Peninsula Open Space Trust
Palo Alto, CA · EIN 94-2392007. Reported 82 grants totalling $32.0M to 41 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 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. 41 distinct organizations, with 41% 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. 56% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than 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 $23,750. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $81,750; 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.
4 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $9,960,000 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 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| County of San Mateo Parks Department | Redwood City, CA | $5,265,188 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority | San Jose, CA | $4,748,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Sempervirens Fund | Mountain View, CA | $2,010,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Save the Redwoods League | San Francisco, CA | $2,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District | Los Altos, CA | $1,646,350 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| The Conservation Fund a Nonprofit Corporation | Arlington, VA | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Green Foothills Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | $413,750 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Trust for Public Land | San Francisco, CA | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Amah Mutsun Land Trust | Santa Cruz, CA | $235,243 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| 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 |
| Climate Resilient Communities | Palo Alto, CA | $202,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| City of Half Moon Bay | Half Moon Bay, CA | $135,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| San Mateo Resource Conservation District | Half Moon Bay, CA | $125,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| California Council of Land Trusts | Sacramento, CA | $123,675 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Coastside Land Trust | Half Moon Bay, CA | $85,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Together Bay Area | Berkeley, CA | $60,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The Regents of the University of California | Berkeley, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Epacenter | E Palo Alto, CA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Regents of the University of California | Santa Cruz, CA | $33,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Saved By Nature | Campbell, CA | $33,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Puente De La Costa Sur | Pescadero, CA | $30,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Multiplier | San Francisco, CA | $22,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Inc | San Jose, CA | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Canopy | Palo Alto, CA | $20,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Nuestra CASA De East Palo Alto | East Palo Alto, CA | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation | San Mateo, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pescadero Education Foundation | Pescadero, CA | $19,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Land Trust of Santa Cruz County | Santa Cruz, CA | $19,136 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| San Benito Agricultural Land Trust | Sn Jun Batsta, CA | $15,700 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| San Benito County Resource Conservation District | Hollister, CA | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| University of California Davis | Davis, CA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation | San Jose, CA | $13,837 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Coastal Quest | Berkeley, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kitchen Table Advisors | Berkeley, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Resource Conservation District of Monterey County | Salinas, CA | $8,100 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| 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 |
21 of 41 (51%) 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.
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 - County of San Mateo Parks Department
SUPPORT FOR CONSTRUCTION AT TUNITAS CREEK BEACH - Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority
SUPPORT FOR AGENCY'S WORK IN COYOTE VALLEY - 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
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 28 of 41 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.
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 |
| 2024 | 25 | $9,051,125 | $13,837 |
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
98% 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 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.
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 $23,750 -- 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 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). 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.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 34 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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