Irving J Symons Foundation
Sonora, CA · EIN 91-2140485. Reported 78 grants totalling $4,586,245 to 46 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 Irving J Symons Foundation, by its IRS classification it exists to support one specific institution in youth development -- typically its own parent hospital, university or school (NTEE O115).
- How spread out its giving is. 46 distinct organizations, with 34% 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. 39% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. 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 $20,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $40,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $1,000,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Youth Sports Foundation of Tuolumne County | Sonora, CA | $1,565,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Sonora Area Foundation | Sonora, CA | $1,195,627 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Symons Family Fund | Sonora, CA | $217,208 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Interfaith Community Social Services | Sonora, CA | $155,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Sierra Repertory Theatre Incor Porated | Sonora, CA | $125,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Center for a Non Violent Community | Sonora, CA | $100,100 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Friends of the Tuolumne County Lodge Building Corporation | Sonora, CA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Resiliency Village | Soulsbyville, CA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Habitat for Humanity International Inc | Sonora, CA | $76,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| County of Tuolumne | Sonora, CA | $73,845 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Tuolumne County Alliance for Resources and Environment Inc | Sonora, CA | $67,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Watch Resources Inc | Sonora, CA | $51,224 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Faith Home Teen Challenge | Ceres, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tuolumne Park and Recreation | Tuolumne, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Tuolumne County Sheriffs Posse | Sonora, CA | $45,585 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Christian Heights Assembly of God | Sonora, CA | $40,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Friends of the Animal Community | Sonora, CA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| New Life Lighthouse Inc | Long Bam, CA | $37,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Nancys Hope | Sonora, CA | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Sierra Foothills Residential Care Inc | Sonora, CA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| We Care Sober Living Recovery Homes Inc | Sonora, CA | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Sonora Union High School | Sonora, CA | $29,345 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Southside Senior Services Inc | Groveland, CA | $26,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mi-Wuk Sugar Pine Fire Protection District Auxilliary | Mi Wuk Vlg, CA | $25,145 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sierra Bible Church | Sonora, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sierra Senior Providers Inc | Sonora, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Tuolumne Fire Safe Council | Tuolumne, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Twain Harte Community Service S | Twain Harte, CA | $22,106 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| International Mountain Bicycling Association | Groveland, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mother Lode Christian School | Tuolumne, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sonora Cat Rescue | Sonora, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Jack and Buena Foundation | Modesto, CA | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Tuolumne County Youth Football and Cheer | Tuolumne, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Tuolumne Safe | Mi Wuk Vlg, CA | $19,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jerry and Paula Baker Foundationinc | Groveland, CA | $11,831 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| California State Railroad Museum Foundation Inc | Sacramento, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Historic Sonora Chamber of Commerce | Sonora, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Sonora Community Hospital | Roseville, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Twain Harte Chamber of Commerce | Twain Harte, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mountain Youth and Community Theatre | Sonora, CA | $9,616 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Old Oak Ranch Recovery | Sonora, CA | $8,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Girl Scouts | Sacramento, CA | $7,863 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Athletic Scholarship Foundation of Tuolumne County | Sonora, CA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Make-a-Wish Northeastern & Central California | Sacramento, CA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Roofbb | Groveland, CA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Summerville High Quarterback Club | Twain Harte, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
18 of 46 (39%) 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.
- Tuolumne Park and Recreation
community recreation improvements - The Jack and Buena Foundation
Camp Jack Hazard program support - Twain Harte Chamber of Commerce
Program support military veterans memor - Sonora Union High School
Sober grad and sports program - New Life Lighthouse
Community meals and food pantry
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 36 of 46 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 | 22 | $1,336,685 | $21,053 |
| 2022 | 20 | $1,670,080 | $13,500 |
| 2023 | 18 | $711,650 | $20,747 |
| 2024 | 18 | $867,830 | $27,572 |
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
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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 Irving J Symons Foundation'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 17 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: 644 S Washington St, Sonora, CA, 95370.
EIN 91-2140485 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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