California · Nonprofit
SUMMER SEARCH
SUMMER SEARCH (California) receives grants from 361 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,796,942 to it, the largest being ROBERT AND DANA EMERY FAMILY FOUNDATION ROCKEFELLER TRUST COMPANY ($11,593,000). 228 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 361
- Grants received
- $84M
- Net assets
- $31M
What Summer Search does
Mission
The mission of Summer Search is to find resilient low-income high school students and inspire them to become responsible altruistic leaders by providing year-round mentoring, summer experiences, college advising and alasting support network.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
SUMMER PLACEMENT AND MENTORING: Each student receives two full scholarships to life-changing summer experiential education programs, including wilderness leadership expeditions, academic enrichment programs, community service, and internships. These programs provide opportunities for growth and connection through concentrated experiences that challenge and empower students. Through mentoring students build supportive and sustained relationships with full-time professional staff mentors and peers to reflect on life experiences, actions, identities, and communities.
$6,232,987 spentof which $1,681,081 as grants45% of program spendingStaff training and development: Summer Search conducts a strong training effort to teach the uniquely effective interview process that identifies students that have leadership potential through an original youth development model that identifies three character metrics that it hopes to cultivate in young people: resiliency, altruism, and performance. The Organization provides a comprehensive training to staff in order to develop and improve mentoring skills which can help students develop relational, leadership and resiliency skills. Training is conducted year-round through a series of intensive workshops delivered in person by highly-trained staff and youth development experts.
$4,682,703 spentof which $717 as grants33% of program spendingPost-secondary program: The Organization provides students support to towards their education and long-term goals. The Post-Secondary Program supports a broad set of mid and long-term outcomes for its participants: educational attainment, career readiness, integrated identity, sense of purpose, and financial well-being. The Organization's redesigned Post-Secondary Program will include the implementation of a three-part service model, which will offer more in-depth matriculation and transition assistance, greater access to social capital through alumni and corporate partners, and increased hands-on career and financial resources.
$1,701,581 spentof which $181,687 as grants12% of program spendingAlumni Program: An array of alumni services supports graduates to be successful in the world after the post-secondary years through networking events with other alumni and donors and professional development services such as career workshops, internships, and volunteer leadership opportunities.
$1,384,796 spentof which $29,772 as grants$366,789 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,002,067.
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 2020 to 2021, from $14M to $27M (+99%).
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 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 1% · 2021 8% · 2022 2% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of SUMMER SEARCH’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Board chair
Teke Kelley
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 103 funders to 138 funders, grant income rose $3.6M → $14M.
48 of 361 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 SUMMER SEARCH’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 361 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
SUMMER SEARCH has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
51% 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 SUMMER SEARCH.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 13% · 2019 18% · 2020 15% · 2021 19% · 2022 15% · 2023 21% — broadly stable.
“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
44% of SUMMER SEARCH'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
SUMMER SEARCH draws 80% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $38M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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
SUMMER SEARCH holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 290 employment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 290 employment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like SUMMER SEARCH
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
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 5 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SUMMER SEARCH: 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 SUMMER SEARCH?
- SUMMER SEARCH (California) receives grants from 361 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,796,942 to it, the largest being ROBERT AND DANA EMERY FAMILY FOUNDATION ROCKEFELLER TRUST COMPANY ($11,593,000). 228 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SUMMER SEARCH have?
- IRS filings report 361 organizations giving $83,796,942 in grants to SUMMER SEARCH, 228 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SUMMER SEARCH?
- ROBERT AND DANA EMERY FAMILY FOUNDATION ROCKEFELLER TRUST COMPANY is the largest funder on record, with $11,593,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SUMMER SEARCH 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 Summer Search →
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 361 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