California · Nonprofit
INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,607,520 to it, the largest being CHARLES AND HELEN SCHWAB FOUNDATION ($7,240,614). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $36M
- Net assets
- $4.6M
What Innovate Public Schools does
Mission
Build the parent and community demand for world-class public schools, and to accelerate the growth of these schools, particularly for low-income students, students of colors, and students with special needs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Research & policy - the organization publishes actionable research and data on school quality, designed to show the urgency of improving public schools, particularly for historically underserved students. Through public events, workshops, and online resources. The organization works to get this research and data into the hands of parents, public officials, business leaders, school leaders, and local education advocates.
$677,841 spent$255,493 earned by the program27% of program spendingCommunity organizing - pparents have a unique and critical role in improving public schools. Innovate Public Schools empowers parents across the nation to build organizations in their communities that can successfully advocate for better schools and hold the system accountable to the needs of their children.
$1,525,208 spent60% of program spendingConsulting & training - the organization trains and develops professional community organizers and parent volunteer leaders from across the country through the community organizer training program and the national parent leader institute.
$256,740 spent10% of program spendingStatewide - innovate organizes thousands of parents throughout california. In 2025, 10 parent leaders served on innovate's ca statewide parent leader board. The ca statewide parent leader board is a body of volunteer parent leaders representing thousands of black and latino parents, parents of students with learning differences, and parents of english learners. Parent leaders live and work in los angeles, san francisco, redwood city, and east palo alto.
$96,857 spent4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,556,646.
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 $8.7M to $6.4M (−26%).
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 8% · 2022 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS’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. 3 of the last 8 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
Michelle Vilchez
CEO
Board chair
Antonio Gutierrez
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $3.6M → $3.7M.
15 of 50 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
45% 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 INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 25% · 2019 24% · 2020 32% · 2021 18% · 2022 22% · 2023 22% — 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
52% of INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
67% of INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $13M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS is better cushioned than half of the 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,504 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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
54% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
54%
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 INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 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 INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
- INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $35,607,520 to it, the largest being CHARLES AND HELEN SCHWAB FOUNDATION ($7,240,614). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $35,607,520 in grants to INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
- CHARLES AND HELEN SCHWAB FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $7,240,614 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like INNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 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.
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 50 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