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California · Nonprofit

TILLY'S LIFE CENTER

TILLY'S LIFE CENTER (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,439,010 to it, the largest being STARS AND STRIPES CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION ($2,027,060). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.1M
Funders on record
38
Grants received
$4.4M
Net assets
$2.5M
22/38 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 70%
01What it does

What Tilly's Life Center does

Mission

Tilly's Life Center mission is to inspire today's youth to reach their full potential as productive, kind, happy and responsible individuals.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Tlc partners with school districts and other youth agencies to deliver our proprietary curriculum, "I am me". Our facilitators go directly to the students, supplementing existing health education programs in a 36-unit, full semester and on-site format. Tlc equips adolescents with necessary coping skills, motivation and purpose. Students emerge with mental health resilience and discover better ways to communicate, engage with others and build self-management tools to help achieve their social and life goals. Since 2012, we have trained over 26,355 students in school-based and workshop settings.

    $1,747,353 spent$185,073 earned by the program
    93% of program spending
  2. Tlc has developed an educator certification program to complement and enhance our wellnesss approach in daily learning. During this year, we provided stipends to 124 teachers, counselors, psychologists and health professionals for completing the training in full-day sessions at schools, universities or community sites. This enables them to understand the importance of "I am me- and our program, and to promote the tlc model in their home districts or agencies. In five years, we have trained 539 professionals in the tlc "I am me" program.

    $95,924 spent$10,160 earned by the program
    5% of program spending
  3. During this year, we launched an evidence-based evaluation and curriculum assessment project to better demonstrate the effectiveness and need for programs and services like tlc offers. With proven research technologies, we will develop tools to measure and evaluate student and teacher results in program satisfaction and personal growth.

    $29,740 spent$3,150 earned by the program
    2% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,873,017.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($902k) Expenses 100 ($732k) Net assets 100 ($428k)2018 Revenue 134 ($1.2M) Expenses 124 ($906k) Net assets 175 ($750k)2019 Revenue 109 ($987k) Expenses 162 ($1.2M) Net assets 129 ($550k)2020 Revenue 35 ($316k) Expenses 84 ($617k) Net assets 58 ($248k)2021 Revenue 287 ($2.6M) Expenses 157 ($1.1M) Net assets 350 ($1.5M)2022 Revenue 360 ($3.3M) Expenses 263 ($1.9M) Net assets 654 ($2.8M)2023 Revenue 308 ($2.8M) Expenses 379 ($2.8M) Net assets 664 ($2.8M)2024 Revenue 266 ($2.4M) Expenses 359 ($2.6M) Net assets 614 ($2.6M)2025 Revenue 231 ($2.1M) Expenses 302 ($2.2M) Net assets 581 ($2.5M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (231)Expenses (302)Net assets (581)Peer revenue range

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 $489k to $2.1M (+325%).

$429k
$760k
$639k
$489k
$2.1M
$3.0M
$3.4M
$3.2M
$2.9M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 12% · 2022 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

93% of TILLY'S LIFE CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,360 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$171k
’17
$306k
’18
−$200k
’19
−$301k
’20
$1.4M
’21
$1.3M
’22
$12k
’23
−$223k
’24
−$127k
’25
12
months of
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

Colleen Versteeg

CEO

Board chair

Dr Adrienne Matros

Board chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed171717181618192118
Joined·+1+0+2+6+3+2+4+1
No longer listed·10181124
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $574k → $692k.

11 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 TILLY'S LIFE CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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

TILLY'S LIFE CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

91% 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 TILLY'S LIFE CENTER.

46%
largest funder
82%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 54% · 2019 49% · 2020 25% · 2021 42% · 2022 79% · 2023 42% — 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

42% of TILLY'S LIFE CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

95% of TILLY'S LIFE CENTER's grant income comes from California funders.

MN
NY
MA
NV
CA
UT
MO
VA
DE
AZ
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

TILLY'S LIFE CENTER holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−6% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve11.6mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)11% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like TILLY'S LIFE CENTER

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

85% of spending goes to programs.

Program 85%Management 6%Fundraising 10%

Governance

17
board members
88%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

69%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Tilly's Inc · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TILLY'S LIFE CENTER: 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.

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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 TILLY'S LIFE CENTER?
TILLY'S LIFE CENTER (California) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,439,010 to it, the largest being STARS AND STRIPES CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION ($2,027,060). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does TILLY'S LIFE CENTER have?
IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $4,439,010 in grants to TILLY'S LIFE CENTER, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TILLY'S LIFE CENTER?
STARS AND STRIPES CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,027,060 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TILLY'S LIFE CENTER 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 Tilly's Life Center →

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 38 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