California Institute for Biodiversity
Berkeley, CA · EIN 94-3227003. Reported 74 grants totalling $12.5M to 48 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 Institute for Biodiversity, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 48 distinct organizations, with 21% 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. 48% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than 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 $80,946. Half of what it reported fell between $27,104 and $187,626; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $1,985,124. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California Academy of Sciences | San Francisco, CA | $2,625,553 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation | Los Angeles, CA | $1,384,611 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Regents of the University of California | Oakland, CA | $1,040,283 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Fungal Diversity Survey Inc | Kalamazoo, MI | $879,654 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Regents of University Cal Davis | Davis, CA | $625,042 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Regents of the University of California at Berkeley | Riverside, CA | $562,059 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| San Diego Society of Natural History Balboa Park | San Diego, CA | $549,819 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Hoosier Mushroom Society Incorporated | Brighton, MI | $438,436 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Savenature Org | San Francisco, CA | $425,754 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Cdfa Plant Pest Diag Center | Sacramento, CA | $374,290 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections | Chicago, IL | $354,480 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| University of Ca Davis | Davis, CA | $342,470 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| A Greener World | Terrebonne, OR | $311,760 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Regents of the University of California at Riverside | Riverside, CA | $298,428 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| University of Arizona | Tucson, AZ | $271,486 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Regents of the University | Berkeley, CA | $205,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| University of Ca Riverside | Riverside, CA | $175,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mongabayorg Corporation | Menlo Park, CA | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology | Camarillo, CA | $128,461 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Mycota Lab | Brighton, MI | $123,531 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Vt Research Contracting Services | Alexandria, VA | $105,765 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| John Carroll University | University Ht, OH | $104,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Magic Incorporated | Stanford, CA | $100,413 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| University of Ca Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz, CA | $81,966 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Willamette University | Salem, OR | $79,927 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cal State East Bay Educational Foundation | Hayward, CA | $72,344 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| California State University Long Beach Research Foundation | Long Beach, CA | $64,861 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Cal State San Diego | San Diego, CA | $58,846 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Regents of University Cal Merced | Merced, CA | $57,154 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| University of California Santa Barbara | Santa Barbara, CA | $49,591 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Point Reyes Bird Observatory | Petaluma, CA | $49,326 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Colorado State University | Fort Collins, CO | $48,782 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Inc | Santa Barbara, CA | $45,975 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Regents of the University of California at San Diego | La Jolla, CA | $45,936 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Regents Univ of California | Los Angeles, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance | San Diego, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Cal State University Sacramento | Sacramento, CA | $39,765 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Yosemite Foundation | San Francisco, CA | $39,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Trustees of Rancho Santa Ana Botan | Claremont, CA | $29,923 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| University of San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cal State San Jose | San Jose, CA | $24,999 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Csu Fullerton Auxiliary Services Corporation | Fullerton, CA | $22,250 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| University of North Carolina at Asheville Foundation Inc | Asheville, NC | $10,883 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pollinator Partnership | San Francisco, CA | $10,344 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| White Buffalo Land Trust | Santa Barbara, CA | $8,761 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Cal Poly Humboldt Foundation | Arcata, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Cal State San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Regents of the University of California at Irvine | Irvine, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
19 of 48 (40%) 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.
- Calfornia Academy of Sciences
Grants & Funding provided
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 26 of 48 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 | 5 | $993,247 | $186,664 |
| 2022 | 10 | $1,777,758 | $172,083 |
| 2023 | 31 | $6,672,998 | $48,782 |
| 2024 | 28 | $3,093,675 | $64,741 |
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
78% 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
Get funders for your state and cause by email
We email you funders that gave to organizations in your state and cause, up to five at a time each week and never the same one twice, from their own IRS filings. Free. The weekly email has not started yet.
Unsubscribe in one click from any email. We never sell or share your address. To match on your organization and typical grant size too, keep a private profile.
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 $80,946 -- 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 Institute for Biodiversity'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 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 28 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: 1400 Shattuck Ave Ste 12 Pmb 101, Berkeley, CA, 94709.
EIN 94-3227003 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.