· Private foundation
Bowden Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ARCS FOUNDATION INC | $25,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +70% since the first grant, against +18% for the ones you funded once.
14 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2024, 13 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- SDSAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY2× · 2021–2022 · $120k · revenue +502%
- YTYOUTH TENNIS SAN DIEGO6× · 2017–2022 · $64k · revenue +471%
- LALIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF LA JOLLA4× · 2017–2020 · $13k · revenue +17%
Funded once
REWILDone grant, 2022 · $30k · revenue +18%- AAATHENAEUM ART MUSIC & ARTS LIBRARYone grant, 2022 · $15k
- AWAMERICAN WOMEN FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDINGgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +66%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Conserving nature through science and discovery.
The museum of contemporary art san diego invites all audiences to experience our world, our region, and ourselves through the prism of contemporary art.
San diego zoo wildlife alliance is committed to saving species worldwide by uniting our expertise in wildlife care and conservation science with our dedication to inspiring passion for nature.
The academy is a renowned scientific and educational institution with a mission to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration. based in san francisco's golden gate park, it is home to a world-class aquarium,…
The Museo De Las Americas is dedicated to educating our community through collecting preserving interpreting and exhibiting the diverse arts and cultures of the Americas from ancient to contemporary through innovative exhibitions and…
Balboa Park Conservancy (the Conservancy) was organized on November 3, 1923. The Conservancy is the City of San Diegos (the City) partner and advocated for the greater good of Balboa Park (the Park). The Conservancy collaborated with and…
The mission of san diego botanic garden: we garden to create, share, and apply plant wisdom in our world. the organization's diverse topography and wide variety of microclimates provides visitors with the varied sensations of strolling…
La Jolla Historical Society celebrates the history and culture of this region along the waters edge through interdisciplinary programs, exhibitions, and research that challenge expectations. It balances contemporary and historic…
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
The san diego foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.
Rancho santa ana botanic gardens promotes botany, conservation, and horticulture to inspire, inform and educate the public and scientific community about california's native flora. the garden is devoted to the collection, cultivation,…
Acquire, manage and protect land in perpetuity that supports sensitive habitats and species, and to educate and inspire people and communities as stewards and advocates of their natural environment.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Diego Museum of Man Dba Museum of Us and the most unlike its peers is Point Loma Rotary Endowment Fund Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
22 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. 22 of the 42 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds YOUTH TENNIS SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds TOMPKINS CONSERVATION ↗
- Who funds REWILD ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF MAN DBA MUSEUM OF US ↗
- Who funds LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF LA JOLLA ↗
- Who funds MAMA'S KITCHEN ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN WOMEN FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING ↗
- Who funds THE BOOK CLUB OF CALIFORNIA ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Wednesday Club ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO HUMANE SOCIETY AND SPCA ↗
- Who funds Berkeley High School Development Group ↗
- Who funds DAVID BROWER CENTER ↗
- Who funds LIVING COAST DISCOVERY CENTER ↗
- Who funds MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT ↗
- Who funds PATRONS OF THE PRADO ↗
- Who funds Point Loma Rotary Endowment Fund Inc ↗
- Who funds Burn Institute ↗
- Who funds LAS PATRONAS ↗
- Who funds TEXAS SCOTTISH RITE HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The San Diego Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Dr Seuss Foundation · The Conrad Prebys Foundation · Sempra Foundation · Heller Foundation of San Diego · Price Philanthropies Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
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 Bowden Family 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.
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.