Grantmakers › California

The West Marin Fund

Point Reyes Station, CA · EIN 27-4102086. Reported 135 grants totalling $5,189,943 to 53 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

53organizations funded
$12,500median reported grant
$5,189,943granted, 2021-2024
74%of grantees funded again the next year
11%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 West Marin Fund, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 53 distinct organizations, with 11% 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. 74% 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 $12,500. Half of what it reported fell between $7,500 and $50,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $457,500. 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
40 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
51 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
8 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
20 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
14 grants
$250,000 Or More
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
West Marin Community ServicesPoint Reyes Station, CA$566,643442024
Bolinas Community Land Trust IncBolinas, CA$523,500542024
Point Reyes National Seashore AssociationPoint Reyes Station, CA$388,628332023
Extrafood OrgKentfield, CA$373,500542024
Marin Agricultural Land TrustPoint Reyes Station, CA$301,500442024
Community Land Trust Association of West MarinPt Reyes Sta, CA$294,500542024
San Geronimo Valley Community CenterSan Geronimo, CA$177,500222024
Parent Services Project IncSan Rafael, CA$175,000332024
Huukuiko IncBrisbane, CA$160,000112022
West Marin Scholarship ProgramInverness, CA$159,000442024
10000 DegreesSan Rafael, CA$157,500332023
Magnolia Global Academy for Leaders-MgalSanta Rosa, CA$150,000112024
Petaluma Health CenterPetaluma, CA$150,000112023
Point Reyes Bird ObservatoryPetaluma, CA$150,000222024
Innovative Health SolutionsBenicia, CA$132,000442024
Marin Promise PartnershipSan Rafael, CA$120,000222022
Papermill Creek Childrens CornerPt Reyes Sta, CA$113,000332023
Shoreline Unified School DistrictTomales, CA$105,945222022
Postnatal HelpSan Rafael, CA$90,000112024
CommonwealBolinas, CA$85,716932023
Dance PalacePt Reyes Sta, CA$73,000442024
MultiplierSan Francisco, CA$72,500442024
Bolinas Community IncBolinas, CA$58,850732024
Mesa RefugePt Reyes Sta, CA$54,000332024
Gallery Route OnePoint Reyes Statio, CA$48,000442024
River Otter Ecology ProjectForest Knolls, CA$41,500442024
Bolinas-Stinson Beach School FoundationBolinas, CA$38,000442024
Friends of the Marin County Free LibrarySan Rafael, CA$36,000112021
Environmental Action Committee of West MarinPt Reyes Sta, CA$35,000442024
Halleck Creek RanchNicasio, CA$34,500332023
Audubon Canyon Ranch IncStinson Beach, CA$32,500332023
Two Valleys Community Land TrustWoodacre, CA$29,000222023
KwmrPt Reyes Sta, CA$27,282332024
Bolinas MuseumBolinas, CA$21,000222023
Youth Cooking ServicesLarkspur, CA$20,406222024
California Council on Science and TechnologySacramento, CA$20,000222022
West Marin Senior ServicesPt Reyes Sta, CA$18,500222023
Bolinas Film Festival IncBolinas, CA$15,500112024
Greater Farallones AssociationSan Francisco, CA$14,973222022
In PlaceInverness, CA$14,000112024
Natura International IncWashington, DC$13,000112024
Movement Strategy CenterOakland, CA$12,500112024
Legal Aid of MarinSan Rafael, CA$10,000112023
Parent Institute for Quality Education IncNational City, CA$10,000112024
Slide RanchMuir Beach, CA$10,000112024
Clean Coast CaliforniaSan Diego, CA$8,000112024
Nicasio School FoundationNicasio, CA$7,500112021
PTA California Congress of Parents Teachers & Students IncPoint Reyes Station, CA$7,500112022
West Marin Field CommitteePoint Reyes Station, CA$7,500112023
PTA California Congress of Parents Teachers & Students IncTomales, CA$7,000112021
St Columbas Episcopal ChurchInverness, CA$6,500112023
Bolinas Civic GroupBolinas, CA$6,000112024
Turtle Island Restoration NetworkForest Knolls, CA$6,000112024

33 of 53 (62%) 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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 44 of 53 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.

Environment
7 orgs
Arts & Culture
6 orgs
Education
5 orgs
Human Services
4 orgs
Housing & Shelter
3 orgs
Food & Nutrition
3 orgs
Animal Welfare
3 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
2 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202137$957,429$12,000
202234$994,871$10,000
202332$1,631,622$16,000
202432$1,606,021$13,000

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.

California
$5.2M
District of Columbia
$13K

Down to the city

Point Reyes Station, CA
$1.3M
Bolinas, CA
$749K
Pt Reyes Sta, CA
$615K
San Rafael, CA
$588K
Kentfield, CA
$374K
Petaluma, CA
$300K

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

6 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 17 grants totalling $321,021 to The West Marin Fund. That is 29% of the 21 funders we can see giving to it. Those 6 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a community foundation.

4 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.

What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.

FoundationStateReportedGrantsYearsLast
Hendrickson Family Foundation Uad April 27Illinois$178,000552024
Sarlo Family FoundationCalifornia$50,000112024
The Rock FoundationCalifornia$50,000112021
Woodland Foundation IncNew York$40,000442024
Cox Family FundMinnesota$3,000332023
Amazonsmile FoundationWashington$21332023
Every foundation in the table above files Form 990-PF, which reports every grant it made and asks outright whether it funds only organizations it picks. That answer is what puts it on this list; no other form asks the question. The grants this organization reports making are on Form 990 Schedule I, which only requires listing recipients paid more than $5,000. Two different populations, so the money in and the money out on this page are not two halves of one figure and must not be added or compared.

Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.

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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.

Marin Community Foundation37 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc35 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund30 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program25 shared recipientsLeonard & Beryl Buck Foundation23 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc22 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 $12,500 -- 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 groupFoundations funding arts & culture in CaliforniaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding education in CaliforniaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding human services in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The West Marin Fund'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 41 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: Po Box 1496, Point Reyes Station, CA, 94956.

EIN 27-4102086 · 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.

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