California · Nonprofit
YOUTH COOKING SERVICES
YOUTH COOKING SERVICES (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $169,922 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($104,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $287k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $170k
- Net assets
- $199k
What Youth Cooking Services does
Mission
Kids cooking for life empowers san francisco bay area kids and teens with nutritional knowledge and cooking skills for their lifelong health and well-being.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
General program: hands-on cooking lessons. Students learn to chop, mince, measure, stir, sauté, and simmer together to produce a meal that is shared at the end of the class. We start with a nutrition lesson followed up by a student-led, instructor-supported cooking experience. Our kid-approved recipes are developed by our recipe team and test kitchen. We want students to eat the rainbow and be introduced to a range of new foods and tastes they may never have tried before. Our aim is for them to deepen their appreciation of food and learn to think of creative ways to combine different ingredients and flavors. By learning to cook from scratch with fresh ingredients, students become healthy eating advocates and are empowered to control their long-term health.
$191,062 spent$110,505 earned by the program100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $191,062.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2024 to 2025, from $146k to $207k (+42%).
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: 2022 19% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
61% of YOUTH COOKING SERVICES’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 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
Lara Rajninger
Executive director
Board chair
Melanie Harris
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $5k → $15k.
3 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 79% 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 YOUTH COOKING SERVICES’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
YOUTH COOKING SERVICES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 61% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
79% 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 YOUTH COOKING SERVICES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 100% · 2022 75% · 2023 67% — 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
79% of YOUTH COOKING SERVICES's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $35k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $135k 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
YOUTH COOKING SERVICES runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,936 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,936 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like YOUTH COOKING SERVICES
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for YOUTH COOKING SERVICES: 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 YOUTH COOKING SERVICES?
- YOUTH COOKING SERVICES (California) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $169,922 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($104,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 79% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does YOUTH COOKING SERVICES have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $169,922 in grants to YOUTH COOKING SERVICES, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of YOUTH COOKING SERVICES?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $104,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like YOUTH COOKING SERVICES 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 Youth Cooking Services →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), 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