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Plinth

· Private foundation

Blackberry Creek 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.

$336k
Granted FY2025still arriving
17
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$150k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0185% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2021–2025.

Food & Nutrition$546kHousing & Shelter$178kCommunity Improvement$166kEducation$130kHealth$85kYouth Development$85kArts & Culture$76kInternational$55kOther$0
02FY2025 · 17 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k5 grants · $21k
  • $10k–50k10 grants · $115k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
$10,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$6.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK$150,000
BIKE EAST BAY$50,000
CYCLES OF CHANGE$25,000
SMITH COLLEGE$10,000
CALIFORNIA MOBILITY FUND$10,000
BERKELEY PUBLIC SCHOOLS FUND$10,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
CALIFORNIA HOUSING DEFENSE FUND$10,000
BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT FUND$10,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
WALK OAKLAND BIKE OAKLAND$10,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
GROUNDWORK RICHMOND$5,000
WATERSIDE WORKSHOPS$5,000
URBAN TILTH$5,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 33% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%SMITH COLLEGE: $10k → 12%RICH CITY RIDES: $10k → 9%BIKE EAST BAY: $50k → 10%GREENBELT ALLIANCE: $10k → 10%CALIFORNIA YIMBY EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS: $10k → 17%MIDWEST ACCESS COALITION: $10k → 14%SMITH COLLEGE: $10k → 12%RICH CITY RIDES: $10k → 9%BIKE EAST BAY: $35k → 10%GREENBELT ALLIANCE: $10k → 10%CALIFORNIA YIMBY EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%RAZOM FOR UKRAINE: $50k → 17%CHICAGO ABORTION FUND: $10k → 14%SMITH COLLEGE: $10k → 12%RICH CITY RIDES: $10k → 9%BIKE EAST BAY: $15k → 10%SAN FRANCISCO COMMUNITY CLINIC CONSORTIUM: $10k → 10%CALIFORNIA MOBILITY FUND: $10k → 12%SMILE TRAIN: $25k → 17%SMITH COLLEGE: $10k → 12%BIKE EAST BAY: $10k → 10%CALIFORNIA YIMBY EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%SMITH COLLEGE: $10k → 12%CALIFORNIA BICYCLE COALITION EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%CALIFORNIA MOBILITY FUND: $10k → 12%CALIFORNIA YIMBY EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%CALIFORNIA BICYCLE COALITION EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%CALIFORNIA BICYCLE COALITION EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%CYCLES OF CHANGE: $25k → 10%CYCLES OF CHANGE: $25k → 10%CYCLES OF CHANGE: $15k → 10%CYCLES OF CHANGE: $10k → 10%WALK BIKE BERKELEY: $10k → 10%WALK BIKE BERKELEY: $10k → 10%HABITAT FOR HUMANITY EAST BAYSILICON VALLEY: $50k → 10%WALK BIKE BERKELEY: $10k → 10%CALIFORNIA HOUSING DEFENSE FUND: $10k → 10%HABITAT FOR HUMANITY EAST BAY: $25k → 10%WALK BIKE BERKELEY: $10k → 10%CALIFORNIA HOUSING DEFENSE FUND: $10k → 10%HABITAT FOR HUMANITY EAST BAY: $20k → 10%CALIFORNIA HOUSING DEFENSE FUND: $10k → 10%TRANSFORM: $10k → 10%CALIFORNIA RENTERS LEGAL ADVOCACY & EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 10%WALK OAKLAND BIKE OAKLAND: $10k → 10%WALK OAKLAND BIKE OAKLAND: $10k → 10%BERKELEY PUBLIC SCHOOLS FUND: $10k → 10%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

86%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.3M · 20 repeat orgs$206k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +24% since the first grant, against -1% for the ones you funded once.

20 repeat relationships — 16 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

20
17

Total granted

$1.3M
$201k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%
-1%

Still filing today

80%
88%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEnvironmentCivil RightsHousing & ShelterEducationRecreation & SportsOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK
    5× · 2021–2025 · $525k · revenue +2%
  • EB
    East Bay Bicycle Coalition DBA Bike East Bay
    5× · 2021–2025 · $113k · revenue +32%
  • CO
    CYCLES OF CHANGE
    5× · 2021–2025 · $80k · revenue +18%

Funded once

  • RAZOM INC
    one grant, 2022 · $50k · revenue -65%
  • PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue +26%
  • SMILE TRAIN INC
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +2%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
California Bicycle Coalition

The mission of the California Bicycle Coalition is to advocate for equitable, inclusive, and prosperous communities where bicycling helps to enable all Californians to lead healthy and joyful lives.

—
2
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

The mission of San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is to transform San Francisco's streets and neighborhoods into more livable and safe places by promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation.

Environment
3
Transportation Alternatives for Marin
Public Benefit
4
350 Bay Area Action

Mission: We are building a grassroots climate movement in the Bay Area and beyond to eliminate carbon pollution and achieve a clean energy future with racial, economic, and environmental justice. Our vision is that all who live in the Bay…

Environment
5
San Francisco Housing Action Coalition

Promote public understanding of policies supporting the creation of well-designed, well-located housing at all levels of affordability for residents of the Bay Area, California.

Housing & Shelter
6
California Yimby

To empower Californians with the knowledge and tools to advocate for more housing and make our state affordable and accessible for everyone.

Housing & Shelter
7
350 Bay Area

We are building a grassroots climate movement in the Bay Area and beyond to eliminate carbon pollution and achieve a clean energy future with racial, economic, and environmental justice.

Environment
8
Acterra Action for a Healthy Planet

To bring people together to create local solutions for a healthy planet.

Environment
9
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

To build healthier and more just communities by making bicycling safe and accessible for everyone. We envision a community that values, includes, and encourages bicycling for all purposes for all people. Our overarching goal is to increase…

Recreation & Sports
10
Biketopia

We work to make bicycles accessible to everyone in the East Bay community. We provide bike education affordable repairs and refurbished bikes.

Education
11
Oakland Community Land Trust

Combating community deterioration and expanding housing and economic opportunities for low and moderate income residents; promoting neighborhood stability and community involvement through permanently affordable homeownership and equity…

Housing & Shelter
12
Impact Oakland Now
Community Improvement

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Greenbelt Alliancepeople for Open Space and the most unlike its peers is Ukraine House Dc Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 24 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%7%<5yr14%4%5–10yr20%37%10–20yr19%30%20–35yr13%11%35–55yr13%11%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%3%<5yr14%6%5–10yr20%37%10–20yr19%23%20–35yr13%21%35–55yr13%11%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/32
the rest of the field
12%
6,153/51,774

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

32 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 32 of the 38 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/32
Grantees still filing
20/32
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK — $525,000 · OtherALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANKEast Bay Bicycle Coalition DBA Bike East Bay — $112,500 · OtherEast Bay Bicycle Coalition DBA Bike East BayIndividual grant recipient — $46,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $37,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $35,000 · OtherPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC — $50,000 · Other+15 more — $160,000 · Other+15 moreHABITAT FOR HUMANITY EAST BAY SILICON VALLEY — $95,000 · Housing & ShelterHABITAT FO…California YIMBY Education Fund — $40,000 · Housing & ShelterCalifornia…+1 more — $2,500 · Housing & ShelterTHE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE — $50,000 · EducationTHE TRUST…Berkeley Public Schools Fund — $40,000 · EducationBerkeley …Berkeley High School Development Group — $40,000 · EducationBerkeley …California Mobility Fund — $50,000 · Arts & CultureAlameda Post Inc — $16,136 · Arts & CultureBERKELEY CITY CLUB CONSERVANCY — $10,000 · Arts & CultureUKRAINE HOUSE DC FOUNDATION INC — $5,176 · Arts & CultureWATERSIDE WORKSHOPS — $5,000 · Arts & CultureCYCLES OF CHANGE — $80,000 · Youth DevelopmentCalifornia Housing Defense Fund — $40,000 · Civil RightsYellowhammer Fund — $10,000 · Civil RightsTHE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC — $10,000 · Civil RightsMIDWEST ACCESS COALITION — $10,000 · Civil RightsRAZOM INC — $50,000 · International
Other$965,500Housing & Shelter$137,500Education$130,000Arts & Culture$86,312Youth Development$80,000Civil Rights$70,000International$50,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK — $525,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetEast Bay Bicycle Coalition DBA Bike East Bay — $112,500 over 5y, 1.9% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY EAST BAY SILICON VALLEY — $95,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCYCLES OF CHANGE — $80,000 over 5y, 3.4% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE — $50,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetRAZOM INC — $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCalifornia Mobility Fund — $50,000 over 5y, 2.2% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBerkeley Public Schools Fund — $40,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetCalifornia Housing Defense Fund — $40,000 over 4y, 3.0% of budgetCalifornia YIMBY Education Fund — $40,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetBerkeley High School Development Group — $40,000 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetWalk Oakland Bike Oakland — $27,500 over 5y, 17% of budgetGroundwork Richmond Inc — $25,000 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetSMILE TRAIN INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUrban Tilth — $20,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetGREENBELT ALLIANCEPEOPLE FOR OPEN SPACE — $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetAlameda Post Inc — $16,136 over 4y, 4.7% of budgetCHICAGO ABORTION FUND — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetYellowhammer Fund — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSan Francisco Community Clinic Consortium — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTransformca dba Transform — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBERKELEY CITY CLUB CONSERVANCY — $10,000 over 2y, 9.4% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMIDWEST ACCESS COALITION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetUKRAINE HOUSE DC FOUNDATION INC — $5,176 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJohn Muir Land Trust prev Muir Heritage Land Trust — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRebuilding Together East Bay Network — $2,500 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetBERKELEY PARTNERS FOR PARKS — $1,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetFLORECIENDO — $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPlanting Justice — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The San Francisco Fou…East Bay Community Fo…ImpactassetsincKaiser Foundation Hos…Silicon Valley Commun…The Yelp FoundationClif Family FoundationThe California Endowm…Jewish Community Fede…The Abeles FoundationMighty Arrow Family F…Rails to Trails Conse…
The San Francisco FoundationCA28.3× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The San Francisco Foundation · East Bay Community Foundation · Impactassetsinc · Kaiser Foundation Hospitals · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Yelp Foundation · Clif Family Foundation · The California Endowment · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · The Abeles Foundation · Mighty Arrow Family Foundation · Rails to Trails Conservancy

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Blackberry Creek Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • The Trustees of the Smith College — 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 38 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

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

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines