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California Marine Sanctuary Foundation at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

California Marine Sanctuary Foundation

The CALIFORNIA MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION is a nonprofit organization working to advance the understanding and stewardship of ocean resources in california.

$143k
Granted FY2018
7
Grants FY2018
1
States reached
$44k
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, FY2017 to 2018.

Environment$101kEducation$60kScience & Tech$50kHealth$10k
02FY2018 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 7 grants below total $139,727, the rows itemized in this filing. The $143,462 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $3,735 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2018

  • Under $10k2 grants · $11k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $128k
$16,540
Median grant
1
States reached
$5.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MBARI$43,751
CSUMB$37,663
COASTAL CONSERVATION RESEARH$19,907
ENVIRONMENT IN THE PUBLIC INT$16,540
ENVIROMENTAL JUSTICE COALITIO$10,482
UC SANTA CRUZ$6,000
UC REGENTS SANTA BARBARA$5,384
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–18) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 90% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY: $22k → 8%ENVIRONMENT IN THE PUBLIC INT: $18k → 12%MBARI: $44k → 12%ENVIROMENTAL JUSTICE COALITIO: $10k → 12%NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FDN: $8k → 13%UC REGENTS SANTA BARBARA: $13k → 14%ENVIRONMENT IN THE PUBLIC INT: $17k → 12%COASTAL CONSERVATION RESEARH: $20k → 12%UC SANTA CRUZ: $6k → 13%UC REGENTS SANTA BARBARA: $5k → 14%COASTAL CONSERVATION RESEARH: $10k → 12%CSUMB: $38k → 12%CITY OF PACIFIC GROVE: $10k → 12%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.

37%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$83k · 3 repeat orgs$138k to everyone else

3 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2018, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
3

Total granted

$83k
$40k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-37%
+196%

Still filing today

33%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2018, 30% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $98k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18
EducationEnvironmentOther
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

  • EI
    ENVIRONMENT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
    2× · 2017–2018 · $35k
  • CC
    COASTAL CONSERVATION & RESEARCH
    2× · 2017–2018 · $30k · revenue -37%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA
    2× · 2017–2018 · $18k

Funded once

  • SJ
    SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $22k · revenue +61%
  • CO
    CITY OF PACIFIC GROVE
    one grant, 2017 · $10k
  • NM
    NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $8k · revenue +196%
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
04the grantee network

6 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. 6 of the 10 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/6
Grantees still filing
4/6
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: $43,751 · OtherMonterey Bay Aquarium Research InstituteENVIRONMENT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: $34,977 · OtherENVIRONMENT IN THE PUBLIC INTERESTUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA: $17,886 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARAENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COALITION FOR WATER: $10,482 · OtherENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COALITION FOR WATERCITY OF PACIFIC GROVE: $10,000 · OtherCITY OF PACIFIC GROVEREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $6,000 · OtherFOUNDATION OF CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY MONTEREY BAY: $37,663 · EducationFOUNDATION OF CALIFORNIA STATE…SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $22,200 · EducationSAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY RESE…COASTAL CONSERVATION & RESEARCH: $29,663 · EnvironmentCOASTAL CONSERVATIO…NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION: $8,039 · EnvironmentNATIONAL MARINE SAN…
Other$123,096Education$59,863Environment$37,702

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMonterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: $43,751 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFOUNDATION OF CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY MONTEREY BAY: $37,663 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetCOASTAL CONSERVATION & RESEARCH: $29,663 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetSAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $22,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION: $8,039 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.8× affinity5 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 California Marine Sanctuary Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 88%
  • National Marine Sanctuary Foundation: 88% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
1rely on government for over half their income
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 California Marine Sanctuary Foundation?

Find your warmest path to California Marine Sanctuary 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 10 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 2018, released 2018. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2018, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on California Marine Sanctuary’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