California · Nonprofit
VENTURES
VENTURES (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,680,803 to it, the largest being The James Irvine Foundation ($4,375,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $5.8M
What Ventures does
Mission
Creating compassionate and equitable local economies that contribute to the well-being of our communities.Ventures partners with rural, working-class families in Californias Central Coast to ensure a shared and equitable economic future for all.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Financial Capability (Familias con Ms) - provides financial capability education to rural, working-class families on all aspects of money-understanding it, managing it, and saving it. This includes a six-month financial stability program to help working-class families build community, self-determination, and financial wellbeing.
$1,990,561 spentof which $1,232,717 as grants58% of program spendingAsset Building - Ensures families and youth can build wealth. This includes: - Semilitas is a community partnership that creates communities of belonging from birth, by investing in Santa Cruz County kids child development, post-secondary educational aspirations, and families financial capability by creating an automatic college savings account for all Santa Cruz County newborns. - Futuro - is a worker-owned cooperative business structure and network that provides income and wealth building for working-class families.
$1,400,660 spentof which $34,562 as grants41% of program spendingAdvocacy - To advocate for system-level interventions that, in part, enable the establishment of community-owned structures, which ensure community members hold decision-making power over policies and programs.
$34,431 spentof which $3,150 as grants1% of program spendingEmergency Relief & Safety Net Services - As a trusted intermediary during times of crisis, Ventures provides relief to community members in need who are not comfortable working with institutions or who are left out of our safety net.
$14,943 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,440,595.
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 $2.7M to $6.0M (+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: 2019 12% · 2020 28% · 2021 14% · 2022 16% · 2023 19% · 2024 63%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of VENTURES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% 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.
Board chair
Sigolene Ortega
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $72k → $3.6M.
6 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 VENTURES’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
VENTURES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
51% 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 VENTURES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 96% · 2019 35% · 2020 68% · 2021 72% · 2022 76% · 2023 82% — growing more concentrated.
“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
33% of VENTURES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
97% of VENTURES's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.9M 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
VENTURES holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,263 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,263 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding VENTURES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $12k on record.
- Department of the Treasury$12k
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 VENTURES
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
97% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VENTURES: 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 VENTURES?
- VENTURES (California) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,680,803 to it, the largest being The James Irvine Foundation ($4,375,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VENTURES have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $10,680,803 in grants to VENTURES, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VENTURES?
- The James Irvine Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $4,375,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VENTURES 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 29 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