California · Nonprofit
PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE
PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE (California) receives grants from 96 organizations whose IRS filings report $24,033,830 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($10,744,800). 56 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 72% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.4M
- Funders on record
- 96
- Grants received
- $24M
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What Prison University Project Inc Dba Mount Tamalpais College does
Mission
The mission of Mount Tamalpais College is to provide an intellectually rigorous, inclusive Associate of Arts degree program and College Preparatory Program, free of charge, to people at San Quentin State Prison; to expand access to quality higher education for incarcerated people; and to foster the values of equity, civic engagement, independence of thought, and freedom of expression.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
College Program: Mount Tamalpais College is an accredited college offering an associate of arts degree and offers approximately 20 college level and college prep classes each semester. In addition, the college provides technical assistance to other organizations providing higher education in prisons.
$2,814,551 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,814,551.
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 2019 to 2020, from $3.3M to $5.8M (+74%).
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 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Chief executive
Jody Lewen
Pres./Exec. Dir
Board chair
Jeff Feinman
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $448k → $1.7M.
23 of 96 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 72% 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 PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 96 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
PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
79% 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 PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 39% · 2019 75% · 2020 23% · 2021 78% · 2022 28% · 2023 31% — 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
44% of PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
72% of PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE'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 $6.7M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from funders outside California, across 19 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $17M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,761 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,761 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE
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
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE: 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 PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE?
- PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE (California) receives grants from 96 organizations whose IRS filings report $24,033,830 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($10,744,800). 56 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 72% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 96 organizations giving $24,033,830 in grants to PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE, 56 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $10,744,800 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PRISON UNIVERSITY PROJECT INC DBA MOUNT TAMALPAIS COLLEGE 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 96 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing