California · Nonprofit
URBAN ALCHEMY
URBAN ALCHEMY (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,019,028 to it, the largest being CRANKSTART FOUNDATION ($1,750,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $101M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $7.0M
- Net assets
- $8.2M
What Urban Alchemy does
Mission
To operate workforce programs in areas of civic engagement, urban street cleaning, & reentry services.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Urban Alchemy employs former long-term offenders as "Urban Alchemy practitioners" to provide clean and safe public facilities in urban areas, currently san francisco, los angeles, austin, and portland. Urban Alchemy aims to provide opportunities for former long-term offenders and to reduce recidivism and simultaneously transform the energy of the most chaotic places in urban environments. Urban Alchemy practitioners work in urban spaces that are most impacted by the intersection of homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. Depending on the particular assignment, Urban Alchemy practitioners' services range from cleaning the streets, to monitoring a public bathroom, to ensure the elevators in the bart station are safe and clean.
$84,667,958 spent$1,189,854 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $84,667,958.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2022 to 2023, from $11M to $25M (+132%).
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: 2020 83% · 2021 53% · 2022 51% · 2023 61% · 2024 71% · 2025 97%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of URBAN ALCHEMY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (9% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 7 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
Lena Miller
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 18 funders, grant income rose $40k → $1.7M.
8 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 URBAN ALCHEMY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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
URBAN ALCHEMY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
64% 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 URBAN ALCHEMY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 51% · 2021 61% · 2022 44% · 2023 29% — 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
14% of URBAN ALCHEMY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
98% of URBAN ALCHEMY's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
URBAN ALCHEMY has grown faster than three-quarters of the 24 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 24 community improvement nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding URBAN ALCHEMY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.0M on record.
- Department of Justice$2.0M
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 URBAN ALCHEMY
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
83% 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 7 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for URBAN ALCHEMY: 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 URBAN ALCHEMY?
- URBAN ALCHEMY (California) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,019,028 to it, the largest being CRANKSTART FOUNDATION ($1,750,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does URBAN ALCHEMY have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $7,019,028 in grants to URBAN ALCHEMY, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of URBAN ALCHEMY?
- CRANKSTART FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like URBAN ALCHEMY 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 Urban Alchemy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 40 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