Peninsula Open Space Trust
Palo Alto, CA · EIN 94-2392007. Reported 57 grants totalling $23.0M to 33 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, 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 Peninsula Open Space Trust, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C500) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 33 distinct organizations, with 58% 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. 45% 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 $30,000. Half of what it reported fell between $8,500 and $85,243; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $9,440,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
2 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $7,375,000 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency | Morgan Hill, CA | $13.3M | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority | San Jose, CA | $2,148,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Save the Redwoods League | San Francisco, CA | $2,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Sempervirens Fund | Mountain View, CA | $2,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District | Los Altos, CA | $1,646,350 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Green Foothills Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | $353,750 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Trust for Public Land | San Francisco, CA | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District | Pescadero, CA | $232,950 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| California Assoc of Resource Conservation Districts | Sacramento, CA | $225,250 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Amah Mutsun Land Trust | Santa Cruz, CA | $185,243 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| City of Half Moon Bay | Half Moon Bay, CA | $135,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| California Council of Land Trusts | Sacramento, CA | $98,675 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| The Regents of the University of California | Berkeley, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| San Mateo Resource Conservation District | Half Moon Bay, CA | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Regents of the University of California | Santa Cruz, CA | $33,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Epacenter | E Palo Alto, CA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Together Bay Area | Berkeley, CA | $25,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Multiplier | San Francisco, CA | $22,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Inc | San Jose, CA | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Puente De La Costa Sur | Pescadero, CA | $20,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation | San Mateo, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Saved By Nature | Campbell, CA | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Land Trust of Santa Cruz County | Santa Cruz, CA | $19,136 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Climate Resilient Communities | Palo Alto, CA | $17,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Pescadero Education Foundation | Pescadero, CA | $14,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Canopy | Palo Alto, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Nuestra CASA De East Palo Alto | East Palo Alto, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| San Benito Agricultural Land Trust | Sn Jun Batsta, CA | $8,200 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| San Benito County Resource Conservation District | Hollister, CA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| La Honda Educational Foundation | La Honda, CA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Chopsticks Alley Art | San Jose, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Land Trust Alliance Incorporated | Washington, DC | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Pie Ranch | Pescadero, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
14 of 33 (42%) 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.
- Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency
DONATION OF LAND FKA LAKESIDE RANCH, FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT BATES RANCH ACQUISITION - Sempervirens Fund
SUPPORT FOR THE ACQUISITION OF THE JONES GULCH PROPERTY - Save the Redwoods League
SUPPORT FOR THE CASCADE CREEK PROPERTY ACQUISITION - Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
SOUTH COWELL VALUE OF TRANSFERRED LAND - Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority
SUPPORT FOR THE SOBRATTO PROPERTY ACQUISTION AND WORK IN COYOTE VALLEY - The Trust for Public Land
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT PURCHASE OF SEARLE ROAD PROPERTY
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 23 of 33 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 11 | $7,115,737 | $102,350 |
| 2021 | 14 | $1,482,018 | $13,087 |
| 2022 | 12 | $4,229,116 | $49,250 |
| 2023 | 20 | $10.2M | $14,568 |
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.
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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 $30,000 -- 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 Peninsula Open Space Trust's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 30 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 2 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: 222 High Street, Palo Alto, CA, 94301.
EIN 94-2392007 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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