Eat Learn Play Foundation
Oakland, CA · EIN 83-1373602. Reported 79 grants totalling $33.0M to 49 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 Eat Learn Play Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a fundraising and fund-distribution organization (NTEE T12).
- How spread out its giving is. 49 distinct organizations, with 22% 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. 35% 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 $170,000. Half of what it reported fell between $100,000 and $420,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $4,030,359. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaboom Inc | Bethesda, MD | $7,190,739 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The Alameda County Community Food Bank Inc | Oakland, CA | $4,709,825 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Oakland Unified School District (ousd) | Oakland, CA | $2,660,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Donorschoose Org | New York, NY | $2,020,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Share Our Strength | Washington, DC | $1,891,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Oakland Literacy Coalition | Oakland, CA | $1,650,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Open Literacy LLC | Pittsburgh, PA | $1,591,380 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Ignite Reading Pbc | San Francisco, CA | $1,480,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Hoot Reading Inc | Oakland, CA | $1,452,250 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Nationwide Childrens Hospital Inc | Columbus, OH | $1,065,000 | 3 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community Kitchens Inc | Oakland, CA | $907,848 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation | Oakland, CA | $637,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Friends of the Oakland Public Library | Oakland, CA | $400,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Brigaid LLC | Middletown, CT | $349,900 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Reading Partners | Oakland, CA | $325,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Rodriguez Community Group LLC | Denver, CO | $325,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Synergy Sports Charlotte LLC | Waxhaw, NC | $319,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Trust for Public Land | San Francisco, CA | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Oakland Reach | Oakland, CA | $280,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation | Menlo Park, CA | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Oakland Lacrosse Club | Oakland, CA | $230,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation | Oakland, CA | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Davidson College | Davidson, NC | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| QUAD3 LLC | Oakland, CA | $197,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Tandem Partners in Early Learning | San Francisco, CA | $195,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Regents of the University of California at Berkeley | Riverside, CA | $190,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Oakland Genesis Soccer Club Corporation | Oakland, CA | $187,923 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Arizona State University Foundation for a New American University | Tempe, AZ | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Center for the Collaborative Classroom | Alameda, CA | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| East Oakland Youth Development Center | Oakland, CA | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Public Profit | Oakland, CA | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| La Clinica De La Raza Inc | Oakland, CA | $143,750 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lotus Bloom | Oakland, CA | $125,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Social Good Fund Inc | Richmond, CA | $125,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| 14 Caliber LLC | Grapevine, TX | $114,945 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Alma Advisory Group LLC | Chicago, CA | $113,964 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Aspen Institute Inc | Washington, DC | $100,400 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Street Soccer USA Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Oakland Public Education Fund | Oakland, CA | $72,338 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Springboard Collaborative | Philadelphia, PA | $65,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Community Education Partnerships | Oakland, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Family Bridges Inc | Oakland, CA | $42,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce | Oakland, CA | $42,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Conservation Society of California | Oakland, CA | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mindful Life Project | Richmond, CA | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Foodcorps Inc | Portland, OR | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Soccer Without Borders | Baltimore, MD | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Northeastern University | Boston, MA | $17,050 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Little Free Library Ltd | Saint Paul, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
18 of 49 (37%) 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.
- Kaboom
RENOVATION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PLAY SPACES AT OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT. - Oakland Unified School District
TIERED TUTORING LITERACY COORDINATOR AND EMERGENCY FLOWATER STATION AND ACCESS TO WATER BOTTLES DUE TO LEAD IN DRINKING FOUNTAIN WATER AND FOR OAKLAND CENTRAL KITCHEN AT THE OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT - Open Literacy LLC
1:1 READING TUTORING PILOT PROJECT IN OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DIST. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS - Hoot Reading Inc
1:1 READING TUTORING PILOT PROJECT - Oakland Unified School District (ousd)
EAT - CENTRAL KITCHEN, SCHOOL LIBRARY & MINDFULNESS CORNERS - No Kid Hungry (aka Share Our Strength Inc)
EAT - GENERAL PURPOSES, CENTRAL KITCHEN
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 32 of 49 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 | 21 | $6,000,640 | $132,890 |
| 2022 | 25 | $8,754,864 | $250,000 |
| 2023 | 20 | $7,789,895 | $238,750 |
| 2024 | 13 | $10.5M | $349,900 |
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
53% 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.
Down to the city
Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one
30 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 56 grants totalling $5,629,716 to Eat Learn Play Foundation. That is 45% of the 67 funders we can see giving to it. Those 30 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a grantmaking organization.
18 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.
What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.
| Foundation | State | Reported | Grants | Years | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Karsh Family Foundation | California | $1,820,000 | 6 | 4 | 2024 |
| Stupski Foundation | California | $1,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Goldman Sachs Foundation | New York | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Tomkat Foundation | California | $500,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Mackenzie Family Foundation | Delaware | $400,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Harman Family Foundation | California | $300,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Tomkat Ranch Educational Foundation | California | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Jem Project | California | $225,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Kenneth Rainin Foundation | California | $190,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Goldberg Family Foundation | California | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
The 10 largest by reported dollars, of 30.
A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.
Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.
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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 $170,000 -- 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 Eat Learn Play Foundation'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 7 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 6 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: 647 4TH Street, Oakland, CA, 94607.
EIN 83-1373602 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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