California · Nonprofit
PlayGroup
PlayGroup (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $486,683 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($207,850). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.7M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $487k
- Net assets
- $166k
What PlayGroup does
Mission
Playgroup provides a full-day Montessori pedagogy program for preschoolers, 5 days a week from 8 am-6 pm. The program blends academics, play, gross motor skills, creative arts, and music to prepare children for elementary school.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
- Opened the school year with 68 children enrolled, including 30 new incoming students (18 new families and 12 siblings).- Before Care (89 AM) enrolled 36 children and After Care (36 PM) enrolled 43 children, resulting in a 40% increase in care revenue year-over-year.- Celebrated 14 graduating students, including 6 siblings, while receiving an unprecedented number of admissions applicants for the 20252026 academic year.- Welcomed 4 new employees, managed 2 departures, and implemented an average compensation increase of 12.09% for staff entering the 20242025 academic year.- Achieved the most successful summer session to date, generating $73,000 above budget projections.- Awarded 2 Financial Aid Scholarships to support access within our community.- As of August, Playgroup held $2.2M in total assets across all accounts, representing a 7% year-over-year increase driven by successful fundraising efforts and investment growth.- Covered the ?scal year de?cit and contributed more than $225,000 to the organizations investment portfolio, underscoring the continued importance of fundraising within the Playgroup community.
$2,385,731 spent$2,478,356 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,385,731.
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 $5.8M to $7.0M (+21%).
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: 2021 9% · 2022 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
14% of PlayGroup’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
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.
Board chair
Yvette Robbins
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $30k → $99k.
8 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 86% 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 PlayGroup’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
PlayGroup leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
86% 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 PlayGroup.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 52% · 2019 60% · 2020 52% · 2021 75% · 2022 69% · 2023 43% — 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
40% of PlayGroup's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
86% of PlayGroup'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 $66k that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from funders outside California, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $421k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
PlayGroup runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,752 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,752 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like PlayGroup
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
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PlayGroup: 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 PlayGroup?
- PlayGroup (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $486,683 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($207,850). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PlayGroup have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $486,683 in grants to PlayGroup, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PlayGroup?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $207,850 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PlayGroup 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 PlayGroup →
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 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