Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties
ActivePhilanthropy & Voluntarism
About Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties
We are a community of funders seeking to build an equitable, impactful, and effective social change ecosystem for San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Focus Areas
Homelessness / Housing FirstSocial equity and racial justiceEarly childhood care and educationSTEAM / STEM education and workforce developmentFood security and equitable food systemsMilitary and veteran family supportsEconomic development / small business (Women’s Empowerment Loan Fund)Regional capacity-building (San Diego & Imperial Counties)
Who They Fund
migrants and asylum seekerspeople at risk of or experiencing homelessnessresidents of San Diego County
About Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties is notable for combining place-based grantmaking with a set of collaborative funds that target specific community challenges across San Diego and Imperial Counties. In the recent grant list, that shows up most clearly in repeated support for migrants and asylum seekers, housing and homelessness work, and arts-based community health efforts. The largest recent grant went to Al Otro Lado Inc. for $325,276 to support migrants and asylum seekers, and the foundation also made a $250,000 grant to Bethel AME for affordable housing. Those grants sit alongside a pattern of unrestricted support for organizations such as Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest and Refugee Assistance Center, both of which received $190,000 in 2025. Its grantmaking also reaches into prevention-oriented work, including hate-incident response, and into regional arts programs tied to health equity and social cohesion. Across the data, the foundation appears to use a mix of direct grants, collaborative grantmaking, and program-linked funding to support organizations serving residents of the region.
What Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties Funds
Housing and homelessness are central in the recent grants. The foundation gave $250,000 to Bethel AME for affordable housing, $200,000 to Townspeople to prevent and address homelessness, and $100,000 to San Diego Community College District for preventing and addressing homelessness. It also supports migration-related services, including $184,488 to Jewish Family Service of San Diego for support of migrants and asylum seekers and $110,000 to Casa Familiar Inc for the same purpose. Another clear thread is anti-hate work: Union of Pan Asian Communities received $187,500 to prevent and address hate incidents and hate crimes, while North County LGBTQ Resource Center received $101,250 for the same issue. Arts and culture also appear as a community-health strategy, with Mission Edge for San Diego Regional Arts receiving $175,000 to support artists and cultural practitioners working in San Diego and Imperial Counties.
How Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties Gives
Typical grant size clusters around a median of $58,918, with a lower quartile of $32,500 and an upper quartile of $142,261. The recent record shows both large awards and a broad band of mid-sized grants, including repeated $142,261 grants in 2024 for the arts-and-community-health portfolio. The pattern is strongly local and highly concentrated in California, with 95% of grants going to recipients in the HQ state. The data also shows repeat support to the same organizations across years, including grants to Bethel AME in both 2023 and 2024. The foundation uses collaborative and program-based vehicles alongside direct grants, and the Women’s Empowerment Loan Fund is listed as an active borrower-support program with unsolicited applications accepted.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$1.1M
Total Assets
$7.9M
Total Revenue
$3.1M
Total Expenses
$4M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $33K and $142K, with a median of $59K.
25th Percentile
$33K
Median
$59K
75th Percentile
$142K
Geographic Reach
Local5 states funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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