California · Nonprofit
SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES
SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,464,953 to it, the largest being DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION ($745,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2019
- $6.7M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $7.8M
What Sierra Forever Families does
Mission
To transform the lives of children in foster care by building and nurturing permanent families. We meet this mission by serving children 'living-in or 'at-risk' entering foster care and families wanting to provide permanency in twelve northern california counties.
As stated on its FY2019 Form 990.
Program
Permanency placement: the agency's primary goal is to encourage and facilitate a permanent home and family for children and youth living in foster care, with emphasis on reunification or adoption. The agency specializes in those children and youth who are considered hard to place. The agency recruits families, trains and assesses, conducts home studies, and provides placement and support services to children/youth and the families. Sources of revenue include placement fees and reimbursement from the state of california through the private adoption agency reimbursement program (paarp) and contributions.
The first program described on its most recent Form 990, which lists programs largest first by expense.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $7.6M to $8.2M (+7%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 14 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $329k → $145k.
5 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 27 of 28 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
SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
80% 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 SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 31% · 2019 42% · 2020 77% · 2021 91% · 2022 78% · 2023 79% — 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
15% of SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $247k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Organizations like SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
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 SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES: 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 SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES?
- SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,464,953 to it, the largest being DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION ($745,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $1,464,953 in grants to SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES?
- DAVE THOMAS FOUNDATION FOR ADOPTION is the largest funder on record, with $745,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIERRA FOREVER FAMILIES 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 Sierra Forever Families →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2019 (financials across 2017–2019), and the filings of 28 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