California · Nonprofit
THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X
THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X (California) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,992,959 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($305,700). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 39
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $-38452
What The Desert Biennial Dba Desert X does
Mission
The desert biennial produces and presents international site specific art exhibits in desert landscapes. The exhibitions feature artists from around the globe who focus attention on societal issues through their work. The organization creates and presents concurrently free education program for adults and children that enhances the explicates the artworks.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The desert biennial produces and presents international site specific art exhibits in desert landscapes. The exhibitions feature artists from around the globe who focus attention on societal issues through their work. The organization creates and presents concurrently free education program for adults and children that enhances the explicates the artworks. Fiscal year 2024 activities focused on preparation of and ensuring the successful presentation of the free public art exhibit to be presented in fy 2025. Additionally, art education classes were conducted at schools throughout the desert sands unified school district.
$3,322,699 spent$915,115 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,322,699.
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 2024 to 2025, from $2.0M to $237k (−88%).
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 6% · 2018 1% · 2019 11% · 2021 3% · 2023 8% · 2024 0% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Jenny Gil
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $103k → $245k.
12 of 39 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 34% 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 DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 39 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
THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
44% 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 THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 24% · 2019 28% · 2020 38% · 2021 59% · 2022 15% · 2023 21% — 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
33% of THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% 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
THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $671k 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
THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X has grown faster than half of the 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,230 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $75k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$75k
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 DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X: 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 DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X?
- THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X (California) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,992,959 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($305,700). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X have?
- IRS filings report 39 organizations giving $1,992,959 in grants to THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $305,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE DESERT BIENNIAL DBA DESERT X 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 Desert Biennial Dba Desert X →
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 39 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