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California · Nonprofit

Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway

Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $181,676 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($67,678). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$2.1M
Revenue FY2025
11
Funders on record
$182k
Grants received
$9.1M
Net assets
3/11 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 6%

Against its field

Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin36% · top quartile
Months of reserve2.6mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,883 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($1.0M) Net assets 100 ($3.0M)2018 Revenue 361 ($4.0M) Expenses 141 ($1.5M) Net assets 186 ($5.5M)2019 Revenue 124 ($1.4M) Expenses 172 ($1.8M) Net assets 180 ($5.3M)2020 Revenue 149 ($1.6M) Expenses 108 ($1.1M) Net assets 195 ($5.8M)2021 Revenue 58 ($641k) Expenses 58 ($600k) Net assets 222 ($6.6M)2022 Revenue 160 ($1.8M) Expenses 87 ($901k) Net assets 233 ($6.9M)2023 Revenue 150 ($1.7M) Expenses 122 ($1.3M) Net assets 252 ($7.5M)2024 Revenue 173 ($1.9M) Expenses 146 ($1.5M) Net assets 274 ($8.1M)2025 Revenue 191 ($2.1M) Expenses 129 ($1.3M) Net assets 307 ($9.1M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (191)Expenses (129)Net assets (307)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2023 1% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

11% of Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 5,374 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$66k
17
$2.5M
18
$415k
19
$525k
20
$41k
21
$865k
22
$389k
23
$396k
24
$765k
25
2.6
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $20k → $44k.

6 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)66% 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 Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway’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

Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

66% 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 Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway.

37%
largest funder
71%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2020 57% · 2021 76% · 2022 98% · 2023 70%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

50% of Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 27% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

66% of Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $62k that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from funders outside California, across 4 states.

NY
CA
KS
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

21
22
23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $120k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 11 funders put you under-funded among the 399 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In California

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

73% of spending goes to programs.

Program 73%Management 27%Fundraising 0%

Governance

8
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

87%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway?
Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $181,676 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($67,678). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway have?
IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $181,676 in grants to Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway?
AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $67,678 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway 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 11funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing