Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation DossiersMostly funded, not a grantmaker — see who funds it →
Plinth

· Public charity

Conservation Society of California

Through management of oakland zoo, the CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA deepens connection with animals, saves wildlife, and inspires champions for the natural world.

$605k
Granted FY2024still arriving
15
Grants FY2024still arriving
7
States reached
$72k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2024.

Animals$1.1MEnvironment$621k
02FY2024 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 15 grants below total $430,500 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $604,675 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $174,175 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k12 grants · $254k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $177k
$25,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$95M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
AMBOSELI TRUST FOR ELEPHANTS$71,500
NEW NATURE FOUNDATION$55,000
ARCAS$50,000
WORKING CIRCLE$40,000
ELEPHANT CRISIS FUND (WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK)$30,000
BIG LIFE FOUNDTION$30,000
SAVE THE ELEPHANTS (WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK)$30,000
INDIGENOUS LED (WILD FOUNDATION)$25,000
DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST$25,000
ELEPHANT VOICES$20,000
EWASO (WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK)$14,000
RETETI ELEPHANT$10,000
FELIDAE CONSERVATION FUND$10,000
KAMINANDO HABITAT CONNECIVITY INITIATIVE$10,000
VENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY$10,000
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 (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 35% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%AMBOSELI TRUST FOR ELEPHANTS: $72k → 10%GLACIER NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY: $24k → 11%NEW NATURE FOUNDATION: $55k → 22%BEAR LEAGUE FOUNDATION: $24k → 6%FELIDAE CONSERVATION FUND: $20k → 8%DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST USA: $50k → 10%KAMINANDO HABITAT CONNETIVITY INITIATIVE: $28k → 10%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK: $30k → 10%CALIFORNIA WOLF CENTER: $30k → 11%VENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY: $15k → 12%ELEPHANT VOICES: $20k → 14%WORKING CIRCLE: $55k → 7%INDIGENOUS LED (WILD FOUNDATION): $25k → 12%BIG LIFE FOUNDATION USA: $30k → 9%ARCAS: $50k → 14%AMBOSELI: $70k → 10%NEW NATURE FOUNDATION: $23k → 22%DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST: $25k → 10%KAMINANDO HABITAT CONNECIVITY INITIATIVE: $28k → 10%ELEPHANT CRISIS FUND (WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK): $30k → 10%VENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY: $12k → 12%ELEPHANT VOICES: $20k → 14%WORKING CIRCLE: $40k → 7%BIG LIFE FOUNDATION USA: $30k → 9%ARCAS: $27k → 14%AMBOSELI: $55k → 10%NEW NATURE FOUNDATION: $20k → 22%DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST USA: $25k → 10%MULITPLIER ON BEHALF OF WORKING CIRCLE: $15k → 10%SAVE THE ELEPHANTS (WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK): $30k → 10%VENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY: $12k → 12%WORKING CIRCLE: $40k → 7%BIG LIFE FOUNDTION: $30k → 9%ARCAS: $21k → 14%AMBOSELI: $30k → 10%NEW NATURE FOUNDATION: $18k → 22%DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST: $25k → 10%MULITPLIER ON BEHALF OF WORKING CIRCLE: $15k → 10%SAVE THE ELEPHANTS (WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK): $30k → 10%VENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY: $25k → 12%WORKING CIRCLE: $40k → 7%BIG LIFE FOUNDTION: $30k → 9%ARCAS: $20k → 14%EWASO (WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK): $14k → 10%VENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY: $16k → 12%WORKING CIRCLE: $15k → 7%ELEPHANT VOICES: $20k → 10%ELEPHANT VOICES: $20k → 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.

Which US states your grants reach

WA
MT
IL
NY
MA
PA
CA
CO
DC
FL

Grants abroad, by region — $94k on the FY2024 return

Schedule F, as filed: 1 region. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Sub-Saharan Africa$94k · 100% · 5 grants

Stated purpose: ANNUAL GIVING GRANT · ECO-TRIP DONATION

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. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.

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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.6M · 17 repeat orgs$59k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +94% since the first grant, against +53% for the ones you funded once.

17 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

17
3

Total granted

$1.6M
$34k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+94%
+53%

Still filing today

94%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $25k 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
AnimalsEnvironmentRecreation & 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

  • AT
    AMBOSELI TRUST FOR ELEPHANTS
    4× · 2021–2024 · $227k · revenue +61%
  • MULTIPLIER
    6× · 2019–2024 · $220k · revenue +264%
  • TN
    THE NEW NATURE FOUNDATION
    7× · 2018–2024 · $131k · revenue +116%

Funded once

  • GLACIER NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCYgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $24k · revenue +53%
  • AD
    ANIMAL DEFENDERS INTERNATIONAL INC USgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +250%
  • AW
    Asia Wild
    one grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue -88%

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
Wilderness Conservation Foundation
Environment
2
Wildlife Sos

Protecting india's precious wildlife from poaching, habitat loss, and human exploitation since 1995.

Animals
3
International Primate Protection League

Protecting the world's remaining primates by monitoring and exposing illegal trade, supporting a worldwide network of overseas sanctuaries and ngo's, publicising the plight of abused primates, and operating a sanctuary for resued gibbons.

Animals
4
Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International
5
Wildlife Protection Solutions

To protect endangered species.

Animals
6
Livewilder Foundation
—
7
World Wildlife Fund Inc

Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)

Environment
8
Global Wildlife Foundation

Funding innovative veterinary research and supporting organizations dedicated to preserving and protecting wildlife for future generations.

Animals
9
Panthera Corporation

Panthera's mission is the conservation of the world's 40 wild cat species, many of which are endangered or threatened. panthera develops, implements and oversees wild cat conservation strategies on a global scale.

Animals
10
Interlaken Wildlife Foundation
Animals
11
Global Animal Partnership
Animals
12
African Wildlife Foundation Inc

Awf's mission is to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern africa. we work to equip african governments, institutions, business, and communities with the tools, insights, and support they need to define, own, and realize a…

Animals

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Wildlife Conservation Network Inc and the most unlike its peers is Lubee 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 22 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%15%5–10yr19%15%10–20yr16%45%20–35yr13%20%35–55yr16%5%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%14%5–10yr19%20%10–20yr16%51%20–35yr13%11%35–55yr16%4%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/22
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,543

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

21 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. 21 of the 22 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)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
21/21
Grantees still filing
17/21
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

AMBOSELI TRUST FOR ELEPHANTS — $226,500 · AnimalsAMBOSELI TRUST FOR ELEPHANTSARCAS WILD LIFE RESCUE AND CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION LTD AKA ARCAS — $126,100 · AnimalsARCAS WILD LIFE RESCUE AND CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION LTD AKA ARCASTHE DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST USA INC — $125,000 · AnimalsTHE DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST USA INCBIG LIFE FOUNDATION USA — $120,000 · AnimalsBIG LIFE FOUNDATION USAWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC — $104,000 · AnimalsWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INCVENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY — $100,500 · AnimalsVENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETYELEPHANTVOICES — $80,000 · AnimalsELEPHANTVOICESFELIDAE CONSERVATION FUND — $65,000 · AnimalsFELIDAE CONSERVATION FUNDWildlife Conservation Society — $60,000 · AnimalsWildlife Conservation SocietyMountain Lion Foundation — $42,500 · AnimalsBEAR LEAGUE — $38,500 · Animals+2 more — $10,000 · AnimalsMULTIPLIER — $220,000 · EnvironmentMULTIPLIERTHE NEW NATURE FOUNDATION — $131,200 · EnvironmentTHE NEW NATURE FOUNDATIONProyecto Titi Inc — $43,000 · EnvironmentProyecto Titi IncSARARA INSTITUTE — $20,000 · EnvironmentKAMINANDO HABITAT CONNECTIVITY INITIATIVE — $91,400 · OtherKAMINANDO H…CALIFORNIA WOLF CENTER — $30,000 · OtherCALIFORNIA …LUBEE FOUNDATION INC — $30,000 · OtherLUBEE FOUND…INTERNATIONAL WILDERNESS LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 · OtherINTERNATION…GLACIER NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY — $23,500 · Recreation & Sports
Animals$1,098,100Environment$414,200Other$176,400Recreation & Sports$23,500

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 budgetAMBOSELI TRUST FOR ELEPHANTS — $226,500 over 4y, 8.0% of budgetMULTIPLIER — $220,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE NEW NATURE FOUNDATION — $131,200 over 7y, 24% of budgetARCAS WILD LIFE RESCUE AND CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION LTD AKA ARCAS — $126,100 over 4y, 13% of budgetTHE DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST USA INC — $125,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetBIG LIFE FOUNDATION USA — $120,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC — $104,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetVENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY — $100,500 over 7y, 1.5% of budgetELEPHANTVOICES — $80,000 over 4y, 13% of budgetFELIDAE CONSERVATION FUND — $65,000 over 6y, 15% of budgetWildlife Conservation Society — $60,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetProyecto Titi Inc — $43,000 over 4y, 18% of budgetMountain Lion Foundation — $42,500 over 4y, 4.2% of budgetBEAR LEAGUE — $38,500 over 4y, 10% of budgetLUBEE FOUNDATION INC — $30,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetINTERNATIONAL WILDERNESS LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetGLACIER NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY — $23,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSARARA INSTITUTE — $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetANIMAL DEFENDERS INTERNATIONAL INC US — $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetAsia Wild — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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 Coville-Triest Fa…California Community …Shell USA Company Fou…Silicon Valley Commun…The Pfizer Foundation…Vanguard Charitable E…Network for GoodNational Philanthropi…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…The Bank of America C…Fidelity Investments …
The Coville-Triest Family FoundationMI13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Coville-Triest Family Foundation · California Community Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Network for Good · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Conservation Society of California 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 · 30%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    3get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    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 22 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. 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 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