United Way of Santa Cruz County
Capitola, CA · EIN 94-1422471. Reported 53 grants totalling $1,121,358 to 29 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 United Way of Santa Cruz County, the IRS classifies it as a federated giving programme -- a United Way, Jewish federation, Community Chest or similar (NTEE T70Z).
- How spread out its giving is. 29 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. 40% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 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 $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $30,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $86,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County Inc | Watsonville, CA | $137,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Community Bridges | Watsonville, CA | $133,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| United Way of Santa Cruz County | Capitola, CA | $82,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Monterey | Monterey, CA | $64,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Ventures | Watsonville, CA | $61,250 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Boulder Creek Volunteer Fire Dept | Boulder Creek, CA | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance Inc | Watsonville, CA | $60,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Seniors Council of Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties | Watsonville, CA | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Nations Finest | Santa Rosa, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Emmaus House | Hollister, CA | $38,542 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Valley Churches United | Ben Lomond, CA | $37,048 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Sun Street Centers | Salinas, CA | $36,542 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Court Appointed Special Advocates of San Benito County Inc | Hollister, CA | $35,542 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Resource Conseron Dis S Cruz | Santa Cruz, CA | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Others Not Over 5000 | Various, CA | $31,352 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Community Food Bank of San Benito County | Hollister, CA | $28,542 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Live Oak School District Financing Corporation | Santa Cruz, CA | $25,826 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Community Foundation Santa Cruz County | Aptos, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Santa Cruz Soccer Camp | Santa Cruz, CA | $20,520 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Marthas Kitchen | San Jose, CA | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Central Coast Young Mens Christian Association | Monterey, CA | $18,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Hope Services | San Jose, CA | $14,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Girls Incorporated of the Centralcoast | Salinas, CA | $13,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Last Chance Community Center | Davenport, CA | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Twin Flames Creative Space | Scotts Valley, CA | $11,270 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center | Santa Cruz, CA | $10,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Living Evolution An Outdoor Experiential Learning Program Inc | Soquel, CA | $8,300 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Pacific Elementary School Dis | Davenport, CA | $6,624 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Interface Children & Family S | Camarillo, CA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
17 of 29 (59%) 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.
- Community Bridges
UNITED 4 YOUTH GRANT RENT WILDFIRE - Boulder Creek Fire Protection
WILDFIRE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE - Community Action Board
Winter Storm/Economic relief/United - Santa Cruz Community Ventures
Winter storm relief/undocufund fund - Catholic Charities Diocese of
FAMILY RENTAL & WILDFIRE FINANCIAL - Nations Finest
Wildfire financial assistance- exte
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 19 of 29 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 | 19 | $442,124 | $12,000 |
| 2021 | 15 | $258,168 | $16,352 |
| 2022 | 11 | $239,700 | $12,600 |
| 2023 | 8 | $181,366 | $22,760 |
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
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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.
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 $15,000 -- 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 United Way of Santa Cruz County'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 7 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: 4450 Capitola Road 106, Capitola, CA, 95010.
EIN 94-1422471 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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