FundersWashington

Cuyamaca Foundation

Seattle, WA · EIN 91-6449463. Reported 30 grants totalling $631,000 to 26 organizations across tax years 2020-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$23,000median grant
$631,000granted, 2020-2024
26organizations funded
7%of grantees funded again the next year
$3,584,215assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Cuyamaca Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $23,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $21,000 and $24,000; the smallest was $2,000 and the largest $42,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
26 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
2 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Seattle Parks FoundationSeattle, WA$61,000332024
Utopia WaKent, WA$47,000222024
Peoples Economy LabSeattle, WA$42,000112021
Institute for Washington's FutureBellingham, WA$36,200222024
Chief Seattle ClubSeattle, WA$24,000112023
Duwamish River Comm CoalitionSeattle, WA$24,000112024
Duwamish Tribal ServicesSeattle, WA$24,000112024
Northwest Indian CollegeBellingham, WA$24,000112024
Pacific Islander Health BoardFife, WA$24,000112023
Seattle Indian Svc CommissionSeattle, WA$24,000112023
Shared Spaces FdnTukwila, WA$24,000112023
Sustainable SeattleSeattle, WA$24,000112023
Wakulima USAKent, WA$24,000112024
Columbia River Institute for Indigenous DevelopmentWarm Springs, OR$23,000112022
Mother NationSeattle, WA$23,000112022
Red Eagle SoaringSeattle, WA$23,000112022
White Swan EnviromentalBellingham, WA$23,000112022
Detective Cookie Chess ParkSeattle, WA$21,000112021
Rainier Beach LINK2LAKESeattle, WA$21,000112021
Sea PotenialSeattle, WA$21,000112021
Skyway CoalitionSeattle, WA$21,000112021
Got GreenSeattle, WA$12,200112020
Mother AfricaKent, WA$12,200112020
Pan African Center for EmpowermentSeattle, WA$12,200112020
Puget Sound SageSeattle, WA$12,200112020
YMCASeattle, WA$4,000112023

3 of 26 (12%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 7%, across 4 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 20 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Human Services
7 grants
Recreation & Sports
3 grants
Arts & Culture
3 grants
Community Improvement
2 grants
Environment
2 grants
Food & Nutrition
1 grant
Education
1 grant
Social Science
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
20205$61,000$12,200
20215$126,000$21,000
20226$150,000$23,000
20237$126,000$24,000
20247$168,000$24,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 96% of this one's giving went to organizations in Washington. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Washington
$608K
Oregon
$23K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Seattle Foundation16 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc15 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc12 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund11 shared recipientsSocial Justice Fund Northwest11 shared recipientsInatai Foundation10 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $23,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Washington.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Cuyamaca Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 4920 Ne 65TH St, Seattle, WA, 98115. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 91-6449463 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.