Grantmakers › California

United Way of the Wine Country

Santa Rosa, CA · EIN 94-1669646. Reported 84 grants totalling $1,812,259 to 40 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

40organizations funded
$13,687median reported grant
$1,812,259granted, 2020-2024
69%of grantees funded again the next year
16%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 United Way of the Wine Country, the IRS classifies it as a federated giving programme -- a United Way, Jewish federation, Community Chest or similar (NTEE T70Z).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 40 distinct organizations, with 16% 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. 69% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than 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 $13,687. Half of what it reported fell between $8,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $2,500 and the largest $156,192. 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.
Under $5,000
7 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
21 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
34 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
16 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
4 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
North Coast Opportunities IncUkiah, CA$292,078752024
Community Action Partnership of Sonoma CountySanta Rosa, CA$265,754852024
Lutheran Social Services of Northern CaliforniaConcord, CA$156,192112020
Center for Disaster Philanthropy IncWashington, DC$152,150112020
Nuestra Alianza De WillitsWillits, CA$108,550552024
Nexo Media Foundation IncSanta Rosa, CA$57,106332024
2-1-1 Humboldt Information and Resource CenterEureka, CA$56,500322021
Our Lady of Guadalupe ChurchWindsor, CA$51,958552024
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa RosaSanta Rosa, CA$50,000222021
River to Coast Childrens ServicesGuerneville, CA$43,888542024
Petaluma People Service CenterPetaluma, CA$42,237542023
Social Science Research CouncilNew York, NY$32,500112021
La Luz CenterSonoma, CA$29,477542024
Scopa Has a Dream IncHealdsburg, CA$27,500112021
Hanna Boys CenterSonoma, CA$25,275112020
Latino Service ProvidersSanta Rosa, CA$25,000112020
North Bay Jobs With JusticeSanta Rosa, CA$25,000112020
Daily Acts OrganizationPetaluma, CA$24,915112020
Friends of the Round Valley Public LibraryCovelo, CA$24,000112020
Nevada County United WayGrass Valley, CA$24,000112020
United Way of the Bay AreaSan Francisco, CA$24,000112020
Yuba-Sutter-Colusa United WayMarysville, CA$24,000112020
LandpathsSanta Rosa, CA$22,000112020
Young Womens Christian Association of Sonoma CountySanta Rosa, CA$22,000212020
Sonoma Land TrustSanta Rosa, CA$20,585112020
Creser Capital FundSausalito, CA$20,000112020
Tides CenterSan Francisco, CA$20,000112020
Lake County Economic Development CorporationLakeport, CA$19,000112020
Redwood Community Action AgencyEureka, CA$18,629112024
Food for ThoughtForestville, CA$16,000212020
Tlc Child & Family ServicesSebastopol, CA$16,000212020
Los Cien Sonoma County IncSanta Rosa, CA$13,000112020
Face to Face Sonoma County AIDS NetworkSanta Rosa, CA$12,550212020
Positive ImagesSanta Rosa, CA$10,323212020
Individuals Now Inc Social Advocates for YouthSan Francisco, CA$10,000112020
Community MattersSanta Rosa, CA$8,300212020
On the MoveNapa, CA$6,500112020
Larry NoeEureka, CA$5,292112020
On the MoveNapa, CA$5,000112020
South Lake County FireMiddletown, CA$5,000112020

10 of 40 (25%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 30 of 40 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.

Human Services
14 orgs
Community Improvement
3 orgs
Civil Rights
3 orgs
Environment
3 orgs
Public Safety & Disaster Relief
1 org
Social Science
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202050$1,016,245$10,000
202111$345,820$28,000
20227$151,963$19,034
20238$129,068$11,676
20248$169,163$18,832

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

90% 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
$1.6M
District of Columbia
$152K
New York
$32K

Down to the city

Santa Rosa, CA
$532K
Ukiah, CA
$292K
Concord, CA
$156K
Washington, DC
$152K
Willits, CA
$109K
Eureka, CA
$80K

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

4 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 6 grants totalling $43,649 to United Way of the Wine Country. That is 20% of the 20 funders we can see giving to it. Those 4 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a federated giving programme.

1 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
Keysight Technologies FoundationCalifornia$25,000112019
California Health M R CCalifornia$17,500112022
Mcnabb FoundationDelaware$1,000112022
Amazonsmile FoundationWashington$149332023

A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.

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.

Sonoma County Community Foundation22 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc21 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund19 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc18 shared recipientsMarin Community Foundation17 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program14 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 $13,687 -- 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 human services in CaliforniaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding environment in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from United Way of the Wine Country's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). 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 8 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: 975 Corporate Center Pkwy 160, Santa Rosa, CA, 95407.

EIN 94-1669646 · 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.