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California · Public charity

American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California

The AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA (aclu nc union) defends and advances the principles of freedom, equality and justice contained in the united states constitution. Aclu nc union, a california mutual benefit corporation described in section 501(c)(4), conducts legislative, community action and education programs in…

$2.6M
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
4
Grants FY2025
3
Organizations funded FY2024
67%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$135,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$2,348,286
Organizations funded a year
1 to 12
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$18M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 67% of the organizations American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California funded were first-time grantees, receiving 8% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $200k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Civil RightsHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentPublic BenefitCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving4$2.6M50%
FY20243$2.5M67%
FY20234$5.9M50%
FY20221$2.3M0%
FY202112$1.8M75%
FY20204$369k50%
FY20195$240k60%
FY20189$762k100%
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Civil Rights$17MCrime & Legal$657kPublic Benefit$618kPublic Safety & Disaster$100kHuman Services$52kCommunity Improvement$10kEducation$6k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 28 grantees

Plus 3 recipients with no EIN on record ($360k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 4 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 18 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetACLU California Action: $10,152,757 over 5y, 77% of budgetAmerican Civil Liberties Union Inc: $5,000,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetAmerican Civil Liberties Union of Southern California: $442,262 over 3y, 6.8% of budgetEquality California Issues PAC: $235,000 over 2y, 3.9% of budgetAmerican Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties Inc: $150,000 over 1y, 9.4% of budgetTides Advocacy: $119,900 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetMovement Strategy Center Action Fund: $105,000 over 1y, 46% of budgetOakland Fair Elections: $100,000 over 1y, 27% of budgetCalifornia Calls Action Fund: $95,000 over 1y, 5.6% of budgetYouth Justice Coalition Inc: $54,800 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetAffect Real Change Inc: $31,400 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetSchools and Communities First: $25,000 over 1y, 35% of budgetCommunities United for Restorative Youth Justice Dba Curyj: $21,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetLove Not Blood Campaign: $21,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetACLU Foundation of Southern California: $17,249 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMapLight: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetUnited We Dream Network Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMovement Strategy Center: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 18.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The San Francisco FoundationCA19.5× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The San Francisco Foundation · Open Society Action Fund Inc · East Bay Community Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Tides Foundation · Liberty Hill Foundation · Sixteen Thirty Fund · NEO Philanthropy Inc · California Community Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California with peer funders

About American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California

How much does American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California give?
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California reported 4 grants totaling $2,593,286 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 12 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Civil Rights (92%), Crime & Legal (4%), Public Benefit (3%).
Who are American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: ACLU California Action ($10M), American Civil Liberties Union Inc ($5.0M), Opportunity for All Coalition ($750k).
Does American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 67% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The San Francisco Foundation, Open Society Action Fund Inc, East Bay Community Foundation.
Where is American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California based?
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is based in CA.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 32 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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