California · Nonprofit
URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS
URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $311,006 to it, the largest being GIRARD FOUNDATION ($275,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.1M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $311k
- Net assets
- $192k
What Urban Discovery Schools does
Mission
Urban discovery academy develops design thinkers who lead by example, making active, positive contributions to their local and global communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Foster learning environments where students consistently achieve our urban discovery academy learner outcomes. As an educational system grounded in continuous improvement, we: design challenging, real-world projects that elicit passion and excitement about lifelong learning; actively engage in the design thinking process and mindset; develop learning opportunities which foster resilience through productive struggle and reflection; and cultivate opportunitites for students to meaningfully interact and contriute to our school and community.
$5,896,142 spent$34,680 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,896,142.
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 2022 to 2023, from $13M to $29M (+119%).
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 94% · 2018 96% · 2019 96% · 2021 98% · 2022 99% · 2023 97% · 2024 95% · 2025 94%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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
Jenni Owen
Superintendent/CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income fell $15k → $2k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $764k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Uda Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS raised.
From the IRS filings of URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS’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
URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 88% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 88% · 2020 100% · 2021 76% · 2022 89% · 2023 88% — 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.
Where its funders are
98% of URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $27k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 DISCOVERY SCHOOLS is better cushioned than half of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS
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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Fourteenth Street Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Russ Boulevard Holdings LLC · disregarded
- The Uda Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS: 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 DISCOVERY SCHOOLS?
- URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $311,006 to it, the largest being GIRARD FOUNDATION ($275,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $311,006 in grants to URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS?
- GIRARD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $275,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like URBAN DISCOVERY SCHOOLS 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 Discovery Schools →
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 5 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