California · Nonprofit
LEARNING BY DESIGN INC
LEARNING BY DESIGN INC (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $30,939 to it, the largest being GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW ($15,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.2M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $31k
- Net assets
- $-612302
What Learning by Design Inc does
Mission
Learning by design, a new tk/k-5 charter school in south los angeles, is designed to foster educational equity and cultivate diverse students becoming thoughtful and courageous change makers and problem solvers of tomorrow, through a dynamic 21st century learning experience with an emphasis on personalized and experiential/hands-on learning.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Operation of a public charter school in south los angeles serving students in grades tk to 5. Learning by design (lbd) envisions establishing a "school of the future" where innovative and authentic learning opportunities are the norm, not the exception. We envision a school that dramatically shifts the old paradigm of school created more than 100 years ago during the industrial revolution and instead embraces re-imagining, re- thinking, and re- designing school to meet the needs of today's children and the world's rapidly changing global and tech-based economy.
$2,316,414 spentof which $1,180 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,316,414.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2021 to 2022, from $404k to $818k (+102%).
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: 2019 94% · 2020 95% · 2021 99% · 2022 99% · 2023 99% · 2024 99% · 2025 99%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of LEARNING BY DESIGN INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 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
Charla Austin-Harris
Executive director
Board chair
Ashlye Durell
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $3k → $3k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 LEARNING BY DESIGN INC’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
LEARNING BY DESIGN INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
71% 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 LEARNING BY DESIGN INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 98% · 2021 99% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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
73% of LEARNING BY DESIGN INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
LEARNING BY DESIGN INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like LEARNING BY DESIGN 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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEARNING BY DESIGN 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 LEARNING BY DESIGN INC?
- LEARNING BY DESIGN INC (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $30,939 to it, the largest being GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW ($15,500). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEARNING BY DESIGN INC have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $30,939 in grants to LEARNING BY DESIGN INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEARNING BY DESIGN INC?
- GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW is the largest funder on record, with $15,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEARNING BY DESIGN 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 Learning by Design →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 5 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