Northern California Grantmakers
ActivePublic CharityPhilanthropy & Voluntarism
About Northern California Grantmakers
Mobilizing philanthropy for just and equitable communities in Northern California; reimagining and transforming philanthropic practice to redistribute resources, capital, and power to marginalized communities.
Focus Areas
policy and advocacydemocracyimmigration justiceclimate resiliencenonprofit sustainabilitygrantmaking capacity buildingphilanthropic sector mobilization
Who They Fund
youth and youth organizerspeople experiencing homelessness in the San Francisco Bay AreaIndigenous tribes and Native communities
Funding Style
capacity building for grassroots organizations
About Northern California Grantmakers
Northern California Grantmakers centers youth organizing as a major strand of its giving, with a large 2023 award of $870,000 to the Amalgamated Foundation for Youth Organizing. That grant sits alongside a long list of $30,000 awards in the same area, showing a pattern of support for grassroots groups working on leadership, advocacy, and movement building. The foundation’s profile also includes philanthropic action and community-directed philanthropy, including grants to Catalyst of San Diego and Southern Calif Grantmakers in 2025 for philanthropic action. Its stated priorities point to policy and advocacy, democracy, immigration justice, climate resilience, nonprofit sustainability, grantmaking capacity building, and philanthropic sector mobilization. The grant list reflects work with youth and youth organizers, people experiencing homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Indigenous tribes and Native communities. In that mix, the foundation appears to use grantmaking to move resources toward organizations engaged in advocacy, capacity building, and place-based organizing across California.
What Northern California Grantmakers Funds
Youth organizing is the clearest program area in the recent grants. Northern California Grantmakers gave $90,000 to the Chinese Progressive Assn for Youth Organizing and $60,000 to Tides Center for the same purpose, followed by multiple $35,000 and $30,000 awards to groups such as Restorative Justice Oakland, RYSE Inc, Youth Together, and Oakland Kids First. The foundation also supports philanthropic action as a field-building activity, including $190,000 grants to Catalyst of San Diego and Southern Calif Grantmakers in 2025. Indigenous and Native work appears through a $10,000 Shuumi Land Tax Donation to Sogorea Te Land Trust. Immigration-related organizing shows up in a $30,000 grant to Services Immigrant Rights Ed for Youth Organizers. Across these awards, the foundation backs organizing, advocacy, and community-directed action rather than service delivery alone.
How Northern California Grantmakers Gives
The grant-size distribution is tight: p25, median, and p75 are all $30,000, indicating a strong clustering around that amount. One clear outlier is the $870,000 grant to Amalgamated Foundation in 2023, and two $190,000 grants appear in 2025. The foundation is a public charity and a pure DAF provider, not an individual-giving funder and not a program-related-investment maker. The recent list shows repeated funding in 2023 across many recipients, with a smaller number of 2025 awards tied to philanthropic action. That suggests ongoing grantmaking in the same broad program areas rather than isolated one-off bets.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$2.2M
Total Assets
$4.7M
Total Revenue
$6.1M
Total Expenses
$6.7M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $30K and $30K, with a median of $30K.
25th Percentile
$30K
Median
$30K
75th Percentile
$30K
Geographic Reach
Local4 states funded
About 90% of grants go to recipients in CA.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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