California · Nonprofit
MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT
MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT (California) receives grants from 147 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,828,165 to it, the largest being Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation ($3,535,000). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.4M
- Funders on record
- 147
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $4.3M
What Monarch School Project does
Mission
Monarch School Project, a nonprofit corporation, supports a k-12 school developed specifically to educate unhoused students in san diego county. Monarch school breaks down the barriers unhoused youth face in accessing education and provides them with a safe, stable learning environment where they can heal and develop the necessary skills and experiences for personal success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Social-emotional:through social engagement opportunities and emotional support, monarch strives to help students develop positive relationships, a sense of school pride and community, as well as feeling valued in belonging to something bigger than themselves and an identity beyond being unhoused. Key social opportunities include student clubs, school celebrations, athletics, arts, and daily enrichment. Through our team of student and parent advocates, on-campus therapeutic and counseling services, school health clinic, clothing boutique, showers, and laundry facilities, students have a safe, supportive environment in which to heal and learn.
$5,311,656 spentof which $70,487 as grants$240,589 earned by the program76% of program spendingLife skills:life skills are the essential skills students need to be successful in school and beyond. Life skills also promote self-sufficiency. Students at monarch are encouraged to discover their strengths, interests, and build pathways to their future. Through programs such as work-readiness, financial literacy, internships, college and career coaching, and mentorship, students develop essential skills such as perseverance, communication, and critical thinking.
$421,269 spentof which $16,855 as grants6% of program spendingAcademic:monarch provides trauma-informed, student-centered instruction for our students, as well as ongoing professional development for our teachers and instructors. Most students come to monarch with significant gaps in their education. Monarch strives to provide students with rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning opportunities. Students have access to tutoring, saturday school, math and literacy specialists, technology, as well as school supplies.
$520,909 spentof which $8,163 as grants7% of program spendingThe chrysalis: monarch center for the arts is a 6,000 square foot arts space in barrio logan with a dedicated 100-seat theatre, dance studio, visual art classroom, and storefront gallery. The chrysalis provides theatre, music, dance and visual arts programs for all ages in the community, including programs for 0-5 and their families. We center participant voices and influence as we are passionate about using a creative youth development model in our approach. We welcome community arts partners and organizations to rent out the space for their own community programming, expanding our network and creating mutually beneficial partnerships that serve the community.
$779,814 spent11% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,033,648.
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 2019 to 2020, from $20M to $8.2M (−58%).
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: 2023 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Afira Devries
President/CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 41 funders to 61 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $2.5M.
18 of 147 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $4.8M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Monarch School 1625 LLC); $1.4M from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Monarch School Project). These are real filings, and they are not money MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT raised.
From the IRS filings of MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 147 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
MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
28% 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 MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 24% · 2019 19% · 2020 35% · 2021 22% · 2022 20% · 2023 22% — growing more concentrated.
“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
40% of MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
81% of MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT has grown faster than half of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
80%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Monarch School 1625 LLC · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT: 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 MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT?
- MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT (California) receives grants from 147 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,828,165 to it, the largest being Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation ($3,535,000). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 147 organizations giving $14,828,165 in grants to MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT, 93 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT?
- Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $3,535,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT 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.
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 147 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