What 826LA does

826LA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2005 in Los Angeles (EIN 38-3722092) that delivers free writing tutoring, workshops, and publishing programs to students ages 6 to 18. It operates two physical writing labs — Echo Park (1714 W. Sunset Blvd) and Mar Vista (12515 Venice Blvd) — each co-located with a Time Travel Mart retail storefront, and is an independent local chapter of the 826 National network. In its 20th-anniversary school year the organization served 8,095 students with support from 800+ volunteers contributing 5,000+ hours annually, and delivered 50+ traveling field trips to 28 classrooms across Los Angeles.

Core program offerings include After School Tutoring, Field Trips with 826LA, Workshops, In-Schools and Writers' Rooms (embedded at partner LAUSD high schools), College and Career Access (including the annual Write Your Future Personal Statement Day), Write On! Summer Camp, the Black Writers Initiative (launched 2022 with a stated goal of 550 additional Black and African American students over three years), and the Young Authors' Book Project. These programs feed a publishing pipeline that has placed 125+ student-authored zines in the LA Public Library and produced anthologies such as 'Doors to Our Future' and the 20th-anniversary collection 'Along the Way, We Saw the World'. There is no proprietary technology platform; the digital presence is a Squarespace website with embedded Google Forms and PayBee ticketing/donation processing.

826LA's revenue is generated entirely from non-program sources: individual donations including the recurring Future Bestsellers Club (10% YoY growth in the 20th year), foundation grants (Elizabeth R. Koch Foundation's 2025 $2.4M LA County distribution, ECMC Foundation, and an AmeriCorps Public Allies award of $247,675 in July 2024), special-event fundraising (the 2024 Changing the Story Gala raised over $250,000), Time Travel Mart retail sales, and event suggested donations. The organization carries Charity Navigator 4-star and Candid Platinum 2025 transparency credentials, and its partner network spans educational institutions (USC JEP, LAUSD, 74th Street Elementary, de Toledo, ALC, LA Public Library), cultural venues (Hammer Museum, Beyond Baroque, Greenbus Art Space), and entertainment industry supporters (Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures Animation, Gamefam).

Name

826LA

Legal name

826LA

Website

https://826la.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

826LA is a 20-year-old Los Angeles nonprofit that delivers free writing tutoring, workshops, field trips, and publishing programs to students ages 6-18 through two writing labs and partner LAUSD schools, funded by donations, foundation grants, and Time Travel Mart retail sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Individual Giving: Individual donations plus monthly Future Bestsellers Club recurring donor program, which delivered year-over-year 10% growth in its 20th-anniversary year.
2. Foundation Grants: Institutional grants from charitable foundations supporting free programs; e.g., Elizabeth R. Koch Foundation awarded grants to 826LA as part of $2.4M distributed to 50 LA County nonprofits.
3. Special Event Fundraising (Gala): Signature Changing the Story Gala raised over $250,000 in 2024 hosted by Jerrika Hinton; supported by sponsorships, ticket sales, and donations.
4. Time Travel Mart Retail Sales: Sales of merchandise at two storefronts (Echo Park, Mar Vista) and online at timetravelmart.com, including books, themed items, and student publications, with proceeds supporting free writing programs.
5. Event Suggested Donations: Free community events accept suggested donations at the door (e.g., Blood on the Clock Tower events suggest $5).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

826LA provides free writing and tutoring services to Los Angeles students ages 6 to 18 through two writing labs (Echo Park and Mar Vista), embedded in-school Writers' Rooms, traveling field trips, college and career access support, workshops, and a summer writing camp. Programs culminate in a student publishing pipeline (Young Authors' Book Project) and are subsidized by a whimsical retail arm (Time Travel Mart storefronts and online store), individual donations, foundation grants, and signature fundraising events.

Product overview

826LA operates as a unified non-profit writing and tutoring organization rather than a discrete software product, with its offerings organized as a portfolio of programs delivered across two writing centers (Echo Park at 1714 W. Sunset Blvd and Mar Vista at 12515 Venice Blvd) plus a publishing and retail arm. The core programs — After School Tutoring, Field Trips with 826LA, Workshops, In-Schools and Writers' Rooms, College and Career Access, Write On! Summer Camp, and the Black Writers Initiative — are all delivered for free to students ages 6-18 across Los Angeles County. These programs feed into the Young Authors' Book Project and the Student Voices publication archive, which give students a publishing platform, while the Time Travel Mart storefront at both locations generates revenue and community visibility to sustain the free programming. The portfolio is supported by an annual calendar of events (e.g., 826Day, 826Fest, Changing the Story Gala) and structured college-access milestones like the Write Your Future Personal Statement Event.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Time Travel Mart: Whimsical retail storefront operated by 826LA in Echo Park and Mar Vista that doubles as a nonprofit shop supporting 826LA's writing and tutoring programs.

Products and services

• After School Tutoring Free, drop-in after-school tutoring program held Monday through Thursday at the Echo Park and Mar Vista writing centers, where students receive homework help in all subjects and write stories based on writing prompts.
• Field Trips with 826LA Field trip program inviting public school students to 826LA's writing labs for a morning of creativity, exploring their imagination and honing writing skills. Includes a traveling field trips variant that delivered over 50 trips to 28 classrooms in 2024.
• Workshops Workshop series connecting students with artists, writers, and professionals to foster creativity and develop writing skills across subjects such as flash fiction, playwriting, poetry, and screenwriting; includes themed multi-day workshops such as Wordstock, Question Everything!, Supercharge Your Writing, and Storyboarding.
• In-Schools and Writers' Rooms School-based program in which trained 826LA volunteers go into under-resourced public schools to provide one-on-one writing support, with dedicated Writers' Room Coordinators placed at partner schools such as Theodore Roosevelt High School and Manual Arts High School.
• College and Career Access College and scholarship application support program offering one-on-one guidance from trained volunteers, with the annual Write Your Future Personal Statement Event pairing students with volunteers to draft UC Personal Insight Questions, Cal State EOP statements, and Common App essays.
• Write On! Summer Camp Two-week summer writing camp where students gain confidence and develop writing skills while making friends, create stories around an annual theme (e.g., 'the great sea' for 2026), build dioramas, take field trips, and present final projects in a museum-style showcase.
• Black Writers Initiative Initiative launched in 2022 to increase the number of Black and African American students in 826LA's programming by 550 over three years, with the first Young Authors' Book Project for elementary students produced in partnership with 74th Street Elementary School.
• Young Authors' Book Project Publishing program in which students collaboratively write, illustrate, and professionally publish original books; recent titles include 'Doors to Our Future' (74th Street Elementary), 'Memorias Grabadas' (Theodore Roosevelt High School), 'Is The Oven On? A Manual Arts High School Cookbook' (Manual Arts High School), 'Scenes from the Heart' (ALC), 'I Miss You, August', and 'A Nice Time Despite The Terrifying Experience'.
• Time Travel Mart Whimsical retail storefront operated as a fundraising mechanism at the Echo Park and Mar Vista locations, plus online at timetravelmart.com; sells quirky merchandise from 'the past, present, and future' with all proceeds supporting 826LA's free writing programs.

Quantifiable outcome

• 8,095 students served in the past school year with 800+ volunteers
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

20 partnerships are on record, tiered minor, core and flagship.

• Women Who SubmitminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 21 March 2026Women Who Submit partnered with 826LA on the 'Celebrating Women & Women's Voices of All Ages' open mic, delivering a youth-friendly performance workshop led by board member Traci Kato-Kiriyama.
• Sony Pictures AnimationminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 21 March 2026Sony Pictures Animation storyboard artist and director Guillermo Martinez (The Mitchells vs. The Machines, K-Pop Demon Hunters) leads a one-day storyboarding workshop for students 10-18 at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart.
• Hammer Museum (UCLA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 September 2025826LA workshops at The Hammer Museum launched in fall 2025 with monthly free workshops for students 8-14 (Crafting The Magic Within Her, Monster ER, Writing About Art, Pitch And Write). 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
• Christine Ko and Owen Whang (children's book authors)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 10 August 2025Authors Christine Ko and Owen Whang partnered with 826LA for the Ice Cream Social fundraiser at the Mar Vista Time Travel Mart, featuring a live reading and book signing for 'Sound Switch Wonder'.
• Beyond Baroque Literary Arts CenterminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 July 2025826LA and Beyond Baroque co-host the Community Open Mic at the Wanda Coleman Theater in Venice (681 North Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90291).
• LA WorksminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 March 2025LA Works partnered with 826LA on the 'March Matches: Blind Date with a Book' event, recruiting 40+ volunteers, donating books, and supporting a bilingual storytelling workshop led by 826LA Sr. Civic Engagement Coordinator Ariana Ponce Olivares.
• Los Angeles Public LibrarycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025826LA launched a large-scale collaboration with the Los Angeles Public Library in its 20th year, bringing writing workshops and field trips to branch locations across the city; 125+ student zines were previously added to the LA Public Library collection.
• USC Joint Educational Project (JEP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 December 2024USC Dornsife's Joint Educational Project partners with 826LA and Living Advantage, Inc. at Manual Arts High School, where USC students serve as mentors in 826LA's Writers' Rooms, supporting JEP students in building meaningful relationships through storytelling.
• Living Advantage, Inc.coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 December 2024Living Advantage collaborates with 826LA and USC JEP at Manual Arts High School to empower youth, foster creativity, and build mentorship connections in Los Angeles classrooms.
• Drawing for the Planet (Jane Lee McCracken)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 9 November 2024826LA partnered with professional artist Jane Lee McCracken and Drawing for the Planet (working with Born Free) for a wildlife illustration workshop at the Mar Vista writing center, with student artwork published on the Drawing for the Planet website.
• GamefamminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 28 September 2024Leading game development company Gamefam delivered a free workshop at 826LA Mar Vista on creating and pitching great game ideas.
• 826 NationalflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner826LA is a chapter of the 826 National network (with sister storefronts like the Pirate Supply Store in San Francisco, Superhero Supply Store in NYC, Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair in Michigan, Bigfoot Research Institute, Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute, and Secret Agent Supply in Chicago). 826LA hosted the 2024 826 National Convention.
• 74th Street Elementary SchoolminorStrategic or Co-development Partner74th Street Elementary partnered with 826LA on the first Young Authors' Book Project for elementary students under the Black Writers Initiative, producing the anthology 'Doors to Our Future'.
• Academic Leadership Community (ALC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerALC is a long-running publishing partner with 826LA — 12th student collection 'Scenes from the Heart' produced in 2023 by the ALC Student Editorial Board.
• Universal StudiosminorGTM or Marketing PartnerUniversal Studios donated school supplies and backpacks at 826Fest and contributed to student programming giveaways.
• Judd Apatow (author)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerJudd Apatow donates proceeds from his book 'Sicker in the Head: More Conversations About Life and Comedy' to 826 National, 826NYC, and 826LA.
• Paramount PicturescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParamount Pictures Writers Workshop program is based at Helen Bernstein High School, where 826LA students have published multiple books (e.g., 'A Deer In Headlights!').
• 826NYCminorStrategic or Co-development Partner826NYC is a sibling 826 National chapter that shares proceeds from Judd Apatow's 'Sicker in the Head'.
• LA County Youth Development NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development Partner826LA joined LA County's Youth Development Network in 2024 as part of its partnership expansion.
• Spectrum NewsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSpectrum News featured 826LA in November 2025, amplifying student voices and the Young Authors' Book Club.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• 826 National: The umbrella nonprofit network of which 826LA is a local chapter; directly comparable in mission (youth writing/tutoring), program design (writing labs co-located with whimsical storefronts), and donor base (overlapping foundation and individual supporters across the 826 chapter system).
• 826NYC: Sibling 826 National chapter based in Brooklyn that shares the same model (free writing tutoring, workshops, publications, retail storefront) and even shares proceeds from Judd Apatow's 'Sicker in the Head'; directly comparable in program mix, age range served, and chapter-level operational scale.
• 826 Valencia (San Francisco): The original 826 National chapter founded in San Francisco in 2002, home of the Pirate Supply Store; same program model, age range, and storefront strategy as 826LA, making it the closest direct comparable in the 826 system.
• WriteGirl: Los Angeles-based nonprofit providing mentoring and creative writing support for teenage girls; directly comparable in target demographic (LA youth), mission (creative writing and publishing), volunteer-led model, and LA-centric footprint.
• Reading Partners: Nonprofit mobilizing community volunteers to deliver free literacy tutoring to K-12 students in under-resourced schools; comparable in volunteer-led tutoring model, K-12 in-school delivery, and foundation-grant-driven funding mix, though focused on reading rather than writing.
• 826 Michigan: Sister 826 chapter in Michigan operating the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair storefront; directly comparable as a chapter-level peer with the same program portfolio and dual storefront/lab model.
• California Poets in the Schools (CalPoets): California statewide nonprofit placing trained poets in K-12 classrooms to teach creative writing; comparable in mission (youth creative writing), in-school delivery, and poet/mentor-led model.

Broad incumbents

• Boys & Girls Clubs of Los Angeles: Large, established LA youth-development nonprofit serving K-12 students with afterschool programming; comparable in target demographic, LA footprint, and afterschool delivery model, though broader in mission (academic, athletic, arts) rather than writing-specific.
• After-School All-Stars (ASAS) Los Angeles: National nonprofit providing free afterschool programs to LAUSD students in under-resourced communities; comparable in target schools (LAUSD), free program delivery, and LA concentration, though broader in scope than 826LA's writing focus.

Emerging players

• PEN Center USA: Los Angeles-based literary and writers' rights organization (now part of PEN America) that runs youth writing and mentorship programming; comparable in LA footprint and literary mission, though broader in scope (advocacy, professional development) than 826LA's tutoring focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/826la
• Xx.com/826LA
• Facebookfacebook.com/826LA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/826la

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 826LA