California · Nonprofit
THE LAB SF
THE LAB SF (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $982,899 to it, the largest being THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS INC ($200,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $715k
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $983k
- Net assets
- $329k
What The Lab Sf does
Mission
The lab gives significant funding, time, and space to traditionally underrepresented artists. We seek to transform alongside artistic practices in order to engage meaningfully with visionary communities whose economic and cultural realities have been ignored for too long, to the impoverishment of us all. In this, the lab is catalyst for artistic experimentation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The lab supported 242 artists throughout 2024-25, across 71 programs of experimental music, film, and visual arts. Highlights of our programming included an exhibition of work by the late san francisco artist peter simensky, co-presented with san francisco-based platform cloaca projects; a residency and commission by musician zachary james watkins exploring the acoustics of the historic san francisco labor temple; and an exhibition and series of performances by artist aine nakamura, who worked to explore the connection between san francisco and her maternal family town in japan through the raw silk trade, war, and women's labor.
$362,325 spent$114,268 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $362,325.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $242k to $417k (+72%).
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 9% · 2018 1% · 2019 15% · 2020 16% · 2021 39% · 2022 40% · 2023 30% · 2024 20% · 2025 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Andrew Smith
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 11 funders, grant income rose $5k → $131k.
7 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 LAB SF’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 LAB SF has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
26% 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 LAB SF.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 81% · 2019 67% · 2020 34% · 2021 26% · 2022 45% · 2023 38% — 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
60% of THE LAB SF's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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 LAB SF draws 71% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $181k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Government funding THE LAB SF receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $125k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$125k
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 LAB SF
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
52% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
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 LAB SF: 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 LAB SF?
- THE LAB SF (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $982,899 to it, the largest being THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS INC ($200,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE LAB SF have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $982,899 in grants to THE LAB SF, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE LAB SF?
- THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS INC is the largest funder on record, with $200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE LAB SF 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 Lab Sf →
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 29 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