California · Nonprofit
LIVING CLASSROOM
LIVING CLASSROOM (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $422,933 to it, the largest being LESLIE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($95,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2026
- $446k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $423k
- Net assets
- $248k
What Living Classroom does
Mission
To inspire children to learn about and value the natural world through garden-based education. We grow the next generation of environmental stewards, build a life-long enthusiasm for science and math, and develop a love of healthy eating. Living Classroom provides Transitional Kindergarten through 6th grade outdoor, hands-on instruction that support science, math, social studies and nutrition standards. Our lessons are experiential and inquiry-based which full engage students. Through our lessons, students learn to be environmentally literate.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990.
Program
Since 2013, Living Classroom has served over 35,000 students with year after year environmental literacy instruction, with most students receiving up to 45 different garden-based lessons over a 7-8 year period from Transitional Kindergarten up through 6th grade. We designed and installed and maintained native habitat and edible gardens in over 30 schoolsevery school we have served with our lessons. In addition, we launched the Farm to Lunch program in the Mountain View Whisman School District in which students grow fruits and vegetables in school gardens which are prepared into delicious dishes and served during special taste testing during lunchtime at the schools.
$335,578 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $335,578.
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.
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 $92k to $227k (+147%).
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: 2025 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $7k → $43k.
6 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 LIVING CLASSROOM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 13 of 14 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
LIVING CLASSROOM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
46% 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 LIVING CLASSROOM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 67% · 2019 77% · 2020 55% · 2021 58% · 2022 54% · 2023 47% — 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
30% of LIVING CLASSROOM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
71% of LIVING CLASSROOM's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $185k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Government funding LIVING CLASSROOM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $687k on record.
- Grant$687k
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 LIVING CLASSROOM
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
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 LIVING CLASSROOM: 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 LIVING CLASSROOM?
- LIVING CLASSROOM (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $422,933 to it, the largest being LESLIE FAMILY FOUNDATION ($95,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LIVING CLASSROOM have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $422,933 in grants to LIVING CLASSROOM, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LIVING CLASSROOM?
- LESLIE FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $95,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LIVING CLASSROOM 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 Living Classroom →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2026 (financials across 2020–2026), and the filings of 14 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