California · Nonprofit
YOUNG STORYTELLERS
YOUNG STORYTELLERS (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,737,621 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($396,400). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Young Storytellers does
Mission
To develop literacy through the art of storytelling. To help under-served children in the public school system to discover the power of their own voice by providing opportunities for them to write stories and see them brought to life through performance.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Young Storytellers is an arts non-profit that empowers authentic, essential new voices and changes what's possible. Our programs provide the guidance and support to explore, discover, and express one's own unique story, and a stage for sharing it with others. Young Storytellers elevates young voices, made of their distinct background, culture, race, gender, sexuality, ability, and immigration and economic status, to bring powerful new perspectives into our communities and society.Young Storytellers completed two semesters, totaling 115 sessions of its youth development programs during 2024. Young Storytellers coordinated and administered their programs successfully in over 70 public elementary, middle, and high schools across los angeles county. All programs were provided in person during spring 2024 and fall 2024 sessions. Approximately 4,000 children participated as storytellers in our in-school programs which include our flagship script to stage program, collaborative script to stage program, middle school stories program, high school stories program, and wbd story lab in partnership with warner bros. Discovery, dc comics, and lausd. Young Storytellers also created and produced…
$1,451,777 spentof which $2,700 as grants$16,000 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,451,777.
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 2020 to 2021, from $959k to $1.3M (+39%).
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 5% · 2018 2% · 2019 4% · 2020 16% · 2021 12% · 2022 5% · 2023 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of YOUNG STORYTELLERS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Ani Shehigian
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 27 funders, grant income rose $193k → $650k.
11 of 55 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 YOUNG STORYTELLERS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
YOUNG STORYTELLERS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
47% 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 YOUNG STORYTELLERS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 19% · 2019 18% · 2020 13% · 2021 17% · 2022 20% · 2023 21% — 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
58% of YOUNG STORYTELLERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% 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
83% of YOUNG STORYTELLERS's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
YOUNG STORYTELLERS is better cushioned than half of the 1,928 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,928 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like YOUNG STORYTELLERS
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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
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 YOUNG STORYTELLERS: 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 YOUNG STORYTELLERS?
- YOUNG STORYTELLERS (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,737,621 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($396,400). 43 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does YOUNG STORYTELLERS have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $3,737,621 in grants to YOUNG STORYTELLERS, 43 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of YOUNG STORYTELLERS?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $396,400 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like YOUNG STORYTELLERS 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 55 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing