California · Nonprofit
THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION
THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $645,660 to it, the largest being BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY ($171,450). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $562k
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $646k
- Net assets
- $23k
What The Little Lion Foundation does
Mission
To save kittens from being euthanized at the local shelter.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Provide safe temporary housing and medical attention for abandoned, abused, homeless, neglected and feral cats and kittens.
$568,428 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $568,428.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2023 to 2024, from $1k to $70k (+4898%).
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: 2024 8% · 2025 25%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
108% of THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (86% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 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
Claudia Otis
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $15k → $104k.
4 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 LITTLE LION FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 18 of 20 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 LITTLE LION FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
80% 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 LITTLE LION FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 54% · 2019 53% · 2020 40% · 2021 60% · 2022 34% · 2023 28% — 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
75% of THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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 LITTLE LION FOUNDATION draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $140k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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 LITTLE LION FOUNDATION has grown faster than half of the 3,693 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,693 animals nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION
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
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION: 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 LITTLE LION FOUNDATION?
- THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $645,660 to it, the largest being BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY ($171,450). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $645,660 in grants to THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION?
- BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY is the largest funder on record, with $171,450 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE LITTLE LION FOUNDATION 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 Little Lion →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), 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