California · Nonprofit
WHY NOT FOUNDATION
WHY NOT FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,000 to it, the largest being MERKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($20,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $127k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $20k
- Net assets
- $2.0M
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2019 to 2020, from $1.8M to $1.6M (−14%).
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2022: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $20k → $0.
From the IRS filings of WHY NOT FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 1 of 2 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.
Where its funders are
100% of WHY NOT FOUNDATION's grant income comes from California funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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
WHY NOT FOUNDATION has grown faster than half of the 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like WHY NOT FOUNDATION
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.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WHY NOT FOUNDATION: 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 WHY NOT FOUNDATION?
- WHY NOT FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,000 to it, the largest being MERKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION ($20,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WHY NOT FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $20,000 in grants to WHY NOT FOUNDATION.
- Who is the largest funder of WHY NOT FOUNDATION?
- MERKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $20,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WHY NOT FOUNDATION 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 FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 2 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