California · Nonprofit
Oakland Leaf Foundation
Oakland Leaf Foundation (California) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,469,034 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($739,500). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.6M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $3.5M
- Net assets
- $705k
What Oakland Leaf Foundation does
Mission
Oakland Leaf spurs creative and educational growth for Oakland youth by providing programs that cultivate critical thinking skills, emphasize socioemotional learning opportunities, and support authentic leadership development. They facilitate dynamic after-school programs for K-8 students at six high need schools: Ascend, Bret Harte, Encompass Academy, International Community School, Learning Without Limits, and Think College Now. Oakland Leaf youth created intentional communities, experienced new creative experiences, and developed confidence in their unique voice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Cleveland Elementary After-School Program:Oakland Leaf provides free, culturally responsive after-school programming at Cleveland Elementary, offering activities likes sports, arts, gardening, homework help, and STEAM enrichment.
$417,185 spent$474,478 earned by the program14% of program spendingAscend after-school program (ASP):Ascend ASP aims to provide wrap-around/holistic support to students of the ascend school offering academic and enrichment classes that engage and challenge students in an environment that values and fosters youth leadership, empowerment, a sense of community, and critical thinking. Ascend serves on average 110 students per day that range from kindergarten to 8th grade.
$375,125 spent$411,402 earned by the program13% of program spendingBret Harte After-School Program:The Bret Harte After-School program provides 140 youth in the 6th to 8th grade range the environment to be creative, stewards, critical thinkers, and active participants in their school in order to bring change to their immediate community. Youth are supported in creating alliances that are nurtured through individual development, cross cultural exchange, leadership, and exposure to the world beyond their immediate community.
$368,557 spent$361,759 earned by the program13% of program spendingInternational Community Elementary After-School Program:Oakland Leaf provides free, culturally responsive after-school programming at International Community Elementary, offering activities likes sports, arts, gardening, homework help, and STEAM enrichment.
$357,909 spent$349,175 earned by the program12% of program spendingThink College Now Elementary After-School Program:Oakland Leaf provides free, culturally responsive after-school programming at Think College Now Elementary, offering activities likes sports, arts, gardening, homework help, and STEAM enrichment.
$349,175 spent$362,057 earned by the program12% of program spendingEncompass After-school program (ASP):Encompass after-school program provides extended academic and enrichment services to 100 students in 1st-5th grade. Students in program develop and strengthen their academic, physical, social, life, and leadership skills. We aim to offer a culturally sensitive, responsible, and responsive program aimed to develop students into confident and compassionate leaders. For this year, this program was considered a "thriving" program and scored a 4.77 out of a 5.0 scale according to the youth program quality assessment.
$303,590 spent$329,283 earned by the program10% of program spendingLearning without limits after-school program:Learning without limits after-school program is dedicated to enhancing the learning experience of 85 students in 1st through 5th grade at learning without limits by offering academic and enrichment classes that engage, challenge, and empowers students to explore and take on youth leadership, think critically, and build a sense of community.
$284,419 spent$315,505 earned by the program10% of program spendingOakland Peace Camp (Elementary & Middle School):OPC is a free four-week summer camp for 120 youth 10-18 years old, that utilizes a project-based arts, social justice, and science based curriculum. OPC emphasizes youth empowerment, arts-based learning, community activism, cultural literacy, and reflection. OCP helps build a cohesive community by encouraging Oakland leaf students, interns, and families to interact and learn from each other.
$221,500 spent$204,603 earned by the program8% of program spendingRoots Internship:Oakland Leaf's Roots internship program provides year-round positive youth development opportunities to 30 East Oakland High School students annually. Interns are trained to serve as classroom aides in after-school programs and provide daily social-emotional and academic support to students, and they facilitate creative play activities.
$148,147 spent$142,369 earned by the program5% of program spendingLove Cultivating Schoolyards (LCS):LCS is Oakland Leaf's environmental justice program that transforms schoolyards into dynamic outdoor classrooms. LCS operates seven garden clubs at all of Oakland Leaf's after-school sites.
$100,104 spent3% of program spendingLa Escuelita Elementary After-School Program:Oakland Leaf provides free, culturally responsive after-school programming at La Escuelita, offering activities likes sports, arts, gardening, homework help, and STEAM enrichment.
$11,012 spent0% of program spendingCommon After-School Programming:Every year, Oakland Leaf provides quality, culturally responsive, and free after-school programming for approximately 1,300 East Oakland students at seven high-need elementary and middle schools.
$15,000 earned by the program
The 12 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,936,723.
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 $613k to $851k (+39%).
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: 2022 54% · 2023 76% · 2024 66% · 2025 61%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Oakland Leaf Foundation’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. 2 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
Melissa Mendez Ochoa
Exec Director
Board chair
Monica Guzman
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 13 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $272k → $310k.
14 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 Oakland Leaf Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
Oakland Leaf Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
52% 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 Oakland Leaf Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 29% · 2019 35% · 2020 39% · 2021 35% · 2022 33% · 2023 33% — 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
50% of Oakland Leaf Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
94% of Oakland Leaf Foundation's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.7M 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
Oakland Leaf Foundation's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Oakland Leaf Foundation
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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 Oakland Leaf Foundation: 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 Oakland Leaf Foundation?
- Oakland Leaf Foundation (California) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,469,034 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($739,500). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Oakland Leaf Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $3,469,034 in grants to Oakland Leaf Foundation, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Oakland Leaf Foundation?
- THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $739,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Oakland Leaf Foundation 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 Oakland Leaf →
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 34 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