California · Nonprofit
Life Frames Inc
Life Frames Inc (California) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $86,445 to it, the largest being THE NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST ($28,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $334k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $86k
- Net assets
- $203k
What Life Frames Inc does
Mission
LFI offers practical processes and imaginative solutions resulting in ecological land use planning, landscape architecture, participatory design with multiple, systemically linked, interactive, community and school programs, which also function as community and economic development for the area, resulting in transformation of the community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Executive Leadership & Organizational Turnaround Under the leadership of Executive Director China Bushell, Life Frames Inc. successfully completed the OMI/Excelsior Nature Walkwaya major infrastructure project that had been stalled for over three years. Within just six months, the ED and staff: oPartnered with Alrie Middlebrook, who redesigned the nature pathway with native and pollinator plants oOversaw full construction and planting of the walkway oSecured $450,000 in reimbursements within three months, stabilizing the nonprofits finances and allowing the projects completion. Youth Workforce & Education Impact Supported over 70 underserved youth ages 1524 in paid internships and stipended leadership positions across New York and San Francisco. Delivered green jobs training through hands-on work in garden maintenance, landscape design, and sustainability education. Partnered with OFA, MYEEP, SFYWs, and JCYC to provide wraparound services and equitable employment pathways. Community Engagement & Environmental Education Facilitated weekly youth gardening classes rooted in Indigenous ecological knowledge, especially from the Ohlone tradition. Continued Vegetable & Me classes for…
$304,547 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $304,547.
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 2022 to 2023, from $156k to $334k (+113%).
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 89% · 2018 78% · 2023 84%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Life Frames Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Board chair
Caryl Hodges
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $8k → $32k.
1 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% 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 Frames 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 Frames Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
100% 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 Frames Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2021 100% · 2023 56% — 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.
Where its funders are
69% of Life Frames 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. $28k 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
Life Frames Inc's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 2 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Life Frames 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
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Life Frames 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 Life Frames Inc?
- Life Frames Inc (California) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $86,445 to it, the largest being THE NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST ($28,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Life Frames Inc have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $86,445 in grants to Life Frames Inc, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Life Frames Inc?
- THE NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $28,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Life Frames 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 Life Frames →
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 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