The Guardsmen
San Francisco, CA · EIN 94-1196194. Reported 100 grants totalling $2,588,098 to 47 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 The Guardsmen, the IRS classifies it under youth development rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE O200) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 47 distinct organizations, with 36% 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. 86% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above 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 $13,100. Half of what it reported fell between $8,080 and $24,200; the smallest was $675 and the largest $254,430. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $926,268 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Catholic Charities Cyo of the Archdiocese of San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $343,540 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Girl Scouts of Northern California | Alameda, CA | $138,600 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Giant Community Fund | San Francisco, CA | $70,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Boy Scouts of America | Pleasanton, CA | $67,945 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Soar for Youth | Berkeley, CA | $66,705 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Okizu Foundation | Novato, CA | $65,690 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Young Mens Christian Association of San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $62,300 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Episcopal Church in the Diocese of California | San Francisco, CA | $57,900 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Sacred Heart Cathedral Prepar | San Francisco, CA | $44,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Archbishop Riordan High Schoo | San Francisco, CA | $41,800 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mission Dolores Academy | San Francisco, CA | $37,400 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Salvation Army | Rch Palos Vrd, CA | $36,600 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| De Marillac Academy | San Francisco, CA | $35,200 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| YMCA Camp Loma Mar | Oakland, CA | $32,980 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Camp Phoenix | Oakland, CA | $32,680 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| St Dorothys Church | Glendora, CA | $32,550 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Salesian High School | Richmond, CA | $30,800 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Guardsmen | San Francisco, CA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Todays Youth Matter | Richmond, CA | $29,715 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| St Peters School | San Francisco, CA | $28,600 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| San Francisco Bay Area Boy Scouts of America | San Leandro, CA | $26,480 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Immaculate Conception Academy | San Francisco, CA | $26,400 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation a Charitable Corporation | Fresno, CA | $25,325 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Saint Raphael Church | San Rafael, CA | $24,200 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Dorothys Rest | Camp Meeker, CA | $22,365 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Girls Leading Girls Inc | Novato, CA | $20,750 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Todays Youth Matter | Milpitas, CA | $19,850 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Bishop Odowd High School | Oakland, CA | $19,800 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kolbe Academy and Trinity Pre | Napa, CA | $19,800 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Big City Mountaineers Inc | Arvada, CO | $18,535 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Ignatian Corporation Saint Ignatius High School | San Francisco, CA | $17,600 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Northern Light School | Oakland, CA | $15,400 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| San Francisco City Academy | San Francisco, CA | $15,400 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Girlventures | San Francisco, CA | $13,705 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| St James School | San Francisco, CA | $13,200 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Joseph Notre Dame High Sc | Alameda, CA | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Guardsmen & Okizu Fdtn | San Francisco, CA | $11,015 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| St Eugenes Cathedral School | Santa Rosa, CA | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St John Elementary School | San Francisco, CA | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Marin Catholic High School | Kentfield, CA | $8,800 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Finn Barr School | San Francisco, CA | $8,800 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Aim High for High School | San Francisco, CA | $5,050 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Aim High | Walnut Creek, CA | $3,960 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Golden Gate Boys Choir | Sacramento, CA | $3,465 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Olympic Club Foundation | San Mateo, CA | $1,250 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Camp Unalayee Association | Palo Alto, CA | $675 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
21 of 47 (45%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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.
- Boys & Girls Clubs of San Sf
Assistance for Underprivileged - Boys & Girls Club San Francisco
PROVIDING RESIDENT AND DAY CAMP PROGRAMS TO ASSIST THE NEEDS OF UNDERPRIVILEGED
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 19 of 47 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 12 | $261,280 | $9,640 |
| 2021 | 12 | $342,180 | $12,940 |
| 2022 | 22 | $491,250 | $11,400 |
| 2023 | 18 | $504,498 | $14,132 |
| 2024 | 36 | $988,890 | $17,300 |
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
99% 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
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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 $13,100 -- 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 The Guardsmen's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). 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 19 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 17 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: 550 Montgomery Street 700, San Francisco, CA, 94111.
EIN 94-1196194 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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