California · Nonprofit
OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC
OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $727,771 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM JEFF AND JENNIFER GROSS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($420,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $531k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $728k
- Net assets
- $131k
What Open Roads Academy Inc does
Mission
Open roads academy, inc. Is dedicated to providing educational opportunities for financially-disadvantaged high school and college-age students that increase literacy skills as well as improve life and work readiness. The goal is give open roads students the tools to break the cycle of poverty. Open roads achieves this mission through extracurricular programs that combine travel in nature with teaching of the documentary arts of film, photography, and writing. Open roads furthers its reach through travel programs for adults and the production of documentary films with supporting impact campaigns that aim to make measurable change in the core issue areas of: educational equity, environmental protection, and human rights.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Open roads academy, inc. Promotes documentary storytelling and experiential learning as tools for life-long learning and personal development. From that platform, the primary goal is to use the creative process of documentary storytelling to help adolescents from diverse backgrounds enhance self-confidence and build essential communication skills, both with word and image. All of this results in guiding young people through the often-difficult transition from adolescence into productive adulthood. The intended outcome is that students become equipped with the motivation and skills to be inspired learners, engaged citizens, and positive contributors in their home communities and beyond. Open roads' primary population is high school students from diverse backgrounds, with programs that focus on serving financially disadvantaged youth.
$353,837 spentof which $745 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $353,837.
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 $736 to $147k (+19863%).
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.
100% of OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $110k → $199k.
2 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 OPEN ROADS ACADEMY 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
OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 83%; 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: 2019 68% · 2020 67% · 2022 80% · 2023 75% — 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
25% of OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
60% of OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10k 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.
Against its field
OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 22,812 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like OPEN ROADS ACADEMY 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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
78%
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 OPEN ROADS ACADEMY 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 OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC?
- OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $727,771 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM JEFF AND JENNIFER GROSS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($420,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $727,771 in grants to OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPEN ROADS ACADEMY INC?
- THE WILLIAM JEFF AND JENNIFER GROSS FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $420,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPEN ROADS ACADEMY 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 Open Roads Academy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 14 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