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Delaware · Private foundation

Bear Gulch Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.3M
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
50
Grants FY2025
46
Organizations funded FY2024
37%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$15,079
Largest grant, FY2025
$175,458
Organizations funded a year
41 to 50
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
13
Total assets, FY2025
$13M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 37% of the organizations Bear Gulch Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 37% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $407k 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
Human ServicesEnvironmentEducationRecreation & SportsInternationalCommunity 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 arriving49$1.3M6%
FY202446$1.1M37%
FY202344$1.0M7%
FY202250$1.0M14%
FY202144$718k9%
FY202041$705k10%
FY201945$609k9%
FY201843$534k9%
98% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Environment$2.0MHealth$1.1MInternational$804kEducation$493kRecreation & Sports$394kHuman Services$383kArts & Culture$361kCommunity Improvement$344kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

AK
VT
WA
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
PA
CT
CA
UT
NE
VA
MD
DE
DC
TX

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 64 grantees
All grantees of Bear Gulch Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Peninsula Open Space Trust$548,05590%
Sierra Club Foundation$524,57090%
Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc$494,97890%
Pathfinder International$428,66290%
Tower Hill School Association$421,76650%
Americares Foundation Inc$338,60490%
Good Grief Network$288,419270%
Oregon Humane Society$262,43690%
Outside In$242,79690%
Friends of Huddart & Wunderlich Parks$219,102914%
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte Inc$202,47890%
The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc$201,62371%
Sempervirens Fund$182,32190%
Radical Monarchs$140,00038%
Natural Resources Defense Council Inc$111,18470%
American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches$106,58770%
Committee on the Shelterless$100,29290%
The Coral Reef Alliance$95,16490%
The Wilderness Society$94,47560%
International Documentary Foundation Inc$90,00030%
Refugee & Immigrant Center for Education & Legal Services$84,97270%
The Brigid Alliance Inc$79,92820%
Petaluma River Park Foundation Inc$75,79530%
The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc$71,30170%
The Ceres Community Project$65,59190%
Pollinator Partnership$64,00071%
Engenderhealth Inc$60,85360%
San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation$60,16963%
National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy$60,16991%
San Mateo County Historical Association$56,16990%
Sierra Harvest$50,00051%
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance$48,00060%
Green Foothills Foundation dba Green Foothills$45,28541%
Beaverton Community Band$44,0006n/a
League of Conservation Voters Education Fund$40,55740%
Alaska Conservation Foundation$35,00070%
Woodside Musical Theatre Inc$30,774371%
Friendly House Inc$30,59121%
Growing Gardens$30,31821%
Felton Institute$30,30220%
Climate Solutions$30,30220%
Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated$30,00060%
Verde Inc$30,00020%
Urban Tilth$30,00020%
Communities for a Better Environment$30,00020%
Climate Resilient Communities$30,00021%
Healing Together$25,39421%
Antarctican Society Ltd$25,0005n/a
The Horse Park at Woodside$21,00070%
Oxfam-America Inc$11,00030%
Longwood Gardens Inc$10,55810%
Woodside High School Foundation$10,50070%
Redwood City Education Foundation$10,50070%
Greenbelt Alliancepeople for Open Space$10,50070%
Woodside School Foundation$10,50070%
Friends of Grace Baptist Community Center$10,5007n/a
Clement Manor Inc$10,00010%
Woodside-Portola Valley Fire Protection Foundation Inc$6,00060%
Trust for Hidden Villa$5,00030%
Music & Memory Inc$5,00010%
Parsemus Foundation$5,00011%
Disaster Responder Assets Network$4,0002n/a
Zip Code Wilmington Inc$2,50010%
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition$2,00010%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 24 recipients with no EIN on record ($958k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Bear Gulch Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 2 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 60 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPeninsula Open Space Trust: $548,055 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetSierra Club Foundation: $524,570 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetPlanned Parenthood Federation of America Inc: $494,978 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetPathfinder International: $428,662 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetTower Hill School Association: $421,766 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetAmericares Foundation Inc: $338,604 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetGood Grief Network: $288,419 over 2y, 70% of budgetOregon Humane Society: $262,436 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetOutside In: $242,796 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetFriends of Huddart & Wunderlich Parks: $219,102 over 9y, 14% of budgetPlanned Parenthood Mar Monte Inc: $202,478 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetThe Center for Investigative Reporting Inc: $201,623 over 7y, 0.7% of budgetSempervirens Fund: $182,321 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetRadical Monarchs: $140,000 over 3y, 7.5% of budgetNatural Resources Defense Council Inc: $111,184 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $106,587 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetCommittee on the Shelterless: $100,292 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetThe Coral Reef Alliance: $95,164 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetThe Wilderness Society: $94,475 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetInternational Documentary Foundation Inc: $90,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetRefugee & Immigrant Center for Education & Legal Services: $84,972 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetThe Brigid Alliance Inc: $79,928 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetPetaluma River Park Foundation Inc: $75,795 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetThe Union of Concerned Scientists Inc: $71,301 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetThe Ceres Community Project: $65,591 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetPollinator Partnership: $64,000 over 7y, 0.9% of budgetEngenderhealth Inc: $60,853 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSan Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation: $60,169 over 6y, 2.6% of budgetNational Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy: $60,169 over 9y, 0.6% of budgetSan Mateo County Historical Association: $56,169 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetSierra Harvest: $50,000 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetSouthern Utah Wilderness Alliance: $48,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetGreen Foothills Foundation dba Green Foothills: $45,285 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetLeague of Conservation Voters Education Fund: $40,557 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAlaska Conservation Foundation: $35,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetWoodside Musical Theatre Inc: $30,774 over 3y, 71% of budgetFriendly House Inc: $30,591 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetGrowing Gardens: $30,318 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetFelton Institute: $30,302 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetClimate Solutions: $30,302 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetEnvironmental Defense Fund Incorporated: $30,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetVerde Inc: $30,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetUrban Tilth: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCommunities for a Better Environment: $30,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetClimate Resilient Communities: $30,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetHealing Together: $25,394 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetThe Horse Park at Woodside: $21,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetOxfam-America Inc: $11,000 over 3y, 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 60.

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.

Silicon Valley Community FoundationCA24.9× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Orange County Community Foundation · Resources Legacy Fund · Tides Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · Atkinson Foundation · Patagoniaorg · Bothin Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Kaiser Foundation Hospitals · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · Sand Hill Foundation

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 Bear Gulch Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Bear Gulch Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Bear Gulch Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

About Bear Gulch Foundation

How much does Bear Gulch Foundation give?
Bear Gulch Foundation reported 50 grants totaling $1,273,597 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 41 and 50 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Bear Gulch Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (26%), Health (15%), International (11%).
Who are Bear Gulch Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Peninsula Open Space Trust ($548k), Sierra Club Foundation ($525k), Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc ($495k).
Does Bear Gulch Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 37% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Bear Gulch Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Bear Gulch Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Orange County Community Foundation, Resources Legacy Fund.
Where is Bear Gulch Foundation based?
Bear Gulch Foundation is based in DE.

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 91 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-PF 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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