Grantmakers › California

Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation

San Francisco, CA · EIN 20-5024289. Reported 47 grants totalling $1,166,736 to 32 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.

32organizations funded
$10,000median reported grant
$1,166,736granted, 2021-2025
33%of grantees funded again the next year
10%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 Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for civil rights (NTEE R122).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 10% 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. 33% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below 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 $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $6,000 and $52,993; the smallest was $2,000 and the largest $70,000. 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.
Under $5,000
9 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
9 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
11 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
18 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
Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center IncSan Francisco, CA$116,570332025
Queer Life Space IncSan Francisco, CA$112,500332023
San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community CenterSan Francisco, CA$110,570442025
Bay Area Girls Rock CampOakland, CA$105,820222024
Give US the FloorSan Francisco, CA$105,820222024
Larkin Street Youth ServicesSan Francisco, CA$104,500222023
San Francisco Gay Men's ChorusSan Francisco, CA$70,000112021
Oasis Legal ServicesBerkeley, CA$65,066222025
Solano Pride CenterFairfield, CA$60,000112021
Social Good Fund IncRichmond, CA$53,250112025
Community InitiativesOakland, CA$52,993112022
AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco, CA$50,000112022
Maitri Compassionate CareSan Francisco, CA$17,915222025
Pepper Diet AcademySan Francisco, CA$13,000222025
Folsom StreetSan Francisco, CA$12,000222023
OpenhouseSan Francisco, CA$10,680112025
Center for Immigrant ProtectionSan Francisco, CA$10,000112022
Independent Arts & MediaSan Francisco, CA$10,000112025
Leather & Lgbtq Cultural DistrictSan Francisco, CA$10,000112024
Lyon-Martin Community Health ServicesSan Francisco, CA$10,000112024
Onyx Northwest ChapterSan Francisco, CA$10,000112023
Transgender Law CenterOakland, CA$10,000112023
Food for ThoughtForestville, CA$7,000112024
San Francisco AIDS FoundationSan Francisco, CA$7,000112024
Turnout IncOakland, CA$7,000112024
University of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, CA$6,000112025
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence IncSan Francisco, CA$5,235112024
National AIDS Memorial IncSan Francisco, CA$4,000222023
Project Open HandSan Francisco, CA$3,817112022
Immigration EqualityNew York, NY$2,000112022
Music Connects Foundation IncOakland, CA$2,000112023
San Francisco Community Clinic ConsortiumSan Francisco, CA$2,000112023

11 of 32 (34%) 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.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

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 the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 25 of 32 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.

Civil Rights
4 orgs
Human Services
3 orgs
Youth Development
2 orgs
Mental Health
2 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Diseases & Disorders
2 orgs
Arts & Culture
2 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20214$150,000$35,000
202210$232,810$10,000
202311$242,000$10,000
202413$285,430$10,000
20259$256,496$10,680

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

100% 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.

California
$1.2M
New York
$2K

Down to the city

San Francisco, CA
$802K
Oakland, CA
$178K
Berkeley, CA
$65K
Fairfield, CA
$60K
Richmond, CA
$53K
Forestville, CA
$7K

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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.

American Online Giving Foundation Inc19 shared recipientsHorizons Foundation18 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc18 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund16 shared recipientsThe San Francisco Foundation12 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program12 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 $10,000 -- 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 California.
  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 human services in CaliforniaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding youth development in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). 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.

Address of record on the latest return: 584 Castro Street 495, San Francisco, CA, 94114.

EIN 20-5024289 · 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.

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