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Embarcadero Media Foundation

EMBARCADERO MEDIA FOUNDATION seeks to enhance the quality of life and public engagement in the san francisco bay area by supporting accurate and professional local news coverage of the region, making grants to nonprofit organizations providing needed social & human services to the community; increased in-depth and investigative…

$1.1M
Granted FY2024still arriving
63
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$43k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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 FY2022–2024.

Philanthropy$578kEducation$461kHuman Services$285kHealth$195kFood & Nutrition$190kYouth Development$165kEmployment$155kArts & Culture$130kOther$0
02FY2024 · 63 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 63 grants below total $925,500 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,100,210 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $174,710 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

  • Under $10k29 grants · $216k
  • $10k–50k34 grants · $710k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
South County Community Health$42,500
Upward Scholars$35,000
Ecumenical Hunger Program$35,000
Second Harvest Food Bank$35,000
Literacy Partners Menlo Park$35,000
LifeMoves$35,000
StarVista$35,000
City of Redwood City$35,000
Boys & Girls Clubs of the Pen$35,000
St Anthonys Padua Dining Roo$35,000
Palo Alto Community Child Car$27,500
Pursuit of Excellence$20,000
EPACENTER$20,000
East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutor$20,000
Youth Community Service Inc$20,000
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:

Your human-services grants (FY23–24, $210k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%StarVista: $35k → 7%StarVista: $35k → 7%Peninsula Volunteers Inc: $15k → 7%Peninsula Volunteers Inc: $15k → 7%The Circuit EPA: $10k → 8%The Circuit EPA: $10k → 8%Nuestra Casa de East Palo Alt: $10k → 8%Nuestra Casa de East Palo Alto: $10k → 8%Palo Alto Community Child Car: $28k → 8%Palo Alto Community Child Care: $28k → 8%Community Services Agency of: $8k → 8%Community Services Agency of Mountain View and Los Altos: $8k → 8%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.

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.

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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.9M · 63 repeat orgs$0 to everyone else

63 repeat relationships — 63 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

63
0

Total granted

$1.9M
$0

Still filing today

92%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24
EducationArts & CultureHealthHuman ServicesFood & NutritionYouth DevelopmentOther

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

  • SC
    South County Community Health Center Inc dba Ravenswood Family Health Center
    2× · 2023–2024 · $85k · revenue +26%
  • S
    StarVista
    2× · 2023–2024 · $70k · revenue +7%
  • LP
    LITERACY PARTNERS - MENLO PARK
    2× · 2023–2024 · $70k · revenue +84%

Funded once

    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
    Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco

    PPS-SF's mission is to promote the fundamental value of public education and pursue the success of every public school by sharing knowledge, bridging communities, and informing policy.

    —
    2
    Institute for Human & Social Development

    Institute for Human and Social Development provides excellent comprehensive child development and family support services through center based family child care and home visiting to the highest need children of 0-5 years old and their…

    Education
    3
    Children's Council of San Francisco

    By advocating for quality early care and education, empowering families with information and financial support, and building the capabilities of educators, Children's Council of San Francisco ensures that every child in San Francisco has…

    Human Services
    4
    Coastside Childrens Programs

    Coastside childrens programs (ccp) mission is to provide a safe and caring environment where children learn through experience, play, and friendships - building a foundation for success in school and life. ccp is offering preschool…

    Human Services
    5
    Linda Vista Children's Center

    We help children discover a way of dealing with life that is realistic, comfortable, and satisfying. Self-confidence is nurtured as children learn to rely on themselves and each other. The noncompetitive environment is one that allows each…

    —
    6
    Los Altos Chinese School Childrens Center

    Los Altos Chinese School Childrens Center offers a year-round, full-day, bilingual program for preschool students (3 to 5 years old) in the Los Altos area.

    Education
    7
    Kiddie Kampus Cooperative Play School Inc

    Kiddie Kampus is a cooperative, play-based preschool located in Alameda for children ages 2 years 9 months to 5 years old. We work together to create a nurturing, engaging preschool environment that prepares our children for kindergarten…

    —
    8
    Silicon Valley Education Foundation

    Who we are - silicon valley education foundation (svef) focuses on raising student performance in the critical areas of math and science across all 33 santa clara county school districts, and also adjoining san mateo and alameda counties.…

    Community Improvement
    9
    Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley

    Our Mission is to develop and strengthen the power of Latinas to advance our collective success through sisterhood, leadership, and civic engagement.

    Public Benefit
    10
    Folsom Prep Academy

    Folsom Prep Academy is renowned for providing academic excellence in K-5 grade levels while also developing necessary leadership and life skills in our students. Using an enriched and diverse curriculum, our teachers place personalized…

    Education
    11
    California School-Age Consortium Inc

    The California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC) builds professional networks that provide training, leadership development and advocacy to ensure that all young people have access to high quality out-of-school time programs and to create a…

    —
    12
    Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Association

    Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center's mission is to provide opportunities for the individuals and families in the North Beach, Chinatown,Fisherman's wharf and Mission Bay neighborhoods to enrich their quality of life.

    Community Improvement

    For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Epacenter and the most unlike its peers is Palo Alto Friends Nursery School. 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 26 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

    THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number25%3%<5yr15%3%5–10yr20%29%10–20yr15%25%20–35yr16%27%35–55yr9%12%55yr+
    THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value25%2%<5yr15%2%5–10yr20%23%10–20yr15%46%20–35yr16%20%35–55yr9%8%55yr+

    The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

    Closures · last 5 years

    The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.

    orgs you fund
    0.0%0/64
    the rest of the field
    11%
    1,113/10,413

    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

    60 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. 60 of the 64 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)
    8
    Early backer (in before they grew)
    59/60
    Grantees still filing
    42/60
    Grew since you first funded

    Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

    Silicon Valley Community Foundation — $577,808 · PhilanthropySilicon Valley Community Fou…EAST PALO ALTO KIDS FOUNDATION — $30,000 · PhilanthropyCity of Redwood City — $70,000 · OtherCity of Redwood CityST ANTHONY OF PADUA CHURCH — $70,000 · OtherST ANTHONY OF PADUA CHURCHLIFEMOVES — $70,000 · OtherLIFEMOVESPursuit Of Excellence — $40,000 · OtherPursuit Of ExcellenceRAVENSWOOD CLASSROOM PARTNERS — $30,000 · OtherKARA — $30,000 · OtherBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE PENINSULA — $70,000 · OtherBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE PENINSUL…YOUTH COMMUNITY SERVICES INC — $40,000 · OtherYOUTH COMMUNITY SERVICES INCWEHOPE — $30,000 · OtherAda's Cafe — $40,000 · OtherAda's CafeDowntown Streets Inc — $30,000 · OtherEAST PALO ALTO TENNIS & TUTORING — $40,000 · OtherEAST PALO ALTO TENNIS & TUTORING+11 more — $180,000 · Other+11 moreLITERACY PARTNERS - MENLO PARK — $70,000 · EducationLITERACY PARTNERS…Upward Scholars — $70,000 · EducationUpward ScholarsDream Catchers Inc — $30,000 · EducationDream Catchers In…FOUNDATION FOR A COLLEGE EDUCATION — $30,000 · EducationFOUNDATION FOR A …RISE TOGETHER EDUCATION INC — $20,000 · EducationRISE TOGETHER EDU…Learning Home Volunteers — $20,000 · EducationLearning Home Vol…Silicon Valley Urban Debate League — $15,000 · EducationEAST PALO ALTO ACADEMY FOUNDATION — $15,000 · EducationPALO ALTO FRIENDS NURSERY SCHOOL — $15,000 · EducationAll Five — $15,000 · EducationMENTOR TUTOR CONNECTION — $15,000 · EducationCOVENANT CHILDREN'S CENTER — $15,000 · EducationPARENTS NURSERY SCHOOL INC — $15,000 · EducationThe Peninsula College Fund — $15,000 · Education+1 more — $11,000 · EducationStarVista — $70,000 · Human ServicesStarVistaPALO ALTO COMMUNITY CHILD CARE — $55,000 · Human ServicesPALO ALTO…PENINSULA VOLUNTEERS INC — $30,000 · Human ServicesPENINSULA…THE CIRCUIT EPA — $20,000 · Human ServicesTHE CIRCU…Nuestra Casa de East Palo Alto — $20,000 · Human ServicesNuestra C…COMMUNITY SERVICES AGENCY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW LOS ALTOS AND LOS ALTOS HILLS INC — $15,000 · Human ServicesCOMMUNITY…South County Community Health Center Inc dba Ravenswood Family Health Center — $85,000 · HealthSouth Cou…COUNSELING AND SUPPORT SERVICES FOR YOUTH — $30,000 · HealthCOUNSELIN…PENINSULA HEALTHCARE CONNECTION INC — $20,000 · HealthPENINSULA…Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired — $15,000 · HealthVista Cen…CHAC FKA COMMUNITY HEALTH AWARENESS COUNCIL — $15,000 · HealthCHAC FKA …ADOLESCENT COUNSELING SERVICES — $15,000 · HealthADOLESCEN…PENINSULA FAMILY CONNECTIONS — $15,000 · HealthPENINSULA…ECUMENICAL HUNGER PROGRAM — $70,000 · Food & NutritionSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY — $70,000 · Food & NutritionHopes Corner Inc — $15,000 · Food & NutritionEPACENTER — $40,000 · Arts & CulturePALO ALTO ART CENTER FOUNDATION — $20,000 · Arts & CultureTHEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY — $15,000 · Arts & CultureEAST PALO ALTO COMMUNITY ARCHIVE — $15,000 · Arts & CultureINTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FOUNDATION INC — $15,000 · Arts & CultureART IN ACTION — $15,000 · Arts & CultureCOMMUNITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND ARTS — $15,000 · Arts & CultureMusic in the Schools Foundation — $15,000 · Arts & Culture
    Philanthropy$607,808Other$740,000Education$371,000Human Services$210,000Health$195,000Food & Nutrition$155,000Arts & Culture$150,000

    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 budgetSilicon Valley Community Foundation — $577,808 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSouth County Community Health Center Inc dba Ravenswood Family Health Center — $85,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetStarVista — $70,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetECUMENICAL HUNGER PROGRAM — $70,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY — $70,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUpward Scholars — $70,000 over 2y, 3.0% of budgetLIFEMOVES — $70,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE PENINSULA — $70,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPALO ALTO COMMUNITY CHILD CARE — $55,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetEAST PALO ALTO TENNIS & TUTORING — $40,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetPursuit Of Excellence — $40,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetYOUTH COMMUNITY SERVICES INC — $40,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetAda's Cafe — $40,000 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetEPACENTER — $40,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetDream Catchers Inc — $30,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetWEHOPE — $30,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR A COLLEGE EDUCATION — $30,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetCOUNSELING AND SUPPORT SERVICES FOR YOUTH — $30,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetRAVENSWOOD CLASSROOM PARTNERS — $30,000 over 2y, 8.5% of budgetEAST PALO ALTO KIDS FOUNDATION — $30,000 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetDowntown Streets Inc — $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKARA — $30,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetPENINSULA VOLUNTEERS INC — $30,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetPALO ALTO PLAYERS PENINSULA CENTER STAGE — $20,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetRISE TOGETHER EDUCATION INC — $20,000 over 2y, 8.3% of budgetTHE CIRCUIT EPA — $20,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetLearning Home Volunteers — $20,000 over 2y, 5.2% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE PALO ALTO JUNIOR MUSEUM & ZOO — $20,000 over 2y, 3.0% of budgetPENINSULA HEALTHCARE CONNECTION INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetActerra Action for a Healthy Planet — $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetPALO ALTO ART CENTER FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetNuestra Casa de East Palo Alto — $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetHopes Corner Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetTRUST FOR HIDDEN VILLA — $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetVista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired — $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetSilicon Valley Urban Debate League — $15,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetEAST PALO ALTO ACADEMY FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetCHAC FKA COMMUNITY HEALTH AWARENESS COUNCIL — $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCommunity Legal Services in East Palo Alto Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY — $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCOMMUNITY SERVICES AGENCY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW LOS ALTOS AND LOS ALTOS HILLS INC — $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPALO ALTO FRIENDS NURSERY SCHOOL — $15,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetAll Five — $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetEAST PALO ALTO COMMUNITY ARCHIVE — $15,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetMENTOR TUTOR CONNECTION — $15,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetEnvironmental Volunteers Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetINTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FOUNDATION INC — $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetART IN ACTION — $15,000 over 2y, 0.7% 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 Palo Alto Communi…Atkinson FoundationSilicon Valley Commun…Philanthropic Venture…Los Altos Mountain Vi…Gordon E and Betty I …Sand Hill FoundationThe David and Lucile …The Sobrato Family Fo…Palo Alto Rotary Club…Jewish Community Fede…John and Marcia Goldm…
    The Palo Alto Community FundCA88.5× affinity40 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

    Open a dossier: The Palo Alto Community Fund · Atkinson Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Philanthropic Ventures Foundation · Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · Sand Hill Foundation · The David and Lucile Packard Foundation · The Sobrato Family Foundation · Palo Alto Rotary Club Annual Charities Inc · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · John and Marcia Goldman Foundation

    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 Embarcadero Media 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.

    2024
    ’20’21’22’23’24’25
    no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government →
      no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
      0get no government money at all
      32report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
      0rely on government for over half their income
      ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
      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.

      05Through Plinth

      Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

      How do I get to Embarcadero Media Foundation?

      Find your warmest path to Embarcadero Media 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 64 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 camps
      funders cluster by geography, not ideology
      By state
      where grant money is based, and what stays home
      State money flows
      the interactive map of money crossing state lines