California Grantmaking Charities Making Grants Over $100,000
These 87 organizations are based in California and reported a median grant of $100,000 or more on their most recent Form 990 Schedule I filing. A typical grant is not a promise about any single gift -- some of an organization's grants are smaller than its median, some are larger -- but it is a reasonable signal for whether an application here fits the size of your ask.
A median grant over $100,000 is large by this site's standards. It is worth reading the organization's own page before treating it as a routine prospect -- Schedule I does not ask a grantmaking charity whether it only funds organizations it already knows, so unlike the private-foundation pages on this site, nothing here can tell you how open a given grantmaker actually is to a first, unsolicited approach.
Ordered by number of organizations funded, not by dollars -- the same convention as every list on this site. Funding more organizations means more turnover in who gets a grant each year, which is a reasonable proxy for how often a list like this one changes -- it is not a signal that any specific organization is open to a new, unsolicited applicant.
| Organization | Based in | Median grant | Organizations | Total granted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States Energy Foundation | San Francisco | $116,000 | 971 | $557.6M |
| University of Southern California | Los Angeles | $109,227 | 421 | $428.2M |
| New Schools Fund | Oakland | $200,000 | 406 | $125.3M |
| Climateworks Foundation | San Francisco | $203,944 | 305 | $418.2M |
| Food Forward Inc | North Hollywood | $129,627 | 292 | $612.3M |
| Farmlink Project | Los Angeles | $140,905 | 272 | $281.2M |
| Tipping Point Community | San Francisco | $200,000 | 264 | $136.6M |
| Second Harvest of Silicon Valley | San Jose | $109,123 | 258 | $732.5M |
| Women Donors Network | San Francisco | $100,000 | 220 | $45.9M |
| The Scripps Research Institute | La Jolla | $202,488 | 218 | $761.2M |
| UCLA Foundation | Los Angeles | $100,001 | 196 | $2.1B |
| Climate Imperative Foundation | San Francisco | $475,088 | 161 | $513.4M |
| Hyundai Hope on Wheels | Fountain Valley | $150,000 | 142 | $83.8M |
| Essential Access Health | Los Angeles | $187,000 | 140 | $112.0M |
| Advocacy Action Fund Inc | Menlo Park | $180,000 | 128 | $94.9M |
| Activate Global Inc | Berkeley | $100,000 | 126 | $19.8M |
| California Primary Care Association | Sacramento | $100,000 | 110 | $31.4M |
| The Heising-Simons Action Fund | Los Altos | $200,000 | 103 | $68.7M |
| Women Donors Network Action | San Francisco | $100,000 | 100 | $34.3M |
| Community Health Councils Inc | Los Angeles | $172,050 | 99 | $55.8M |
| Peter E Haas JR Family Fund | Novato | $100,000 | 96 | $45.2M |
| California Association of Food Banks | Oakland | $106,847 | 96 | $69.8M |
| Food in Need of Distribution Inc | Indio | $149,804 | 95 | $122.2M |
| Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design | Emeryville | $128,722 | 92 | $114.5M |
| The Molina Foundation | Los Alamitos | $194,688 | 89 | $38.8M |
| Sandler Foundation | San Francisco | $500,000 | 85 | $623.1M |
| Equation Campaign and Global Climate | Novato | $120,000 | 79 | $11.2M |
| Ccf-La Supporting Organization | Glendale | $214,684 | 78 | $182.3M |
| Silicon Schools Fund Inc | Oakland | $100,000 | 72 | $21.8M |
| Calfoods Logistics | Pleasant Hill | $674,237 | 69 | $259.2M |
| Open Philanthropy Action Fund | Palo Alto | $200,000 | 68 | $150.1M |
| Grid Alternatives | Oakland | $180,000 | 67 | $11.1M |
| Community Services Unlimited Inc | Los Angeles | $100,000 | 64 | $7.6M |
| Black Lives Matter Global Network | Oakland | $200,000 | 63 | $25.4M |
| The Health Trust | San Jose | $125,000 | 62 | $16.7M |
| Prostate Cancer Foundation | Santa Monica | $500,000 | 61 | $100.3M |
| Fund for a Better Future Inc | Sacramento | $250,000 | 58 | $106.8M |
| Stanford Health Care | Stanford | $140,881 | 55 | $497.5M |
| Foundation for Prader-Willi | Covina | $108,000 | 52 | $8.7M |
| Organize Action | Cloverdale | $100,000 | 52 | $8.4M |
| La Jolla Institute for Immunology | La Jolla | $161,808 | 51 | $42.8M |
| Neubauer Family Charitable Trust | Mountain View | $125,000 | 50 | $47.0M |
| Eat Learn Play Foundation | Oakland | $170,000 | 48 | $33.0M |
| Powerswitch Action | Oakland | $127,500 | 47 | $21.3M |
| The Milken Institute | Santa Monica | $320,000 | 46 | $90.7M |
| California Court Appointed Special | San Diego | $197,391 | 44 | $43.4M |
| Revive & Restore | Sausalito | $161,536 | 44 | $17.8M |
| Airbnborg Inc | San Francisco | $305,571 | 44 | $60.1M |
| Norn Group | San Francisco | $270,297 | 44 | $24.3M |
| Women's Fund of Santa Barbara | Santa Barbara | $100,000 | 43 | $5.0M |
| Catholic Charities of California | Sacramento | $798,518 | 42 | $124.9M |
| Consumer Credit Counseling Service of | Concord | $168,375 | 39 | $41.7M |
| California Rural Legal Assistance | Sacramento | $100,000 | 39 | $12.8M |
| Wikimedia Foundation Inc | San Francisco | $122,450 | 38 | $21.9M |
| Lucile Packard Foundation for | Palo Alto | $100,000 | 37 | $673.5M |
| Agency on Agingarea 4 | Sacramento | $190,465 | 36 | $54.7M |
| KIPP Foundation | San Francisco | $812,648 | 34 | $194.8M |
| Arthritis National Research Foundation | Irvine | $125,000 | 34 | $11.3M |
| League of California | Hesperia | $100,000 | 33 | $6.1M |
| Fresno Area Workforce Investment | Fresno | $103,398 | 33 | $42.4M |
| Napa Valley Vintners Healthy Community | St Helena | $200,000 | 33 | $22.0M |
| The Clear Fund | Oakland | $1,093,140 | 32 | $339.8M |
| Wildlife Conservation Network Inc | San Francisco | $245,966 | 32 | $25.4M |
| Education Leaders of Color Inc | Los Angeles | $100,000 | 31 | $2.8M |
| Wings for Life USA - Spinal Cord Research Foundation Inc | Santa Monica | $131,000 | 31 | $16.4M |
| Bay Area Lyme Foundation | Portola Valley | $100,000 | 29 | $8.3M |
| Focusing Philanthropy Inc | Santa Monica | $900,000 | 28 | $104.7M |
| Openai Foundation Fka Openai Inc | San Francisco | $160,000 | 28 | $10.3M |
| World Emergency Relief | San Dimas | $106,114 | 28 | $24.1M |
| California Foundation for Independent | Sacramento | $113,015 | 27 | $11.9M |
| Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Inc | El Segundo | $250,000 | 25 | $12.6M |
| Daughters of Charity Foundation | Los Angeles | $966,690 | 25 | $93.1M |
| The Center for Produce Safety | Woodland | $142,836 | 24 | $14.8M |
| The Everychild Foundation | Pacific Palisades | $109,225 | 23 | $3.7M |
| Contina Impact | Berkeley | $250,000 | 23 | $10.2M |
| Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Advocacy | Palo Alto | $360,000 | 23 | $201.7M |
| The Energy Foundation | San Francisco | $200,000 | 23 | $12.3M |
| The Life You Can Save | Novato | $153,661 | 22 | $17.1M |
| J Craig Venter Institute | La Jolla | $100,538 | 22 | $9.7M |
| Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles | Los Angeles | $471,824 | 22 | $57.9M |
| International Relief Teams | San Diego | $100,000 | 21 | $8.3M |
| Buck Institute for Research on Aging | Novato | $100,000 | 21 | $8.8M |
| GIVE2ASIA | San Francisco | $130,000 | 21 | $11.1M |
| Path | Los Angeles | $178,125 | 21 | $20.1M |
| Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy | San Francisco | $409,906 | 20 | $72.3M |
| The Sobrato Foundation | Mountain View | $447,500 | 20 | $37.9M |
| San Francisco Community Clinic | San Francisco | $252,973 | 20 | $49.2M |
Other grant sizes in California
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