Form 990 for tax year 2024

Totals

Total revenue

$9,915,882

Total expenses

$8,097,092

Contributions and grants received

$9,160,923

Grants paid

$0

Program service revenue

$303,944

Investment income

$368,486

Other revenue

$82,529

Total assets, end of year

$15,011,261

Total liabilities, end of year

$1,483,532

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$13,527,729

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$6,652,895

Management and general expenses

$863,046

Fundraising expenses

$581,151

Program service expenses (Part III)

$6,652,895

Program services were 82.2% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2024

• HealthChildren Nows health program focuses on ensuring that children pre-natal to age 26 have meaningful and equitable access to high-quality, culturally responsive, affordable health care, including physical, behavioral, and oral health care services, and other key services like home visiting and developmental screenings that are vital for Californias youngest children. Through our research, analysis, policy development, education, outreach, and advocacy efforts, we have achieved the following: worked with the legislature and Governor on updating current law, ensuring that children enrolling in transitional kindergarten (TK) receive oral health assessments; secured funding for 54 community-based organizations that serve infants and toddlers through $55 million in early childhood wraparound services, with the latest awards from the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative; crafted a bill to remove barriers to youth seeking support for substance use issues; built a strong coalition and communications campaign to vocalize issues around accessing mental health care under employer-sponsored coverage; led policy development efforts to allow non-licensed professionals, like community health workers, to provide and get reimbursed for asthma preventive services and in-home visits in Medi-Cal; continued to push the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to hold plans accountable for delivering and coordinating basic care for kids, for meaningful quality improvement, and for true community reinvestment; secured $33 million annually in the state budget to implement a policy for Multi-Year Continuous Enrollment in Medi-Cal for children under five, protecting children under 5 from unnecessarily losing their coverage; developed accountable care coordination policies, including Enhanced Care management and a Closed Loop Referral policy, to take in effect in 2025; continued leading Medi-Cal Excellence in Early Childhood Outcomes Collaborative Learning Community, the unique collaborative project with DHCS focused on improving infant well-child visits; launched Hearing Aid Coverage for Children Program (HACCP) and protected $10 million allocated for HACCP hearing aids and services in the state budget; led the California Alliance for Childrens Environmental Health, raising awareness of environmental health issues and inequities affecting children, and built momentum behind focusing policy priorities to improve environmental conditions for children; co-led a Caregiver Advocacy Circle to support caregiver advocates who sit on state workgroups; provided technical assistance to caregivers to help them push forward specific policy items, such as private duty nursing, aiding their work to become a stronger voice in childrens health policymaking; and provided technical assistance to local health departments in eight Central Valley counties to implement their oral health improvement plans and establish or expand their school dental programs.

  Expenses $2,770,803 · Revenue $138,608

• EducationChildren Nows education program aims to ensure every child has access to high-quality early learning opportunities, a rigorous TK-12 education, including high-quality STEM, afterschool and summer programs, and access to affordable higher education. Through research and analysis, policy development, education and outreach, communications, convenings, and advocacy, we have worked to dismantle inequitable and racially discriminatory systems and achieved the following: protected $8.8 billion in funding for public schools during state budget negotiations; improved the distribution of LCFFs $300 million of equity multiplier funds that provide additional dollars to schools with high needs students; secured the inclusion of science on the California School Dashboard, the statewide school accountability system, benefiting 5.8 million students in the California public education system; protected the states commitment to expanding child care indefinitely; significantly improved school accountability via changes to the LCAP, requiring districts to focus on closing achievement gaps and evaluation the effectiveness of their actions of a three-year period; played a leadership role in protecting and continuing investments in our states teacher recruitment, retention, and preparation programs; successfully defended the Golden State Teacher Grant Program against proposed cuts; worked to create a paid educator apprenticeship pathway into teaching that addresses a key systemic barrier teachers face when entering the profession, which is lack of compensation while earning a teaching credential and the high cost of preparation programs; increased school district accountability for reclassifying English learners (EL) students in a timely fashion by increasing the performance level thresholds on the English Learner Progress Indicator, which measures the percentage of ELs who are making progress towards English language proficiency; provided leadership on the implementation of Californias C2C data system at every stage of its development, including budget advocacy to fund the system, shape its scope and scale, and guided C2C leadership and staff on data accessibility; advocated for the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Todays Youth Act, which strengthens state protections against any school district policy, rule, or regulation that would require the disclosure of information that relates to a students sexual orientation, gender identify, or gender expression without the students consent; worked to remove barriers faced by an increasing number of school districts seeking to enter into College and Career Access Pathway agreements to provide dual enrollment courses for high school students with community colleges; actively engaged with the workgroup convened by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to revise the Child Development Permit, the required credential for adults working with children in early learning and care settings, including California State Preschool; Children Now continued its leadership on TK, the landmark program we helped to establish to ensure universal access to preschool in California; worked to extend the home visiting program enrollment period to 36 months and extend the time that families can participate; and restored critical funding to the CalWORKS Home Visiting Program, when the Governor proposed a 45% across the board cut to the program.

  Expenses $2,739,194 · Revenue $143,670

• Child WelfareChildren Nows child welfare program works to address the comprehensive health, education, and social service needs of children in the child welfare system. Through our research, policy development, education, and communications efforts, we have achieved the following: successfully protected the Family Urgent Response System (FURS), a 24/7 in-person helpline and response system for foster youth and families, which was proposed for elimination in the 2024-25 state budget despite the programs success in answering nearly 5,000 calls a year; successfully opposed an additional $178.5 million in proposed cuts to child welfare programs; helped prevent the elimination of the Housing Navigation and Maintenance Program and reductions to the Emergency Child Care Bridge Program, the Bringing Families Home Program, and Caregiver Approvals; supported coalition efforts to lift up multiple bills to protect and strengthen family economic support efforts, including creating HOPE accounts and supporting the GAINS Act for Parents Success; supported a coalition to oppose the Taxpayer and Government Accountability Act, which would have rolled back funding for programs serving children and families; provided resources and technical assistance to local education agencies with students in foster care performing at the lowest performance level as they developed goals to address the needs of their students and improve outcomes; monitored foster care rate reform to ensure: 1) children and caregivers are able to quickly and easily access strength-building and maintenance funds to support timely engagement in enrichment activities; 2) the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths tool is utilized appropriately, and all youth in foster care are assessed regularly and consistently; 3) additional training, support, and guidance is provided to caregivers working with kids with higher levels of need; and 4) critical supports such as respite care and school transportation are funded appropriately through the new rate structure and can be easily accessed as needs arise; coordinated feedback from more than 100 child welfare and health stakeholders on the BH-CONNECT proposal and provided feedback on the effective transition of more than 13,000 youth in foster care to new Medi-Cal managed care plans and the Health Care Program for Children in Foster Care transition to a standalone program; and closely monitored the implementation of the new Enhanced Care Management benefit for kids in foster care and elevated the need for Specialty Mental Health Services access data to ensure youth with child welfare involvement have access to services as intended.

  Expenses $1,001,794 · Revenue $1,666

• Research and Data CollectionChildren Nows research program produces comprehensive reports, factsheets, infographics, and data-driven policy briefs on topics related to our program areas. We produce two marquee publications: 1) the California Childrens Report Card, which is the states most comprehensive report on childrens health, education, and well-being, and provides up-to-date data on the status of Californias children, highlights outcomes disparities resulting from decades of institutional racism, addresses recent policy developments, and delivers research and data-driven recommendations for improving childrens well-being, and 2) the California County Scorecard of Childrens Well-Being, which provides policymakers and a diverse range of community leaders and other stakeholders a unique and consumable analysis with county data over time, by race and ethnicity, and relative to other counties. This interactive online tool provides a user-friendly interface so viewers can understand counties unique strengths and vulnerabilities in meeting childrens needs, as well as serious inequities in child well-being. The organization also released several research briefs and data profiles, including: a brief, Big Feelings: Parents and Caregivers Need More Help to Support Children Under 5, that details parental reflections from interpersonal to systemic that affected their childs healthy brain development; a chartbook, Preventive Services for Kids in Medi-Cal, which gives a snapshot of childrens preventive services in Medi-Cal, which is the source of health coverage for over 5.5 million kids in California; a brief, Reimagining Respite Care for Children and Youth in Foster Care, which reviews existing research on respite care and its benefits to families.Our marquee publications and numerous reports and briefs are widely distributed to the public, including all state and local policymakers, the media, service providers, coalition partners, and civic organizations. These research publications, as well as the outreach efforts, briefings, and widespread media coverage generated by their release, help motivate key stakeholders and policymakers to make childrens issues a top priority, both locally and at the state level.

  Expenses $141,104 · Revenue $20,000

As filed on the 2024 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Related organizations on this return

Schedule R Part II: tax-exempt organizations related to the filer by control. It does not record shared board members or money.

• CHILDREN NOW ACTION FUND

  501(C)(4) · PROMOTE & ADVOCATE CHILDREN'S WELFARE · CA

  Directly controlled by CHILDREN NOW

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2024

Filed

12 November 2025

IRS schema version

2024v5.2

Source object

202543169349308659

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