Neighbors for a Better San Francisco
San Rafael, CA · EIN 85-2432657. Reported 40 grants totalling $10.5M to 30 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 Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S05) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 30 distinct organizations, with 44% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 38% 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 $50,000. Half of what it reported fell between $20,000 and $350,000; the smallest was $8,000 and the largest $3,135,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Fran for Public Safety | San Francisco, CA | $4,616,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Connected Sf | San Francisco, CA | $1,360,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy | San Rafael, CA | $1,293,729 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Committee to Fix Sf Govt | San Rafael, CA | $950,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Stop Crime Action | San Francisco, CA | $665,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Concerned Parents Supporting | San Francisco, CA | $370,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ed Lee Democratic Club Pac | Novato, CA | $330,200 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| United Demo Club | Novato, CA | $105,600 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Great Highway for All | Oakland, CA | $89,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Yes on Prop E for a Safer Sf | Oakland, CA | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Camp for Better Sf Public Sc | San Francisco, CA | $70,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Coalition to Grow San Francisco - Grow Sf | Oakland, CA | $65,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| San Francisco Parent Action | San Francisco, CA | $60,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Chinese American Dem Clubpac | San Francisco, CA | $57,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| San Fran Common Sense Voter | San Francisco, CA | $55,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Norcalstol | San Francisco, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Support First Responders Now | Oakland, CA | $48,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Protect Our Right No on H | San Francisco, CA | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mid-Market Neighbors | San Francisco, CA | $42,918 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Protect Our Right No on C | San Francisco, CA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Stop All Asian Hate | San Francisco, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Yes on C Housing & Downtown | Oakland, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Recall School Board Members | San Francisco, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| No on B Stop the Cop Tax | San Francisco, CA | $17,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sf Guardians No on C | San Francisco, CA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Sf for Responsible Spending | San Rafael, CA | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bring Algebra Back | Oakland, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Revitalize San Francisco | Oakland, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| San Francisco Apartment Association | San Francisco, CA | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sf East Neighborhds Demo Cl | San Francisco, CA | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
7 of 30 (23%) 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 5 of 30 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 | 8 | $2,843,000 | $85,000 |
| 2022 | 13 | $4,181,718 | $50,000 |
| 2023 | 6 | $1,230,000 | $17,500 |
| 2024 | 13 | $2,276,229 | $48,000 |
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
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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 $50,000 -- 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.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Neighbors for a Better San Francisco'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 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 13 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: 2350 Kerner Blvd 250, San Rafael, CA, 94901.
EIN 85-2432657 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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