California · Nonprofit
SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM
SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM (California) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,464,627 to it, the largest being LINDEN ROOT DICKINSON FOUNDATION ($1,657,345). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $4.5M
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What San Diego Children's Discovery Museum does
Mission
San Diego Children's Discovery Museum sparks a love of learning so all children can discover their wildest dreams. Our vision for the future is to be the leaders in inventive early childhood learning. Our values: we aspire to serve all corners of san diego and adjacent counties. We believe in learning through hands-on play. We believe in nurturing kind hearts and curious minds. We believe in educational opportunities that are inclusive and open to all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
For over two decades, sdcdm has shared our museum space with all children and families, many of whom would have little to no access to supplemental educational enrichment experiences without us. The museum's 13,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor vital guided play areas, hands-on learning activities, and twice- daily educational programs create an ideal learning environment for developing and reinforcing children's early foundational fluencies and stem learning. Our mobile museum addresses disparities of equitable learning opportunities by bringing supplemental enrichment opportunities to young children where they are. The program builds over 50 foundational fluencies and helps develop children's cognitive skills, social abilities, and physical well-being from the earliest childhood years when it matters the most. Mobile workshops focus on stem and social-emotional skills and align with preschool learning foundations. Research shows that children who engage in high-quality early childhood educational enrichment activities like those offered by sdcdm are more likely to achieve positive outcomes in the long run. Sdcdm educational programs aim to help close the achievement gap,…
$1,764,601 spent$778,016 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,764,601.
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 $2.5M to $2.7M (+9%).
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: 2017 1% · 2019 4% · 2020 4% · 2021 28% · 2022 10% · 2023 17% · 2024 3% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% 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.
Chief executive
Christina Piranio
CEO
Board chair
Amanda Fisher
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $243k → $792k.
10 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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
SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 37% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 18% · 2019 39% · 2020 52% · 2021 37% · 2022 54% · 2023 47% — 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
32% of SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM'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
90% of SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $829k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM's funding base is broadening — from 12 funders to 24 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $70k on record.
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$50k
- National Endowment for the Arts$20k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM
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
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 SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM: 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 SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM?
- SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM (California) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,464,627 to it, the largest being LINDEN ROOT DICKINSON FOUNDATION ($1,657,345). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $4,464,627 in grants to SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM?
- LINDEN ROOT DICKINSON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,657,345 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM 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 San Diego Children's Discovery Museum →
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 52 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