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Fledgling Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

Fledgling Fund

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.

$328k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$100k
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 2025.

Environment$1.1MAnimals$150kCommunity Improvement$133kRecreation & Sports$117k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k3 grants · $55k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $273k
$72,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$374k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Climate Center$100,000
Point Blue Conservation Science$100,000
Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation$72,500
Sonoma Land Trust$25,000
Daily Acts$20,000
Transform CA$10,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation: $75k → 9%TRANSFORM CALIFORNIA: $20k → 10%Environmental Traveling Companions: $60k → 10%Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation: $73k → 9%TRANSFORM CALIFORNIA: $20k → 10%ENVIRONMENTAL TRAVELING COMPANIONS: $15k → 10%LAGUNA SANTA ROSA: $40k → 9%TRANSFORM CALIFORNIA: $20k → 10%ENVIRONMENTAL TRAVELING COMPANIONS: $12k → 10%LAGUNA SANTA ROSA: $40k → 9%ROSE FOUNDATION: $10k → 10%ENVIRONMENTAL TRAVELING COMPANIONS: $10k → 10%LAGUNA SANTA ROSA: $20k → 9%Transform CA: $10k → 10%ENVIRONMENTAL TRAVELING COMPANIONS: $10k → 10%Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation: $20k → 9%Transform CA: $10k → 10%ENVIRONMENTAL TRAVELING COMPANIONS: $10k → 10%LAGUNA SANTA ROSA: $10k → 9%TRANSFORM CALIFORNIA: $10k → 10%LAGUNA SANTA ROSA: $10k → 9%ROSE FOUNDATION: $10k → 10%LAGUNA SANTA ROSA: $10k → 9%TRANSFORM CALIFORNIA: $10k → 10%The Climate Center: $100k → 9%TRANSFORM CALIFORNIA: $10k → 10%INQUIRING SYSTEMS: $100k → 9%Transform CA: $10k → 10%The Climate Center: $100k → 9%Rose Foundation: $10k → 10%Sonoma Land Trust: $50k → 9%ROSE FOUNDATION: $10k → 10%INQUIRING SYSTEMS: $30k → 9%Rose Foundation: $10k → 10%Sonoma Land Trust: $25k → 9%ROSE FOUNDATION: $5k → 10%SONOMA LAND TRUST: $15k → 9%ROSE FOUNDATION: $5k → 10%PEPPERWOOD PRESERVE: $10k → 9%PEPPERWOOD PRESERVE: $10k → 9%PEPPERWOOD PRESERVE: $10k → 9%GOLD RIDGE RESOURCE CONS DISTR: $15k → 9%GOLD RIDGE RESOURCE CONS DISTR: $15k → 9%Point Blue Conservation Science: $100k → 9%Point Blue Conservation Science: $50k → 9%PRBO POINT BLUE: $20k → 9%PRBO POINT BLUE: $20k → 9%PRBO POINT BLUE: $20k → 9%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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.5M · 14 repeat orgs$0 to everyone else

14 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
0

Total granted

$1.5M
$0

Still filing today

64%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentCommunity ImprovementEducationAnimalsOther
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

  • TC
    The Climate Center
    3× · 2020–2025 · $210k · revenue +354%
  • DA
    Daily Acts Organization
    9× · 2017–2025 · $195k · revenue +279%
  • LD
    Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation
    3× · 2023–2025 · $168k · revenue +31%

Funded once

    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
    Ecology Action of Santa Cruz

    The primary and specific purpose for which the said corporation is formed is to empower individuals, businesses and communities to take actions today that achieve environmental and economic sustainability. The activities of the corporation…

    Environment
    2
    Rogue Climate

    Rogue Climate's mission is to empower Southern Oregon communities most impacted by climate change including low-income, rural, youth, seniors & communities of color, to win climate justice by organizing for clean energy, sustainable jobs &…

    Education
    3
    Cascade Climate Inc

    To accelerate progress in interventions that harness Earths natural systems to stabilize the climate.

    Environment
    4
    Sonoma Ecology Center

    The Mission of Sonoma Ecology Center is to work with our community to enhance and sustain ecological health in the Sonoma valley.

    Environment
    5
    CarbonPlan

    Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.

    Environment
    6
    Earthcorps

    To cultivate leaders and community partnerships to advance environmental justice.

    International
    7
    EcoAdapt

    EcoAdapt, founded by a team of some of the earliest adaptation thinkers and practitioners in the field, has one goal - creating a robust future in the face of climate change. We bring together diverse players to reshape planning and…

    Environment
    8
    The Sierra Fund

    The Sierra Fund (TSF) is a non-profit organization with a mission to restore ecosystem and community resiliency in the Sierra Nevada.

    Environment
    9
    Sequoia Riverlands Trust

    We conserve the lands and waters of California's heartland.

    Environment
    10
    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
    11
    California Coastkeeper dba California Coastkeeper Alliance

    California Coastkeeper Alliance unites Waterkeeper programs statewide to fight for swimmable, fishable, and drinkable waters for all Californians.

    Environment
    12
    Clean Energy Transition Institute

    The Clean Energy Transition Institute (CETI) is an independent, nonpartisan research and analysis nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate an equitable clean energy transition in the Northwest.

    Education
    How this is measured
    The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sonoma Land Trust; the most unlike its peers is Laguna De Santa Rosa 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

    9 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. 9 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.

    0
    Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
    3
    Early backer (in before they grew)
    9/9
    Grantees still filing
    7/9
    Grew since first funded

    Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

    Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation: $167,500 · OtherLaguna De Santa Rosa FoundationIndividual grant recipient: $130,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient: $90,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient: $60,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientRose Foundation: $60,000 · OtherRose FoundationGOLD RIDGE RESOURCE CONS DISTR: $30,000 · OtherGOLD RIDGE RESOURCE CONS DISTRDaily Acts Organization: $195,000 · EnvironmentDaily Acts OrganizationEnvironmental Traveling Companions: $117,000 · EnvironmentEnvironmental Traveling Companio…SONOMA LAND TRUST: $90,000 · EnvironmentSONOMA LAND TRUSTPEPPERWOOD FOUNDATION: $30,000 · EnvironmentPEPPERWOOD FOUNDATIONThe Climate Center: $210,000 · EducationThe Climate Cen…INQUIRING SYSTEMS INC: $132,500 · Community ImprovementINQUIRING SY…Transformca dba Transform: $30,000 · Community ImprovementTransformca …POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY: $150,000 · AnimalsPOINT REYES…
    Other$537,500Environment$432,000Education$210,000Community Improvement$162,500Animals$150,000

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

    25%50%75%100%$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetThe Climate Center: $210,000 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetDaily Acts Organization: $195,000 over 9y, 4.8% of budgetLaguna De Santa Rosa Foundation: $167,500 over 3y, 4.8% of budgetPOINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY: $150,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetINQUIRING SYSTEMS INC: $132,500 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetEnvironmental Traveling Companions: $117,000 over 6y, 4.1% of budgetSONOMA LAND TRUST: $90,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTransformca dba Transform: $30,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetPEPPERWOOD FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 3y, 0.3% 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.

    • Who funds The Climate Center ↗
    • Who funds Daily Acts Organization ↗
    • Who funds Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation ↗
    • Who funds POINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY ↗
    • Who funds INQUIRING SYSTEMS INC ↗
    • Who funds Environmental Traveling Companions ↗
    • Who funds SONOMA LAND TRUST ↗
    • Who funds Transformca dba Transform ↗
    • Who funds PEPPERWOOD FOUNDATION ↗

    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…The Bancroft Foundati…Sonoma County Communi…The San Francisco Fou…ImpactassetsincSilicon Valley Commun…Network for GoodNational Philanthropi…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
    Marin Community FoundationCA15.3× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

    Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · The Bancroft Foundation Inc · Sonoma County Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Impactassetsinc · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Network for Good · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · 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 Fledgling Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Fledgling Fund. 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%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
      no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
      0get no government money at all
      4report 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 Fledgling Fund?

      Find your warmest path to Fledgling Fund 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 Fledgling’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