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California · Nonprofit

SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION

SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,907,264 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($805,356). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$127k
Funders on record
19
Grants received
$1.9M
Net assets
$534k
16/19 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 96%
01What it does

What Scholars' Hope Foundation does

Mission

To inspire and guide youth to build confidence for sucess in higher education.scholar' hope foundation prepares students for the academic and school social-emotional challenges of life. Our researched based and results.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Scholars' Hope Foundation prepares students the academic anddriven curriculum is making an undeniable impact on youth. This impactis demonstrated through higher gpa's, higher college eligibility andpreparedness for the demands of college.

    $245,849 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $245,849.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($410k) Expenses 100 ($730k) Net assets 100 ($642k)2019 Revenue 271 ($1.1M) Expenses 117 ($851k) Net assets 144 ($924k)2020 Revenue 89 ($367k) Expenses 100 ($726k) Net assets 87 ($559k)2021 Revenue 82 ($338k) Expenses 62 ($450k) Net assets 88 ($564k)2022 Revenue 79 ($324k) Expenses 31 ($223k) Net assets 102 ($653k)2023 Revenue 78 ($318k) Expenses 41 ($300k) Net assets 115 ($736k)2024 Revenue 46 ($187k) Expenses 42 ($304k) Net assets 105 ($673k)2025 Revenue 31 ($127k) Expenses 43 ($313k) Net assets 83 ($534k)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (31)Expenses (43)Net assets (83)Peer revenue range

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 $1.0M to $685k (−32%).

$701k
$1.0M
$685k
$705k
$729k
$781k
$741k
$580k
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2022 20%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

96% of SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,946 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$320k
’18
$258k
’19
−$360k
’20
−$112k
’21
$100k
’22
$18k
’23
−$117k
’24
−$186k
’25
2.5
months of
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

Colleen A Mensel

President & CEO

Board chair

Roni Ellis

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed810887777
Joined·+3+0+0+1+0+0+0
No longer listed·1202000
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $138k → $135k.

5 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION’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

SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.

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

74% 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 SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION.

42%
largest funder
76%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 57% · 2019 36% · 2020 57% · 2021 76% · 2022 61% · 2023 28% — 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

31% of SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 84% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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 SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION's grant income comes from California funders.

NY
CA
MO
DE
DC
TX
FL

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $868k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION's revenue fell 69% between 2018 and 2025.

Operating margin−146% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve2.5mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−15% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION

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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

79% of spending goes to programs.

Program 79%Management 12%Fundraising 9%

Governance

6
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

58%

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 SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION: 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION?
SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,907,264 to it, the largest being ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($805,356). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $1,907,264 in grants to SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION?
ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $805,356 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SCHOLARS' HOPE FOUNDATION 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 Scholars' Hope →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 19 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