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Maryland · Nonprofit

LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC

LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC (Maryland) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,576,484 to it, the largest being MARYLAND FAMILY NETWORK INC ($1,371,201). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$3.7M
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$2.6M
Net assets
$3.1M
8/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 18%
01What it does

What Life and Discovery Inc does

Mission

Our mission is to provide all immigrants with essential skills to be independent and successful contributors to our communities and society at large.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Community health outreach and education

    $594,093 spent
    18% of program spending
  2. Family support services - aacf offers comprehensive, family centered, community-based preventive programs for parents, caregivers and their children, ages birth to four. Through family support services, aacf promotes the full development and wellbeing of children, enhances the quality of parent and child interactions, and serves as the link to services for overall parent and family self-sufficiency and sustainability.

    $669,873 spent
    20% of program spending
  3. Workforce development - aacf is an accredited community health worker (chw) training and apprenticeship center in the state of maryland. Chws are frontline public health workers with a strong understanding of the communities they serve. By creating this diverse and multilingual workforce, aacf provides opportunities for the immigrant and minority residents to make positive changes in socioeconomic inequities of their communities, while increasing culturally and linguistically competent public health workforce.

    $1,323,881 spent
    40% of program spending
  4. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $703,184 spent
    21% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,291,031.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($896k) Net assets 100 ($1.2M)2021 Revenue 194 ($2.1M) Expenses 185 ($1.7M) Net assets 138 ($1.7M)2022 Revenue 280 ($3.1M) Expenses 319 ($2.9M) Net assets 161 ($1.9M)2023 Revenue 474 ($5.2M) Expenses 435 ($3.9M) Net assets 270 ($3.3M)2024 Revenue 333 ($3.7M) Expenses 427 ($3.8M) Net assets 257 ($3.1M)
20202021202220232024
Revenue (333)Expenses (427)Net assets (257)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 2022 to 2023, from $3.5M to $5.6M (+58%).

$1.2M
$1.7M
$3.5M
$5.6M
$4.8M
20202021202220232024
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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 66% · 2021 76% · 2022 82% · 2023 95% · 2024 89%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

95% of LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,352 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

$204k
’20
$472k
’21
$223k
’22
$1.3M
’23
−$155k
’24
3.4
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.

Chief executive

Elizabeth Chung

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

20202021202220232024
Listed1011121413
Joined·+1+5+5+0
No longer listed·0431
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $59k → $397k.

4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 LIFE AND DISCOVERY 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

LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

92% 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 LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC.

53%
largest funder
78%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 92% · 2020 35% · 2021 56% · 2022 30% · 2023 64% — 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

50% of LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

90% of LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC's grant income comes from Maryland funders.

OH
CA
MD
FL

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

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Maryland out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $311k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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

LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−4% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve3.4mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)35% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Government funding LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $12.4M on record.

Federal$12.4M
grants $12.4Mcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Top agencies
  • Department of Labor$4.0M
  • Department of Health and Human Services$3.4M
  • Corporation for National and Community Service$3.3M
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.5M
  • Department of Homeland Security$242k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like LIFE AND DISCOVERY 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 Maryland

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

86% of spending goes to programs.

Program 86%Management 14%Fundraising 0%

Governance

12
board members
100%
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.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MD

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LIFE AND DISCOVERY 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.

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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 LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC?
LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC (Maryland) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,576,484 to it, the largest being MARYLAND FAMILY NETWORK INC ($1,371,201). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $2,576,484 in grants to LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC?
MARYLAND FAMILY NETWORK INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,371,201 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LIFE AND DISCOVERY INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Life and Discovery →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 16 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