· Private foundation
Cynthia and Merrill Magowan Family 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k11 grants · $30k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $55k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $52k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Addiction Education Society Inc | $52,250 |
| Mayo Clinic | $25,000 |
| The Marine Mammal Center | $10,000 |
| San Francisco Zoological Society | $10,000 |
| Deerfield Academy | $10,000 |
| Tunnel To Towers Foundation | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| Hillsborough Beautification Foundat | $2,500 |
| Fine Arts Museums Foundation | $2,500 |
| Bakers Institute | $2,500 |
| Peninsula Family Service | $2,500 |
| Call Primerose | $2,500 |
| Naval Institute Foundation | $1,875 |
| Friends of Coos County Animals Inc | $1,875 |
| World Central Kitchen Inc | $1,750 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $52k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 22% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +53% since the first grant, against -9% for those funded once.
52 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2025, 37 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 FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TMTHE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER5× · 2017–2025 · $87k · revenue +63%
- AEADDICTION EDUCATION SOCIETY INC3× · 2021–2025 · $57k · revenue +163%
- PFPENINSULA FAMILY SERVICE5× · 2021–2025 · $40k · revenue +61%
Funded once
- CSCATHEDRAL SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2022 · $20k
- HGHILLSBOROUGH GARDEN CLUBone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +14%
- EWEthel Weber Schoolone grant, 2023 · $10k
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.
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.
The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory is dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats through science and outreach.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
Our mission is to act to conserve threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, based on sound science and take into account human needs.
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
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 catalina island conservancy protects and stewards 88% of catalina island. more than 42,000 acres of wildlands, coves and coastal habitats. founded to preserve the island's natural resources, the conservancy advances a mission rooted in…
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…
Friends of the earth strives for a more healthy and just world by defendng the environment and human health while advancing social and economic justice by conducting research and education, transforming the economy so it protects the…
Guided by the principles of academic rigor and diversity, the international school of san francisco offers programs of study in french and english to prepare its graduates for a world in which the ability to think critically and to…
The aquarium of the pacific's mission is to instill a sense of wonder, respect, and stewardship for the pacific ocean, its inhabitants, and ecosystems.
At san francisco friends school, students learn in a community grounded in the quaker values of reflection, integrity, peaceful problem-solving and stewardship. our teachers challenge students with a dynamic curriculum that inspires…
How this is measured
52 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 52 of the 90 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds MAYO CLINIC ↗
- Who funds THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY ↗
- Who funds ADDICTION EDUCATION SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds PENINSULA FAMILY SERVICE ↗
- Who funds Special Operations - Finding Kids ↗
- Who funds PENINSULA OPEN SPACE TRUST ↗
- Who funds Pacific Research Institute For Public Policy ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN ↗
- Who funds HILLSBOROUGH BEAUTIFICATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Friends of Coos County Animals ↗
- Who funds UCSF FOUNDATION INVESTMENT COMPANY ↗
- Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE NAVAL INSTITUTE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds KQED INC ↗
- Who funds AIM HIGH ↗
- Who funds EARTHWATCH INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds HILLSBOROUGH GARDEN CLUB ↗
- Who funds FINE ARTS MUSEUMS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds JAMES MERRILL HOUSE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF DEERFIELD ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds United Religions ↗
- Who funds CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The San Francisco Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · Rupert H Johnson Jr Foundation Rupert H Johnson Jr Trustee · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Hoefer Family Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Ronald P and Susan E Lynch Foundation C/O Milton Kain · The Joseph W Welch Jr Foundation · Connie and Bob Lurie Foundation Inc · Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation · American Endowment Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Cynthia and Merrill Magowan Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Cynthia and Merrill Magowan Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Music Mountain Incorporated: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Cynthia and Merrill Magowan Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Cynthia and Merrill Magowan Family 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.
Play a game based on Cynthia and Merrill Magowan Family’s filings →