The Opaline Fund
San Francisco, CA · EIN 20-3895397. Reported 93 grants totalling $2,846,000 to 47 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 The Opaline Fund, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T30).
- How spread out its giving is. 47 distinct organizations, with 12% 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. 46% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $15,000 and $40,000; the smallest was $6,500 and the largest $200,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity | Los Angeles, CA | $350,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Iyyun Inc | Suffern, NY | $250,000 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Immaterial Incorporated | Brooklyn, NY | $190,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Torah and Nature Foundation | Wilmington, DE | $125,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Jewish Community Federation of S F Marin Peninsula & Sonoma Counties | San Francisco, CA | $105,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Canopy Canopy Canopy Inc | New York, NY | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Chabad of Charlottesville | Charlottesvle, VA | $90,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Virginia Organizing Inc | Charlottesvle, VA | $90,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Desert Jewish Center Inc | Palm Springs, CA | $80,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Urban Adamah | Berkeley, CA | $80,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center | Rutherfordton, NC | $75,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Hazon Inc | New York, NY | $75,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| University of California San Francisco Foundation | San Francisco, CA | $75,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Amigos Del Centro De Educacion Ambiental De La Peninsula Yucateca | Palo Alto, CA | $73,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Sukkat Shaleym Inc | Lawrence, NY | $72,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Yiddish Farm Education Center | New Hampton, NY | $67,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Cultivate Charlottesville | Charlottesville, VA | $60,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Slow Money Institute Inc | Boulder, CO | $55,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Foodshed Capital | Charlottesvle, VA | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Jewish Learning Institute of Sf | Venice, CA | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| New City Arts Initiative | Charlottesvle, VA | $45,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Spikenard Farm Inc | Floyd, VA | $43,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Chabad East DC Jewish Center | Washington, DC | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Chevra Kol Israel | Brooklyn, NY | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Friends of the Arava Institute Ltd | Newton Center, MA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Inc | Richmond, VA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Target Margin Theater Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| United Plant Savers | Rutland, OH | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Wilderness Torah | Berkeley, CA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Fjc | New York, NY | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Velaslavasay Panorama | Los Angeles, CA | $33,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Yesod Foundation | Boulder, CO | $32,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Kav L Noar Foundation | Passaic, NJ | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Proyecto Itzaes | Palo Alto, CA | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| The Nature Foundation at Wintergreen | Roseland, VA | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Upstart Bay Area | Oakland, CA | $26,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Bay Area Jewish Healing Center | San Francisco, CA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Chabad of Ibiza Inc | Bel Air, MD | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Soul Fire Farm Institute Inc | Petersburg, NY | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Adamah Inc | Reisterstown, MD | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Fractured Atlas Inc | New York, NY | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Living Earth School | Afton, VA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mechon Hadar | New York, NY | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Charities Aid Foundation America | Alexandria, VA | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans Inc Beit Halochem | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Jerusalem Chesed - Chasdei Henny | Brooklyn, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Orot Inc | Monsey, NY | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
36 of 47 (77%) 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.
- The Torah and Nature Foundation
BIBLICAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY - Jewish Community Federation
THE 2023 ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND - City Schoolyard Garden
FOR GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT TO THE URBAN AGRICULTURE COLLECTIVE OF CHARLOTTESVILLE - University of California San Francisco Foundation
FOR THE OSHER CENTER EXCELLENCE FUND AT THE OSHER CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE - Iyyun Inc
GENERAL SUPPORT AND CHABAD OF BARCELONA - Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center
GENERAL SUPPORT FOR HOLY FOOL ARTS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 43 of 47 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 | 38 | $1,323,000 | $22,500 |
| 2021 | 38 | $1,120,000 | $24,000 |
| 2022 | 1 | $13,000 | $13,000 |
| 2023 | 16 | $390,000 | $17,500 |
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
34% 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.
Down to the city
Find more funders like The Opaline Fund
We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.
No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.
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 The Opaline Fund'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 15 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 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: 121 Steuart Street, San Francisco, CA, 94105.
EIN 20-3895397 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.