California · Nonprofit
SIERRA HARVEST
SIERRA HARVEST (California) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,574,066 to it, the largest being TRANSFORMATION TRUST INC ($562,396). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $925k
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $511k
What Sierra Harvest does
Mission
Founded in 2007, Sierra Harvest is building a community that values and eats an abundance of fresh, local, seasonal food; training successful local farmers that are increasing sustainable food production; and creating equitable access to fresh, local, seasonal food. We serve dozens of farmers, hundreds of families, and thousands of children. Be the local food movement and join us in the conversation at www.sierraharvest.org.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Sierra Harvest's farm to school program is currently in 12 nevada county schools & reaches over 6,500 students (97% of western nevada county's k-8 students). It connects students to fresh, local food through hands-on activities in their school gardens, on farms, & in their cafeterias. Farm partners host farm field trips & come to the classroom to share farming stories & activities with the kids. Sierra Harvest also delivers monthly "harvest of the month" tastings of local, seasonal fruits & vegetables to classrooms along with educator curriculum & a family newsletter. "tasting days" bring guest chefs into the classroom to cook simple, seasonal meals with over 4,000 students. Sierra Harvest is providing funding and support to create one consolidated central kitchen for 8 school districts, transitioning meals from frozen, processed foods heated & wrapped in plastic to fresh foods cooked from scratch for thousands of students. Sierra Harvest has successfully engaged school districts, donors & community partners to invest financially in 12 school gardens to ensure sustainability while creating an outdoor learning lab for teachers. Survey data indicate that participating students try…
$412,191 spentof which $85,000 as grants$44,206 earned by the program46% of program spendingThe farm institute works alongside farmers and ranchers to increase sustainable food production. Farm institute programs build the prosperity of ecologically sustainable producers, increase the land in organic production, and train more beginning farmers as the older generation retires. Agricultural skills classes train beginning farmers in regenerative agriculture production. The six-week skill-building business course, farm biz, leaves participants with a concrete business plan and financial knowledge that is critical to running a viable farm business. The land match program connects sustainable farmers and ranchers with local agricultural land. To date, Sierra Harvest has trained 157 farmers, helped 10 farms certify organic, matched 26 farmers to low cost farm land, and provided 4,524 hours of education. Sierra Harvest's sustainable food and farm conference is an annual regional conference designed to educate and connect the local and regional sustainable farming community. Nearly 200 participants engaged in workshops from regional experts and learned how to build business strategies, network with other farmers and connect to new local buyers. Sierra Harvest also connects…
$242,140 spent$4,992 earned by the program27% of program spendingSierra Harvest's food love farm is devoted to promoting nutrition education, food security, and community involvement in growing, harvesting, eating, and celebrating fresh food. The farm hosts experiential field trips, a summer camp, service projects, u-pick/farm stand, and community volunteer days. The food love farm provided 3,870 hours of hands-on farm education through summer camp and farm field trips to hundreds of children. Partnerships with local health and social service providers have been developed to expand our scholarship program for summer camp programing among families that have been historically marginalized.
$162,993 spent$50,485 earned by the program18% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$74,283 spent8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $891,607.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.0M to $707k (−32%).
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 15% · 2018 17% · 2019 3% · 2020 3% · 2021 25% · 2022 38% · 2023 32% · 2024 35% · 2025 61%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of SIERRA HARVEST’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 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
Eli Bacon
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 11 funders, grant income fell $322k → $120k.
10 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 HARVEST’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
SIERRA HARVEST leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 72% · 2018 60% · 2019 52% · 2020 25% · 2021 59% · 2022 58% · 2023 25% — 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
53% of SIERRA HARVEST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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 HARVEST draws 88% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 9 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $250k 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
SIERRA HARVEST receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1.6M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,936 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding SIERRA HARVEST receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.3M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$1.3M
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 SIERRA HARVEST
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
64% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SIERRA HARVEST: 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 HARVEST?
- SIERRA HARVEST (California) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,574,066 to it, the largest being TRANSFORMATION TRUST INC ($562,396). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SIERRA HARVEST have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $1,574,066 in grants to SIERRA HARVEST, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIERRA HARVEST?
- TRANSFORMATION TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $562,396 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIERRA HARVEST 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 27 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