California · Nonprofit
STRAY CAT ALLIANCE
STRAY CAT ALLIANCE (California) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,913,403 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($5,351,465). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.9M
- Funders on record
- 74
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $587k
What Stray Cat Alliance does
Mission
Our mission is to educate and empower communities to advocate for every cat's right to be safe, healthy and valued. We are proud to be celebrating 25 years of life saving work.our 2024 successes included: - keeping 376 underage kittens out of shelters and "safe at home" - managing the placement of 1,274 cats into loving foster homes - adopting 1,118 cats into their fur-ever homes - providing spay/neuter surgeries for 1,790 cats, including 793 community cats - providing 113,497 meals to community cats via our feeder partners - helping an additional 23,251 cats and 5,557 humans through our hotlinewe accomplish our work through our four primary programs; adoptions, safe at home, return to home for community cats, and care for community cats.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Safe at home: we help community members that seek support for unweaned kittens and sick and injured community cats. Safe at home empowers and educates theses community members to serve as foster caregivers and play an integral part in saving lives. At the south los angeles shelter, Stray Cat Alliance community engagement counselors intercept people - before cats and kittens are impounded - and offer mentorship and support for them to be foster caregivers. We provide training and support on all aspects of care, from bottle feeding to adoption. We also provide all medical care and, when needed, food and supplies. This is one of the few programs of its kind in the united states.
$1,207,143 spent36% of program spendingReturn to home for community cats: return to home is a flagship and best practice program. Community cats are one of the most at-risk populations in shelter environments. Using address information gathered through our shelter-based interventions, we target the cats that have the highest potential of ending up at the city shelter in south los angeles. Healthy community cats are fixed, vaccinated, microchipped, and ear tipped; then they are returned to their homes and caregivers in the community.
$715,536 spent21% of program spendingAdoptions: our adoptions program provides foster and forever homes to cats and kittens that are pulled from los angeles animal service shelters. We focus on the most in-need cats - those who are sick, injured, or underage - and are at risk of being euthanized. We pull more of these cats from the six los angeles animal services shelters than any other organization. We also accept cats and kittens from caring community members from underserved communities where resources are limited or unavailable. This helps ensure that these cats and kittens never end up at municipal shelters. Once they enter our programs, each cat/kitten receives veterinary care, including spay/neuter, vaccines, testing, check-ups, and microchips in our full service clinic. Our adoption counselors interview and provide resources to potential new family members to ensure that each cat gets matched with a loving, supportive forever home.
$297,795 spent9% of program spendingCare for community cats: Stray Cat Alliance empowers community members to directly make a difference in the lives of cats in their neighborhood. Through our hotline, we provide information and resources to the community about a wide range of issues related to companion animals in need of care - including trap/neuter/return, adoptions, rescue, and medical assistance - to people all over the country and the world. We also partner with community cat feeders in our local area to provide meals to cats and kittens.
$1,137,885 spent34% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,358,359.
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 2019 to 2020, from $602k to $1.6M (+173%).
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 0% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2021 6% · 2022 3% · 2023 7% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of STRAY CAT ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (74% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Christienne Metropole
President & CEO
Board chair
Betsy Liley
Director & chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $573k → $1.9M.
14 of 74 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 STRAY CAT ALLIANCE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 74 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
STRAY CAT ALLIANCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% 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
70% 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 STRAY CAT ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 46% · 2019 33% · 2020 36% · 2021 72% · 2022 50% · 2023 41% — 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
49% of STRAY CAT ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% 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
53% of STRAY CAT ALLIANCE'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 $5.5M that is directly attributable, 52% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
STRAY CAT ALLIANCE has grown faster than half of the 1,559 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,559 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like STRAY CAT ALLIANCE
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
95%
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 STRAY CAT ALLIANCE: 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 STRAY CAT ALLIANCE?
- STRAY CAT ALLIANCE (California) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,913,403 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($5,351,465). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does STRAY CAT ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 74 organizations giving $11,913,403 in grants to STRAY CAT ALLIANCE, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of STRAY CAT ALLIANCE?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $5,351,465 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like STRAY CAT ALLIANCE 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 74 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