GrantmakersCalifornia

The Watershed Research & Training

Hayfork, CA · EIN 94-3116339. Reported 63 grants totalling $1,900,390 to 39 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

39organizations funded
$18,153median reported grant
$1,900,390granted, 2021-2023
57%of grantees funded again the next year
9%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For The Watershed Research & Training, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B99Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 9% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 57% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $18,153. Half of what it reported fell between $11,057 and $41,895; the smallest was $5,006 and the largest $117,947. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
9 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
27 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
16 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
9 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
2 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Conservation Corps North Bay IncNovato, CA$176,536322023
Plumas County Fire Safe Council IncQuincy, CA$132,166222023
Butte County Resource Conservation DistrictOroville, CA$126,569222023
Hawaii Wildfire Management OrganizationKamuela, HI$109,937222023
Tuolumne County RcdSonora, CA$96,335222023
Round Valley Indian TribesCovelo, CA$95,353112023
Shasta Valley RcdYreka, CA$77,569222023
Wildfire Adapted PartnershipDurango, CO$76,171222023
Ventura County RcdSomis, CA$70,040222023
University of Ca DavisLos Angeles, CA$64,557112023
The Forest Stewards GuildSanta Fe, NM$61,981332023
California Indian Basketweavers AssociationWoodland, CA$55,144222023
North Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, NC$53,897112023
Occidental Arts and Ecology CenterOccidental, CA$53,229222023
American Indian Council of Mariposa CountyMariposa, CA$52,455222023
Dovetail Partners IncMinneapolis, MN$50,000332023
Southern California Mountains FoundationSn Bernrdno, CA$48,469112023
La Jolla Band of Luiseno IndiansPauma Valley, CA$46,495112022
City of AshlandAshland, OR$38,790222022
Regents of the University of IdahoMoscow, ID$35,848112023
Anderson Valley Community Services DistrictBoonville, CA$35,182222023
Montana Dept of Natural Resources and ConsMissoula, MT$34,820332023
Washington Resource Conservation and Development CouncilYakima, WA$30,000112021
Karuk TribeHappy Camp, CA$28,832112023
Los Angeles Conservation CorpsLos Angeles, CA$28,795112023
Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment AssociationMiddletown, CA$28,424222022
Tahoe Resource Conservation DistSouth Lake Tahoe, CA$26,288222022
Cope Northern Sonoma CountyHealdsburg, CA$22,902112023
Pulaski CountyPulaski, VA$20,000112023
Tribal Eco Restoration AllianceUpper Lake, CA$18,153112023
Chestatee-Chattahoochee Resource Conservation and Development AreaDemorest, GA$17,419222022
Greater Flagstaff Forest PartnersFlagstaff, AZ$15,290222023
Cultural Fire Management CouncilHoopa, CA$14,349112023
Honey Lake Valley RcdSusanville, CA$13,541112023
City of Rapid CityRapid City, SD$12,500112022
Deschutes County TreasurerBend, OR$10,462112021
Island Park Sustainable Fire CommunityIsland Park, ID$8,992112021
Eagle County GovernmentEagle, CO$7,600112022
Nj Fire Safety CouncilFreehold, NJ$5,300112021

20 of 39 (51%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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 18 of 39 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.

Environment
8 orgs
Public Safety & Disaster Relief
4 orgs
Employment
2 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202114$278,676$12,840
202220$431,567$12,500
202329$1,190,147$30,104

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

69% 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.

California
$1.3M
Hawaii
$110K
Colorado
$84K
New Mexico
$62K
North Carolina
$54K
Minnesota
$50K
Oregon
$49K
Idaho
$45K

Down to the city

Novato, CA
$177K
Quincy, CA
$132K
Oroville, CA
$127K
Kamuela, HI
$110K
Sonora, CA
$96K
Covelo, CA
$95K

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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.

Coalitions & Collaboratives Inc8 shared recipientsThe Nature Conservancy8 shared recipientsNational Fish and Wildlife Foundation7 shared recipientsResources Legacy Fund7 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund6 shared recipientsCalifornia Fire Foundation5 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $18,153 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in California.
  4. 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

Foundations funding environment in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Watershed Research & Training'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 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 29 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: Po Box 356, Hayfork, CA, 96041.

EIN 94-3116339 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.