California · Nonprofit
Sonoma Speaker Series
Sonoma Speaker Series (California) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $239,406 to it, the largest being KHR MCNEELY FAMILY FOUNDATION ($100,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $291k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $239k
- Net assets
- $380k
What Sonoma Speaker Series does
Mission
To foster community education through presentation of non-partisan public lectures on the arts, inspirational individuals and topics, and current events.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
We are pleased to say that The Sonoma Speaker Series has hit its stride! We have been selling out every event, and usually have a waiting list. Our e-blasts now go out to approximately 5,000 people, and the guests come from Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties.We continue to develop our Board of Directors, and added three new members in 2024. One of those is Dr. David McCuan, Chair of the Political Science Department at Sonoma State University. David is now taking on the role of on-stage interviewer for some of our more political speakers. In addition to McCuan, we also added Ken Wayne. Ken spent the last 32 years at KTVU and KRON 4 TV, working his way up to becoming the main anchor for the evening news. He's interviewed countless political leaders, entertainers, and other news makers, and now conducts interviews for our organization. And lastly, Liz Jenks has joined our Board. Liz built a thriving business, leading a team of 1,000 independent consultants who generated over $4 million in product sales annually. She has also conducted speaking engagements at women's conferences educating women on conscious consumerism.All of our 2024 speakers were top-notch. We started with Anthony Ray…
$134,948 spent$120,602 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $134,948.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $229k to $380k (+66%).
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.
57% of Sonoma Speaker Series’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 5 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
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $5k → $92k.
4 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% 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 Sonoma Speaker Series’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
Sonoma Speaker Series leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
32% 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 Sonoma Speaker Series.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 54% — 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.
Where its funders are
96% of Sonoma Speaker Series's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $77k 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.
Against its field
Sonoma Speaker Series runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 22,838 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,838 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Sonoma Speaker Series
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
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
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 Sonoma Speaker Series: 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 Sonoma Speaker Series?
- Sonoma Speaker Series (California) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $239,406 to it, the largest being KHR MCNEELY FAMILY FOUNDATION ($100,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Sonoma Speaker Series have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $239,406 in grants to Sonoma Speaker Series, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Sonoma Speaker Series?
- KHR MCNEELY FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Sonoma Speaker Series 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 Sonoma Speaker Series →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 10 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