California · Nonprofit
SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT
SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $879,307 to it, the largest being ROBERT GRIMM FAMILY FOUNDATION ($368,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $879k
- Net assets
- $287k
What Sierra Service Project does
Mission
Building faith and strengthening communities through service to others.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Summer Program: In 2025, Sierra Service Project celebrated 50 years of service through the summer program, which provided service-learning experiences for 537 youth, young adult, and adult volunteers, and employed 13 young adult staff. Volunteer groups came from churches, schools, and family groups. In two partner communities overnight volunteers participated in week-long sessions building bridges between communities where they completed 39 community-based and home improvement projects to improve the safety and livability of homes for lower-income residents. In Del Norte County, volunteers and staff completed 10 home repair projects throughout the county including: four sets of stairs, two porches, three accessibility ramps, and one ramp repair. Volunteers also contributed to nine community-based projects: - 4 garden partners: Yurok Tribe's Food Sovereignty Program, Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation's Howonquet Head Start Food Forest, Del Norte & Tribal Lands Community Food Council (school gardens), & Family Resource Center of the Redwoods' K!ds Garden - 2 paint projects at the Crescent City UMC's parsonage & Del Norte County Fairgrounds (both host facilities) - 2 invasive species removal…
$349,015 spentof which $82,000 as grants$529,165 earned by the program45% of program spendingWorkforce Development: In June 2023, we launched the Sacramento Sustainability Academy (SSA) a workforce development jobs program designed to provide young people with an introduction to climate action and community resilience work. Building on SSP's history of providing youth and young adults with hands-on experience with tools, home repairs, and high impact community projects, the Academy is focused on energy efficiency through the lens of building science, urban agriculture as a tool for achieving food security/sovereignty through permaculture design principles, and manufacturing design skills to provide young people high demand and cutting edge skills for high paying professions. All program fellows are required to reside within the city limits of Sacramento and meet additional requirements. Priority was given to individuals who have difficulty finding employment, are low-income, are unemployed and/or out of school, are or were justice-involved, are in or transitioning from foster care, or are engaged with the mental health or substance abuse system. We hosted two six-week cohorts in the summer and fall, funded by the City of Sacramento. They were paid above minimum wage to…
$207,238 spentof which $198,039 as grants$198,039 earned by the program27% of program spendingSacramento County Year-Round Programs: SSP hosted 197 year-round volunteers in Sacramento County during Days of Service and Alternative Break sessions. Alternative Break sessions are scheduled by group request, and vary from year to year significantly in length and location - all were day only programs this year (not overnight). In Rancho Cordova, five local youth spent their spring break working on home repairs and received a small stipend to honor their time and commitment. The Sacramento Youth Center partnered with us for the fourth year to host their spring break program, where they worked at the International Garden of Many Colors. Day of Service volunteers completed a two-year project building 1,000' of wood fences and installing 10 paver art medallions for the Dixieanne Clean and Green Alley Project, funded by CalTrans through the City of Sacramento. They also worked throughout the year at community gardens with partners from WeForce Inc.'s Safe Harbor community garden and Color the Block's Rainbow Mini Park Garden. In Rancho Cordova, 50 unique volunteers (24 youth, 21 young adults, and 5 adults) completed 12 home repair projects at 6 homes for 9 residents (4 over the age…
$121,053 spentof which $109,640 as grants$124,890 earned by the program16% of program spendingThese expenses are a combination of general program costs, which are not able to be broken out into the different program categories, as well as smaller programs we run.
$93,923 spent12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $771,229.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2020 to 2021, from $571k to $492k (−14%).
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: 2020 16% · 2021 29% · 2022 8% · 2023 29% · 2024 41% · 2025 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
62% of SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Megan Taylor
Executive Director
Board chair
Debra Oshman
Board Member - Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $92k → $135k.
7 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 SERVICE PROJECT’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 SERVICE PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
44% 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 SERVICE PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 74% · 2018 86% · 2019 79% · 2020 49% · 2021 56% · 2022 27% · 2023 37% — 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
54% of SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT'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
86% of SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $333k 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
SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT's funding base is broadening — from 4 funders to 10 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT
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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 4 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT: 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 SERVICE PROJECT?
- SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $879,307 to it, the largest being ROBERT GRIMM FAMILY FOUNDATION ($368,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $879,307 in grants to SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT?
- ROBERT GRIMM FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $368,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIERRA SERVICE PROJECT 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 Service Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 21 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