California · Nonprofit
MERISTEM INC
MERISTEM INC (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,199,794 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,175,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.4M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $5.2M
- Net assets
- $5.0M
What Meristem Inc does
Mission
Meristem prepares young adults who are on the autism spectrum or neurodiverse to build a strong sense of self, develop an enhanced social capacity, and create a life of increased social and economic independence.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Instruction: meristem provides instruction to young adults who are on the autism spectrum or neurodiverse. The curriculum consists of hands-on learning through 10 vocational tracks: woodworking, agriculture, metalwork, health and body care products, landscape maintenance, digital arts and media, culinary arts, hospitality, and textiles. These classes enhance executive functioning skills such as focusing, organizing, planning & prioritizing, completing tasks, empath, regulating emotions, and self-monitoring. Students develop these critical skills through planning and completing tasks, experiencing success, confronting failure, and reflecting upon the process. These skills are directly transferable towards their long-term goals such as employment, attending college, and/or successful independent living.
$2,675,212 spent$244,095 earned by the program41% of program spendingIndependent living skills instruction: the independent living skills program is conducted on an open campus in an integrated community, providing social and living experiences for young adults on the autism spectrum. Independent living program students participate in the day program schedule during the week and enhance their experience by living in dorms on campus, immersing themselves in independent living instruction throughout the evenings and weekends. Students learn and practice budgeting, grocery shopping, cooking, socializing, utilizing public transportation, and self-care. The program develops students' communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills. Introducing young adults to a broad set of experiences prepares them for independence.
$2,591,302 spent$955,934 earned by the program39% of program spendingWork skills: each year roughly 75,000 young americans on the autism spectrum turn 18 and feel unsure how to transition to independent adulthood. Unemployment and underemployment for young adults on the spectrum is estimated at 90% nationwide according to a 2013 report in the journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry. Meristem's work skills program supports students as they master the finer points of punctuality, reliability, professional conduct/expectations and teachability. They also learn about their rights as employees in general as well as their rights as employees with a disability, the rights of employers, workplace safety, self-advocacy in the workplace, managing stress and maintaining a healthy work/life balance. This program includes exposing students to the business world through top-level professionals where they gain real-world work experience through meristem's on-campus social enterprises or the offsite internship program which matches motivated young adults to outside paid employment.
$1,146,457 spentof which $169,000 as grants$113,483 earned by the program17% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$169,000 spent3% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,581,971.
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 2021 to 2022, from $5.6M to $9.2M (+65%).
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: 2018 5% · 2019 1% · 2020 9% · 2021 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
39% of MERISTEM INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Donna Courville
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 8 funders, grant income fell $1.5M → $264k.
11 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 MERISTEM 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
MERISTEM INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
61% 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 MERISTEM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 84% · 2019 85% · 2020 49% · 2021 44% · 2022 65% · 2023 53% — 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
25% of MERISTEM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
59% of MERISTEM INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $2.1M that is directly attributable, 90% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
MERISTEM INC's revenue grew 31% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding MERISTEM INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.0M on record.
- Department of Labor$1.0M
- National Endowment for the Arts$25k
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 MERISTEM 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
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Commons at Fair Oaks · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MERISTEM 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 MERISTEM INC?
- MERISTEM INC (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,199,794 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($2,175,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MERISTEM INC have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $5,199,794 in grants to MERISTEM INC, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MERISTEM INC?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $2,175,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MERISTEM 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 Meristem →
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 28 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing