Caroline's Nonprofit Thrift Shop
Aptos, CA · EIN 45-2546460. Reported 110 grants totalling $2,150,500 to 34 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 Caroline's Nonprofit Thrift Shop, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P29) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 34 distinct organizations, with 7% 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. 92% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $20,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $7,000 and the largest $40,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coastal Kids Home Care | Salinas, CA | $145,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Hospice of Santa Cruz County | Scotts Valley, CA | $145,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Partnership for Children | Salinas, CA | $145,000 | 8 | 4 | 2024 |
| Network for Good Inc | Washington, DC | $140,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Monarch Services-Servicios Monarca | Watsonville, CA | $120,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Bridges | Watsonville, CA | $100,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Cruz County | Watsonville, CA | $100,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County | Watsonville, CA | $100,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| NAMI Santa Cruz County | Watsonville, CA | $90,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Teen Kitchen Project | Soquel, CA | $84,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Nourishing Generations Educational Project | Felton, CA | $80,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Special Parents Information Network of Santa Cruz County | Santa Cruz, CA | $80,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Big Brothers-Big Sisters Agency of Santa Cruz County Inc | Santa Cruz, CA | $70,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Walnut Avenue Family & Womens Center | Santa Cruz, CA | $70,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| For Kids Foundation Monterey Bay | Santa Cruz, CA | $69,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Dientes Community Dental Care | Santa Cruz, CA | $65,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Santa Cruz Lesbian and Gay Community Center | Santa Cruz, CA | $61,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Circle Family Center | Aptos, CA | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Camp Kesem National | Covina, CA | $57,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Hopes Closet | Santa Cruz, CA | $55,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Live Like Coco Foundation | Aptos, CA | $40,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Shared Adventures | Santa Cruz, CA | $40,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Family Service Agency of the Central Coast | Santa Cruz, CA | $35,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Salud Y Carino Inc | Santa Cruz, CA | $33,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County | Santa Cruz, CA | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Foodwhat Incorporated | Santa Cruz, CA | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Children Are Our Future | Santa Fe, NM | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Siena House Maternity Home of Santa Cruz County | Santa Cruz, CA | $17,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Aim Youth Mental Health | Carmel, CA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Center for Youth Mental Health | Sn Luis Obisp, CA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes Inc | Watsonville, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance Inc | Watsonville, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Skills of Life Cafe | Capitola, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| 418 Project | Santa Cruz, CA | $8,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
27 of 34 (79%) 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 kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 31 of 34 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- 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 | 25 | $504,500 | $20,000 |
| 2022 | 25 | $538,500 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 30 | $555,000 | $16,500 |
| 2024 | 30 | $552,500 | $17,500 |
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
93% 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 the strongest signal available 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.
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 $20,000 -- 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 Caroline's Nonprofit Thrift Shop's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 167 Brooktree Ranch Road, Aptos, CA, 95003.
EIN 45-2546460 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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