California · Nonprofit
INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC
INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC (California) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,479,004 to it, the largest being THE OROKAWA FOUNDATION INC ($600,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What Insideout Writers Inc does
Mission
The mission of insideout writers is to reduce the juvenile recidivism rate by providing a range of services that evolves to meet the needs of currently and formerly incarcerated youth and young adults. Using creative writing as a catalyst for personal transformation, these young people are empowered with the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully re-integrate into our communities, becoming advocates for their future.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Writing program - the writing program was designed to provide youth incarcerated at los angeles juvenile detention facilities with activities that discourage violence and support positive social values. Youth are encouraged to express themselves through writing and other pro-social activities rather than through violence. The writing program offers weekly and bi-weekly creative writing classes led by volunteer teachers; annual writers' retreats for all iow students at each facility to come together as writers to celebrate their accomplishments; and quarterly anthology, which is a compilation of writings from both the writing and alumni programs.
$402,820 spent32% of program spendingAlumni program - recognizing the critical need for comprehensive reentry programs, iow launched the alumni program in 2009 to provide a continuum of care for writing program students to support their transition back into our communities. The goal of the alumni program is to reduce participants likelihood of reoffending and to increase their skills and capacity to become self-sustaining, productive members of our communities. The alumni program is comprised of six interconnected components: 1) transitional case management, 2) life skills workshops, 3) mentoring, 4) writing classes, 5) community engagement activities, and 6) cultural events and field trips.
$83,611 spent7% of program spendingPrison insight program (pip) - pip is an extension of iow's writing program in select california state prisons including the california correctional institution, kern valley state prison, and ironwood state prison. Pip is funded by the california arts council's arts-in-corrections program and allows iow's writing program students from juvenile halls who have been transferred to state prisons to remain engaged in iow's creative writing classes while serving out the remainder of their time.
$476,209 spent$1,927,258 earned by the program37% of program spendingDiversion program
$310,065 spent24% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,272,705.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.8M to $2.8M (+56%).
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 66% · 2018 63% · 2019 66% · 2020 58% · 2021 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
22% of INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Jimmy Wu
Executive director
Board chair
Todd Rubenstein
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $72k → $338k.
14 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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
INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
43% 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 INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 56% · 2019 40% · 2020 53% · 2021 33% · 2022 30% · 2023 30% — 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
24% of INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC: 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 INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC?
- INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC (California) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,479,004 to it, the largest being THE OROKAWA FOUNDATION INC ($600,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $2,479,004 in grants to INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC?
- THE OROKAWA FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like INSIDEOUT WRITERS INC 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 Insideout Writers →
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 47 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