California · Nonprofit
NOVA ACADEMY
NOVA ACADEMY (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $388,871 to it, the largest being WALTMAR FOUNDATION ($282,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $12M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $389k
- Net assets
- $11M
What Nova Academy does
Mission
To inspire, educate, and prepare all students to be successful in college, career, and in life. Nova Academy helps educationally disadvantaged students enjoy greater academic success. Provides students with the opportunity to attend college classes in high school and seamlessly transition into higher education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Nova Academy provides education at an early college level for high school students, grades 9-12. It operates two charter schools that work in partnership with their respective school districts. Both charter schools offer dual enrollment with opportunities for students to take transferable college courses from community college, private colleges and from the university of california schools. At both locations, students are able to enroll in college courses concurrently with charter school classes in order to successfully transition into higher education after high school.
$10,944,100 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $10,944,100.
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 $12M to $34M (+194%).
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 99% · 2018 97% · 2019 97% · 2020 97% · 2021 99% · 2022 99% · 2023 98% · 2024 94% · 2025 91%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of NOVA ACADEMY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Renee Lancaster
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Sanford Otsuji
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $30k → $44k.
4 of 8 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: $1.8M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Nova Academy Childrens Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money NOVA ACADEMY raised.
From the IRS filings of NOVA ACADEMY’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
NOVA ACADEMY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 73% of grant income and the top three 91%; 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: 2017 100% · 2018 94% · 2019 54% · 2020 47% · 2021 86% · 2022 79% · 2023 69% — 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
80% of NOVA ACADEMY'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
100% of NOVA ACADEMY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $62k 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.
Against its field
NOVA ACADEMY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,758 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,758 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like NOVA ACADEMY
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
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Nova Academy Facilities LLC · disregarded
- Nova Academy Children's Foundation Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NOVA ACADEMY: 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 NOVA ACADEMY?
- NOVA ACADEMY (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $388,871 to it, the largest being WALTMAR FOUNDATION ($282,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NOVA ACADEMY have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $388,871 in grants to NOVA ACADEMY, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NOVA ACADEMY?
- WALTMAR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $282,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NOVA ACADEMY 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 Nova Academy →
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 8 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