GrantmakersCalifornia

Inquiring Systems Inc

Santa Rosa, CA · EIN 94-2524840. Reported 33 grants totalling $558,348 to 28 organizations across tax years 2022-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

28organizations funded
$8,864median reported grant
$558,348granted, 2022-2023
36%of grantees funded again the next year
16%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 Inquiring Systems Inc, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S43Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 28 distinct organizations, with 16% 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. 36% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $8,864. Half of what it reported fell between $8,300 and $17,247; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $90,000. 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.
$5,000 - $10,000
18 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
9 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
2 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
Forestree Collective LLCSebastopol, CA$90,000112022
Subtle Energy Group LLCMiami, FL$68,000112023
San Francisco Animal Medical CenterSan Francisco, CA$45,826222023
Vca Animal Care Center of Sonoma CountyRohnert Park, CA$42,416322023
Sejah Farms of the Virgin IslandsKingshill, VI$41,200112022
Center for Third World OrganizingOakland, CA$32,000112023
University of South DakotaVermillion, SD$22,550112022
Vets in Vans IncOakland, CA$19,602112023
Vca Bay Area Veterinary Specialists & Emergency HospitalLos Angeles, CA$18,864222023
Center for Rural AffairsLyons, NE$15,000222023
Island Food Security IncFrederiksted, VI$15,000112023
University of California Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CA$14,491112023
Tierra Negra FarmsDurham, NC$12,480112022
St Croix Foundation for Community Development IncChristiansted, VI$12,000112022
Peninsula Avenue Veterinary ClinicSan Mateo, CA$11,080112023
Mission Pet HospitalSan Francisco, CA$8,937112023
San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to AnimalsSan Francisco, CA$8,680112023
Ashkora FarmAlburquerque, NM$8,300112023
Fellowship for Intentional Community IncRutledge, MO$8,300112023
Healing Joy Ministries LLCWinston Salem, NC$8,300112023
Iala - PrCayey, PR$8,300112023
Pecan Milk CooperativeLawrenceville, GA$8,300112023
Sisters of the Soil Community FarmClinton, MD$8,300112023
Wild Path Collective IncorporatedOsceola, WI$8,300112023
Pacific Veterinary Emergency & Specialty HospitalLafayette, CA$6,058112023
Lenity Vet SpecialistsSan Mateo, CA$5,915112023
Veterinary Vision Sage Vet CentersConcord, CA$5,149112022
Oko Sustainable Village LLCVidalia, GA$5,000112022

4 of 28 (14%) received money in more than one year over the 2 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 6 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 each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 6 of 28 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.

Animal Welfare
2 orgs
International Affairs
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
Environment
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202211$241,103$12,000
202322$317,245$8,490

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

55% 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
$309K
VI
$68K
Florida
$68K
South Dakota
$23K
North Carolina
$21K
Nebraska
$15K
Georgia
$13K
New Mexico
$8K

Down to the city

Sebastopol, CA
$90K
Miami, FL
$68K
San Francisco, CA
$63K
Oakland, CA
$52K
Rohnert Park, CA
$42K
Kingshill, VI
$41K

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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.

Feeding Pets of the Homeless5 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund5 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc5 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program4 shared recipientsResist Inc4 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 $8,864 -- 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 animal welfare in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding international affairs in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding arts & culture in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding animal welfare in FloridaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Inquiring Systems Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2019-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 7 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 15 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: 1271 4TH Street 371, Santa Rosa, CA, 95404.

EIN 94-2524840 · 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.