California Communications Access
Concord, CA · EIN 61-1411655. Reported 61 grants totalling $4,170,229 to 39 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For California Communications Access, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P80) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 9% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 36% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $75,000. Half of what it reported fell between $42,100 and $98,068; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $100,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International | Santa Cruz, CA | $365,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Disability Voices United | Los Angeles, CA | $266,563 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Society for the Blind | Sacramento, CA | $239,395 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The University Corporation San Francisco State | San Francisco, CA | $199,836 | 3 | 2 | 2022 |
| Bridge School | Hillsborough, CA | $191,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| World Institute on Disability | Berkeley, CA | $183,241 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| International Society for Arts Sciences and Technology Inc | Oakland, CA | $170,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Center for Innovation and Resources Inc | Sebastopol, CA | $169,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Center for Independent Living | Berkeley, CA | $145,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area | Danville, CA | $143,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Autism Society Inland Empire Inc | Corona, CA | $130,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Institute for Exceptional Care | Washington, DC | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired | San Francisco, CA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Regents Univ of California | Los Angeles, CA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| San Francisco State University Foundation | San Francisco, CA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rady Childrens Health | San Diego, CA | $98,068 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Painted Brain Inc | Los Angeles, CA | $94,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ignite Collective Inc | Mammoth Lakes, CA | $93,414 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| California Lutheran University | Thousand Oaks, CA | $90,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| San Diego Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride | San Diego, CA | $90,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| San Francisco State University | San Francisco, CA | $90,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project-Qwocmap | San Francisco, CA | $85,200 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Beneficent Technology Inc | Palo Alto, CA | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Exceptional Parents Unlimited Inc | Fresno, CA | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Mychals Learning Place | Hawthorne, CA | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Community Emergency Response Volunteers of the Monterey Peninsu | Monterey, CA | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Inc | Berkeley, CA | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Noah Homes Inc | Spring Valley, CA | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hearts for Sight Foundation | Temple City, CA | $69,100 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| California Policy Center for Intellectual and Developmental Dis | Sacramento, CA | $62,656 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| California State University East Bay Foundation Inc | Hayward, CA | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Campanile Foundation | San Diego, CA | $60,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Goodwill Industries of Orange County Ca | Santa Ana, CA | $41,700 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bright Funds Foundation | San Jose, CA | $36,249 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Black Deaf Project | Fontana, CA | $34,290 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Team of Advocates for Special Kids | Brea, CA | $28,491 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| East Bay Community Foundation | Oakland, CA | $28,026 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Pacific Hearing Connection | Los Altos, CA | $26,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Peerbots | Denver, CO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
16 of 39 (41%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Autism Society Inland Empire
IMPROVING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE CARE FOR PATIENTS WITH AUTISM AND IDD - San Francisco State University Foundation
YOUDESCRIBEX FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: ENHANCING HEALTH- RELATED VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY FOR B/LV PEOPLE - Kidpower
WORKPOWER LEADERSHIP TRAINING: SKILLS FOR SAFETY AND SUCCESS IN GETTING AND KEEPING JOBS - Center for Independent Living
ACCELERATE & EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PEER AMBASSADOR PROGRAMS - Lighthouse for the Blind
TRAINING HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS IN THE BAY AREA TO BETTER SERVE PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR DEAFBLIND - Institute for Exceptional Care
HEALTHCARE TRAINING FOR PEOPLE WITH COMMUNICATION DISABILITIES.
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 33 of 39 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 19 | $1,188,428 | $75,000 |
| 2022 | 16 | $1,081,816 | $82,500 |
| 2023 | 14 | $1,078,923 | $85,080 |
| 2024 | 12 | $821,062 | $67,635 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
97% of its giving went to organizations in California. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $75,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in California.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from California Communications Access's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 12 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 2300 Clayton Road 1580, Concord, CA, 94520.
EIN 61-1411655 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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