Children Now
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Children Now harnesses our collective power to advance equitable solutions for California's kids. Children Now breaks down systemic barriers so that all children have the services and supports they need to reach their full potential. By employing a game-changing, whole-child, antiracist, connector model, we are transforming childrens advocacy, bringing together millions of diverse voices, and creating power for California kids.
- Income
- $9.9 million
- Spending
- $8.1 million
- Spent on programs
- 82%
- Reserves
- 10.2 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 92%
- Employees
- 46
- Volunteers
- 22
- Highest pay
- $579,590, president
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Strong: 93 out of 100. Higher than 80% of charities in its peer group (human services, $1m to $10m).
Reserves
28 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 10.2 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 10% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 18% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 86% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1582% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 6 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 65% of charities in its peer group (human services, $1m to $10m).
Independent board
25 of 258 of 9 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $2.8 million spent. 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.
- $2.7 million spent. 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.
- $1.0 million spent. 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.
- $141,104 spent. 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.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since April 1993.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.