California · Nonprofit
Vanguard Culture
Vanguard Culture (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $93,944 to it, the largest being THE CONRAD PREBYS FOUNDATION ($50,640). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $100k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $94k
- Net assets
- $6k
What Vanguard Culture does
Mission
Vanguard Culture is a volunteer-powered, inclusive nonprofit dedicated to advancing San Diegos Creative Industries. We provide quality arts journalism, cutting edge events, professional development that create arts jobs, bring diverse communities together, inspire collaboration among the visual, performing, culinary arts. CONT SCHEDULE O
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
ARTS JOURNALISM Vanguard Culture produces a weekly newsletter, Vanguard Culture WEEKLY that features a curated selection of San Diegos best, most exciting, and unique cultural and culinary events for our 22K subscribers. We also produce in-depth feature articles on art-related topics for a wide audience, and we maintain a dynamic website. Since 2018, we received 82 awards for Excellence in Arts Journalism from the San Diego Press Club, including Best Entertainment Website in San Diego. Our arts coverage is comprised of THE BUZZ, featuring artist interviews, show reviews, and insight into San Diego Arts Culture POETIC LICENSE, featuring beautiful photo essays of artist studio visits ART SEEN, highlighting behind-the-scenes creatives, and ART SHOP TALKS, a mini-documentary series on YouTube highlighting artists of our region. Quality arts journalism aligns with our mission to create arts jobs, bring diverse communities together, and inspire creative collaboration. Increased coverage of San Diegos vibrant arts and culture sector Continued on Schedule O.
$14,383 spent$10,533 earned by the program23% of program spendingPROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT We provide multiple opportunities for San Diegos Creative Industry Professionals to increase their skills and broaden their horizons, such as a biennial creative industry symposium and quarterly workshops that provide creatives the tools and resources needed to thrive in their industry. We also gather Executive Directors from the regions leading creative industries together for a yearly roundtable to discuss issues relevant to arts organizations in San Diego. Professional development in the form of industry mixers, lectures, panel discussions, and meaningful networking opportunities all in virtual and in-person formats are a key component of our programming. We believe in providing industry professionals with the tools, resources, and opportunities to become better at their craft and to make a living doing what they love.
$29,365 spent$2,208 earned by the program48% of program spendingEVENTS Vanguard Culture produces immersive, multi-sensory and multi-cultural cutting-edge events that feature the visual, performing, and culinary arts in a creative collaboration. Our events appeal to Creative Industry Professionals as well as to the public at large and provide opportunities for guests to connect in meaningful ways and leave feeling that theyve experienced something truly special that cannot be replicated. Our programmatic partners are some of the regions most notable cultural organizations including the San Diego Opera, Mainly Mozart, San Diego African American Museum of Fine Arts, The San Diego Museum of Art, Fashion Week San Diego, San Diego Museum Council, San Diego Italian Film Festival, Baja Wine Food, Malashock Dance Company, and many more. We maintain our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion DEI in all of our programming.
$17,927 spent$30,094 earned by the program29% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $61,675.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $90k to $33k (−63%).
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 5% · 2021 33% · 2022 51% · 2023 27% · 2024 12% · 2025 19%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
57% of Vanguard Culture’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
Susana Peredo Swap
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $68 → $69k.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 Vanguard Culture’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
Vanguard Culture leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
35% 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 Vanguard Culture.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 99% · 2023 73% — 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
84% of Vanguard Culture's grant income comes from California funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $33k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Vanguard Culture's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 4 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Vanguard Culture
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
64% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Vanguard Culture: 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 Vanguard Culture?
- Vanguard Culture (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $93,944 to it, the largest being THE CONRAD PREBYS FOUNDATION ($50,640). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Vanguard Culture have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $93,944 in grants to Vanguard Culture, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Vanguard Culture?
- THE CONRAD PREBYS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $50,640 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Vanguard Culture 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 Vanguard Culture →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), 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