Seva Foundation
Berkeley, CA · EIN 38-2231279. Reported 37 grants totalling $2,927,206 to 21 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 Seva Foundation, the IRS classifies it under international affairs rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE Q300) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 21 distinct organizations, with 48% 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. 78% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above 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 $49,995. Half of what it reported fell between $27,050 and $65,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $369,278. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology | San Diego, CA | $1,393,972 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Tundra Health Initiative Corp | Nome, AK | $263,540 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation | Salt Lake City, UT | $181,295 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Central Oklahoma American Indian Health Council Inc | Oklahoma City, OK | $154,260 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Southcentral Foundation | Anchorage, AK | $110,359 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ute Mountain Tribe | Towaoc, CO | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Minneapolis Public Schools | Minneapolis, MN | $99,990 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Eye Samaritans International | Shreveport, LA | $95,740 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Near Vision Institute | Bellevue, WA | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| First Nations Community Health Source Inc | Albuquerque, NM | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Sacred Circle | Salt Lake City, UT | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake | Salt Lake Cty, UT | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Utah Navajo Health System Incorporated | Montezuma Crk, UT | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Winnarainbow Inc | Berkeley, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cherish Eyesight and Vision Inc | Columbus, OH | $47,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| MD5M Lions Kidsight Foundation Inc | Big Lake, MN | $47,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Blindness Support Services | Riverside, CA | $27,050 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Project Orbis International Inc | New York, NY | $27,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Eyemote Vision Support | Tulsa, OK | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| First Nations Community Healthsource Pharmacy | Albuquerque, NM | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions Foundation | Provo, UT | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
9 of 21 (43%) 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.
- Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology
PROGRAM DELIVERY IN AFRICA THROUGH GLOBAL SIGHT INITIATIVE - Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation
INCREASE HEALTH EQUITY BY IMPROVING ACCESS TO EYE CARE AND VISION CORRECTION - Ute Mountain Tribe
INCREASE PATIENT EYE SCREENINGS - Eye Samaritan International
EXPANSION OF RETINIS OF PREMATURITY (ROP) - Sacred Circle
INCREASE ACCESS TO PERSCRIPTION GLASSES - Camp Winnarainbow
INCREASE ACCESS TO RETINAL IMAGING FOR PATIENTS WITH DIABETIC RETINOPATHY
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 15 of 21 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 | $491,970 | $49,995 |
| 2022 | 7 | $713,763 | $65,000 |
| 2023 | 9 | $611,566 | $41,295 |
| 2024 | 16 | $1,109,907 | $48,500 |
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
50% 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 $49,995 -- 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 Seva Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). 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 15 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: 1786 Fifth St, Berkeley, CA, 94710.
EIN 38-2231279 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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