California · Nonprofit
MURALISM
MURALISM (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $404,837 to it, the largest being SERGEY BRIN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($250,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $526k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $405k
- Net assets
- $52k
What Muralism does
Mission
Muralism empowers individuals with disabilities through education, training, and paid employment in mural painting. Our programs focus on vocational training, community engagement, and public art creation, fostering inclusion and skill development.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Painted 16 murals and trained and employed and contracted 14 part-time artists with disabilities, while engaging over 1000 K-12 students at Title 1 schools.
$328,491 spent$300,697 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $328,491.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2021 to 2022, from $255k to $66k (−74%).
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: 2019 34% · 2020 63% · 2021 7% · 2022 12% · 2023 21% · 2024 6% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Ernest A Merlan
Executive director
Board chair
Joel Robinson
Chairman of the Board Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $16k → $31k.
2 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 MURALISM’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
MURALISM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 97% · 2021 95% · 2022 55% · 2023 81% — 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
29% of MURALISM's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 27% 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
95% of MURALISM's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.
Organizations like MURALISM
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 MURALISM: 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 MURALISM?
- MURALISM (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $404,837 to it, the largest being SERGEY BRIN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($250,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MURALISM have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $404,837 in grants to MURALISM, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MURALISM?
- SERGEY BRIN FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MURALISM 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 Muralism →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 11 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