California · Nonprofit
Silicon Valley Urban Debate League
Silicon Valley Urban Debate League (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,275,691 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($1,043,100). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $4.3M
- Net assets
- $182k
What Silicon Valley Urban Debate League does
Mission
Our mission is to empower Silicon Valley students, regardless of their race or socioeconomic status, to reach their full potential to become professional and community leaders by teaching critical thinking and communication skills through speech and debate programming.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
During the period of July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, SVUDL worked with 19 high school partners in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, serving nearly 2,500 students. Of these students, 856 students participated in the highest level of involvement attending 10+ practices and at least 1 tournament. In addition to afterschool Speech & Debate programming, SVUDL has been more active in the classroom working with our high school partners to develop a customized plan that also includes Speech & Debate Curriculum offerings and Debate Centered Instruction (DCI). This comprehensive approach provides for rigorous instruction, student engagement, and teacher support. SVUDL staff and Teacher Coaches spent more than 36,000 hours with students throughout the year. In addition, students participated in 12 Professional Access visits. Lastly, independent research has shown once again the participation in any of SVUDL's three programs was correlated with higher GPAs for participating students compared to their non-participating peers.
$901,870 spent$140,474 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $901,870.
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 $358k to $654k (+82%).
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: 2019 1% · 2020 14% · 2021 16% · 2022 1% · 2023 12% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of Silicon Valley Urban Debate League’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Rolland Janairo
CEO
Board chair
Jim Basile
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $491k → $787k.
11 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 65% 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 Silicon Valley Urban Debate League’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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
Silicon Valley Urban Debate League has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% 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
75% 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 Silicon Valley Urban Debate League.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 69% · 2019 43% · 2020 42% · 2021 16% · 2022 26% · 2023 19% — 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
43% of Silicon Valley Urban Debate League'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
65% of Silicon Valley Urban Debate League's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.5M that is directly attributable, 79% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
Silicon Valley Urban Debate League's revenue grew 31% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Silicon Valley Urban Debate League
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
96%
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 Silicon Valley Urban Debate League: 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 Silicon Valley Urban Debate League?
- Silicon Valley Urban Debate League (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,275,691 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($1,043,100). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Silicon Valley Urban Debate League have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $4,275,691 in grants to Silicon Valley Urban Debate League, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Silicon Valley Urban Debate League?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,043,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Silicon Valley Urban Debate League 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 Silicon Valley Urban Debate League →
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 40 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