soft skills-such as communicating creative ideas building consensus and making informed group decisions-while also supporting academic growth in areas like math problem-solving reading writing and storytelling.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Hero Workshop delivers dynamic after-school enrichment programs that spark imagination foster academic growth in numeracy and algebraic thinking and build logic and problem-solving skills through teamwork collaboration and storytelling. This year we welcomed 31.8% more youth participants benefiting students from 9 local schools. In addition to our school-year offerings we host camps and workshops during spring summer and winter breaks. Our workshops nurture creativity self-awareness leadership and teamwork. This transformative program empowers teens and young adults to navigate identity transitions and personal growth-going beyond traditional mentorship. We also introduced a one-of-a-kind Story-Based Athletics Program featuring sword fighting and fitness classes that encourage participants to get active while engaging in imaginative adventures. To support our programs The Hero Workshop sells game-related merchandise-including dice figurines and shirts-which helps fund our mission and events.
$542,477 spent$226,741 earned by the program94% of program spendingKeeping true to our motto Never turn a kid away! Hero Workshops sponsors a scholarship program that helps underprivileged youth participate in our programs by assisting with or fully covering membership camp and clinic fees. During the year Hero Workshops allocated 7% of its revenue to directly support participating youth by removing financial barriers to access.
$37,704 spent6% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $580,181.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2022 to 2023, from $14k to $66k (+358%).
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.
26% of Hero Workshop’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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
Scott Stevens
Chief executive officer
Board chair
BEN van der FLUIT
Business development chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
1 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 Hero Workshop’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
Hero Workshop leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 98%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
59% 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 Hero Workshop.
“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.
Where its funders are
59% of Hero Workshop'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 $4k that is directly attributable, 64% of it comes from funders outside California, across 3 states.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Hero Workshop has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Hero Workshop
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
47%
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 Hero Workshop: 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 Hero Workshop?
- Hero Workshop (California) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,300 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($6,100). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Hero Workshop have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $10,300 in grants to Hero Workshop, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Hero Workshop?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $6,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Hero Workshop 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 Hero Workshop →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 4 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