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Brewster West Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Brewster West 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.

$134k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$89k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$387kHuman Services$41kAnimals$18kReligion$13kYouth Development$9kEnvironment$6kRecreation & Sports$5k
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $40k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $89k
$15,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MARIN COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION$88,889
MARIN COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION$15,000
CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE$15,000
MARIN COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION$10,000
FRIENDS OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

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

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $41k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%SAN RAFAEL SANTA COP: $20k → 8%CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE: $15k → 8%VIVALON: $5k → 8%VIVALON: $1k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$407k · 5 repeat orgs$71k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +321% since the first grant, against -40% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
7

Total granted

$407k
$51k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+321%
-40%

Still filing today

40%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $20k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesAnimalsRecreation & SportsEnvironmentCrime & LegalPhilanthropyOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • MC
    MARIN COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION
    6× · 2020–2025 · $367k
  • MC
    MARIN COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION
    2× · 2023–2025 · $15k
  • TB
    THE BISHOP'S RANCH
    3× · 2020–2023 · $14k

Funded once

  • SR
    San Rafael Santa Cop
    one grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue -87% · 45% of their budget
  • CS
    CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIAgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +59%
  • SS
    Speak Safe
    one grant, 2023 · $9k · revenue -40%
How this is measured

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

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Sonoma Botanical Garden
—
2
Transportation Alternatives for Marin
Public Benefit
3
Bay Area Barns and Trails
Human Services
4
Sonoma Mountain Institute
Environment
5
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
—
6
Bamberger Ranch Preserve
Philanthropy
7
Friends of Huddart & Wunderlich Parks

The Friends of Huddart and Wunderlich Parks is a group of park enthusiasts and stewards who provide a wide range of programs and events in two historic redwood parks in the heart of the Bay Area. We lead hikes, provide environmental…

Environment
8
Sempervirens Fund

To ensure coast redwood forests in the santa cruz mountains thrive for generations to come. since 1900, sempervirens has protected more than 36,000 acres. learn more about our mission, vision, and strategic plan through 2030 at:…

Environment
9
San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society

Nurture in the public an understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex, its natural and cultural history, and to conserve, preserve, and restore bay lands as essential wildlife…

Animals
10
Elkhorn Slough Foundation

The Elkhorn Slough Foundation's mission is to conserve and restore Elkhorn Slough and its watershed, California's largest tidal salt marsh south of San Francisco Bay. Renowned for its extraordinary biodiversity, Elkhorn Slough features a…

Philanthropy
11
Sea Otter Savvy

To foster community awareness and involvement to reduce human caused disturbance to sea otters thru education, outreach and research.

Animals
12
Sustainable Conservation

Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Center for Domestic Peace; the most unlike its peers is Tiburon Peninsula Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

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

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 14 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
5/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MARIN COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION: $366,697 · OtherMARIN COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATIONMARIN COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION: $15,000 · Other+3 more: $24,500 · Other+3 moreSan Rafael Santa Cop: $20,000 · Human ServicesSan Rafae…Center for Domestic Peace: $15,000 · Human ServicesCenter fo…Vivalon: $6,000 · Human ServicesVivalonCONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA: $10,000 · AnimalsMARIN HUMANE SOCIETY: $1,000 · AnimalsSpeak Safe: $9,000 · Crime & LegalSonoma County Regional Parks Foundation: $5,000 · Recreation & SportsLandPaths: $5,000 · EnvironmentTiburon Peninsula Foundation: $1,000 · Philanthropy
Other$406,197Human Services$41,000Animals$11,000Crime & Legal$9,000Recreation & Sports$5,000Environment$5,000Philanthropy$1,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSan Rafael Santa Cop: $20,000 over 1y, 45% of budgetCenter for Domestic Peace: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSpeak Safe: $9,000 over 1y, 23% of budgetVivalon: $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWILDCARE: $6,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetSonoma County Regional Parks Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLandPaths: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTiburon Peninsula Foundation: $1,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetMARIN HUMANE SOCIETY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

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

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.

Marin Community Found…McNabb FoundationKaiser Foundation Hos…National Philanthropi…Donor Advised Charita…Vanguard Charitable E…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Marin Community FoundationCA17.2× affinity6 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · McNabb Foundation · Kaiser Foundation Hospitals · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Brewster West Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Brewster West Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Brewster West Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Brewster West 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.

    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 14 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

    Play a game based on Brewster West’s filings →

    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 endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home