GrantmakersCalifornia

Contina Impact

Berkeley, CA · EIN 36-4657870. Reported 28 grants totalling $10.2M to 23 organizations across tax years 2022-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$250,000median reported grant
$10.2Mgranted, 2022-2024
100%of grantees funded again the next year
23%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Contina Impact, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B99) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 23% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 100% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. 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 $250,000. Half of what it reported fell between $75,000 and $570,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $1,250,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$10,000 - $25,000
3 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
2 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
4 grants
$250,000 Or More
16 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
More in Common IncNew York, NY$2,343,679332024
Defending Democracy Together InstituteWashington, DC$1,610,000222024
Support Services NetworkJackson, WY$1,250,000112024
Democracy Security Project IncWashington, DC$750,000112024
Neo Philanthropy IncNew York, NY$674,850222024
Sd FoundationWashington, DC$636,000112024
Global ImpactWashington, DC$500,000112024
Secure Families FoundationWashington, DC$350,000112024
Good Faith Network IncSan Jose, CA$300,000112024
Access NowNew York, NY$250,000112024
Institute for Strategic Dialogue USWashington, DC$250,000112024
International Center for Not-for- Profit Law IncWashington, DC$250,000112024
Issue OneWashington, DC$250,000112024
Harmony Labs IncNew York, NY$180,000112024
Equis InstituteWashington, DC$150,000112024
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityStanford, CA$147,367112024
Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceWashington, DC$95,000222024
Montclair State University Foundation IncMontclair, NJ$75,000112024
States United Democracy Center IncWashington, DC$60,000112024
Fund for Constitutional GovernmentWashington, DC$25,000112024
Ngo Information Sharing and Analysis Center IncAlexandria, VA$20,000112024
Tides CenterSan Francisco, CA$12,500112024
Healthy Democracy FundPortland, OR$10,000112024

4 of 23 (17%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 22 of 23 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.

Education
5 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
4 orgs
International Affairs
4 orgs
Civil Rights
3 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Arts & Culture
2 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Religion
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20222$425,000$212,500
20233$1,311,850$360,000
202423$8,452,546$250,000

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

48% of its giving went to organizations in District of Columbia. 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.

District of Columbia
$4.9M
New York
$3.4M
Wyoming
$1.2M
California
$460K
New Jersey
$75K
Virginia
$20K
Oregon
$10K

Down to the city

Washington, DC
$4.9M
New York, NY
$3.4M
Jackson, WY
$1.2M
San Jose, CA
$300K
Stanford, CA
$147K
Montclair, NJ
$75K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund12 shared recipientsThe William & Flora Hewlett Foundation11 shared recipientsNew Venture Fund11 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program11 shared recipientsThe David and Lucile Packard Foundation10 shared recipientsSkoll Fund9 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $250,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in District of Columbia.
  4. 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

Foundations funding education in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding public & societal benefit in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding international affairs in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in New YorkEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Contina Impact'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.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 22 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 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: 127 University Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94710.

EIN 36-4657870 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

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