California · Nonprofit
THE AJA PROJECT
THE AJA PROJECT (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,014,581 to it, the largest being THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT ($400,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $358k
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $1.0M
- Net assets
- $196k
What The Aja Project does
Mission
The Aja Project is a compassionate space for young people, activists, visual artists and educators to engage critically with issues that affect our community and realize our collective liberation through participatory storytelling and the documentary arts.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Programs:The Aja Project exists to ignite change, break cycles of marginalization, and to build healthy communities. To achieve this, aja provides participatory art and media arts programming to underserved, marginalized, and displaced youth, while amplifying their voices to advocate for social justice.see schedule o for continuance of program service accomplishments description.public art: The Aja Project has shared its visual narratives with over 3 million viewers through large-scale public exhibits. Aja's public art portfolio has grown significantly over the past year as we bare witness to the power of public art to ignite important social conversations, promote cross-cultural understanding and foster a sense of collective belonging in diverse communities. In the past 12 months alone, this has included participatory installations - short-term, long-term, and permanent - at the san diego international airport, the san diego museum of man, market creek plaza in southeast san diego, the east african cultural center in city heights, and many others. Fee-for-service:aja also continued to maintain our fee-for-service program revenue stream created last fiscal year. This model helps…
$259,991 spentof which $100 as grants$70,446 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $259,991.
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 2018 to 2019, from $396k to $141k (−64%).
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 42% · 2018 41% · 2019 63% · 2020 59% · 2021 29% · 2022 14% · 2023 37% · 2024 46% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
79% of THE AJA PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (100% 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
Sandra Ainslie
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 6 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $39k → $135k.
2 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 THE AJA 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
THE AJA PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 45% · 2019 100% · 2020 55% · 2021 50% · 2022 67% · 2023 74% — 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
29% of THE AJA PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
89% of THE AJA 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. $45k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
THE AJA PROJECT's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,468 international nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding THE AJA PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $20k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$20k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like THE AJA 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
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
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 THE AJA 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 THE AJA PROJECT?
- THE AJA PROJECT (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,014,581 to it, the largest being THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT ($400,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE AJA PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $1,014,581 in grants to THE AJA PROJECT, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE AJA PROJECT?
- THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT is the largest funder on record, with $400,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE AJA 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 Aja Project →
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 20 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