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Foundation Dossiers

California · Public charity

Helzel Family Foundation

The mission of the HELZEL FAMILY FOUNDATION is to improve the quality of life in the san francisco bay area and beyond through support of not-for-profit educational, arts, and cultural institutions. The foundation supports organizations and pursues partnerships committed to the highest level of achievement and excellence, with a goal of…

$728k
Granted FY2021
16
Grants FY2021
15
Organizations funded FY2021
13%
First-time grantees FY2021
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2021
$25,000
Largest grant, FY2021
$150,000
Organizations funded a year
10 to 17
FY2017 to FY2021
States reached, FY2021
1

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2021, 13% of the organizations Helzel Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 34% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 66% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $250k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21
EducationArts & CultureEnvironmentHuman ServicesScience & TechOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY202115$728k13%
FY202013$578k8%
FY201917$598k12%
FY201815$468k47%
FY201710$293kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2021.

Education$1.3MArts & Culture$645kEnvironment$220kYouth Development$205kPhilanthropy$170kPublic Benefit$145kHuman Services$50kScience & Tech$45kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2021, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
University of California Berkeley Foundation$477,50050%
The Head Royce School$330,00050%
California College of the Arts$320,00050%
Regents of the University of California$175,0004n/a
Hidden Genius Project$150,00012%
Hebrew Free Loan Association of San Francisco$145,00052%
Oakland Museum of California$145,00040%
Presidio Graduate School$100,00050%
The Oakland Public Education Fund$100,00010%
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy$100,00010%
Show all 22 grantees
All grantees of Helzel Family Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
University of California Berkeley Foundation$477,50050%
The Head Royce School$330,00050%
California College of the Arts$320,00050%
Regents of the University of California$175,0004n/a
Hidden Genius Project$150,00012%
Hebrew Free Loan Association of San Francisco$145,00052%
Oakland Museum of California$145,00040%
Presidio Graduate School$100,00050%
The Oakland Public Education Fund$100,00010%
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy$100,00010%
Magnes Museum Foundation$100,000135%
Golden Gate University$95,00050%
Girls Incorporated of Alameda County$95,00041%
Bay Area Childrens Theatre Fka Active Arts Theatre for Young Audien$70,00043%
Palm Springs Art Museum$65,00050%
Northern Light School$60,00031%
Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay$45,00030%
Regional Parks Foundation$40,00040%
Chabot Space & Science Center Foundation$20,00020%
Mills College$10,00010%
Father Flanagan's Boys' Home$10,00010%
Uc Press Foundation$10,00011%

Where it is load-bearing

Helzel Family Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 21 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUniversity of California Berkeley Foundation: $477,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetThe Head Royce School: $330,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetCalifornia College of the Arts: $320,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetHidden Genius Project: $150,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetHebrew Free Loan Association of San Francisco: $145,000 over 5y, 2.0% of budgetOakland Museum of California: $145,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetPresidio Graduate School: $100,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetThe Oakland Public Education Fund: $100,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetGolden Gate National Parks Conservancy: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMagnes Museum Foundation: $100,000 over 1y, 35% of budgetGolden Gate University: $95,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetGirls Incorporated of Alameda County: $95,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetBay Area Childrens Theatre Fka Active Arts Theatre for Young Audien: $70,000 over 4y, 3.3% of budgetPalm Springs Art Museum: $65,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetNorthern Light School: $60,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetJewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay: $45,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetRegional Parks Foundation: $40,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetChabot Space & Science Center Foundation: $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetMills College: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFather Flanagan's Boys' Home: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUc Press Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 21.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

East Bay Community Fo…The James Irvine Foun…Jewish Community Fede…Marin Community Found…The San Francisco Fou…J B Arnovitz Foundati…Farallon FoundationT Gary and Kathleen R…Esb Charitable Founda…The Blackbaud Giving …Silicon Valley Commun…Vanguard Charitable E…
East Bay Community FoundationCA23.1× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: East Bay Community Foundation · The James Irvine Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Marin Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · J B Arnovitz Foundation Inc · Farallon Foundation · T Gary and Kathleen Rogers Private Family Foundation · Esb Charitable Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

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.

Compare Helzel Family Foundation with peer funders

About Helzel Family Foundation

How much does Helzel Family Foundation give?
Helzel Family Foundation reported 16 grants totaling $727,500 in its FY2021 IRS filing. It funded between 10 and 17 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2021.
What does Helzel Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2021, its largest causes are Education (46%), Arts & Culture (23%), Environment (8%).
Who are Helzel Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2021: University of California Berkeley Foundation ($478k), The Head Royce School ($330k), California College of the Arts ($320k).
Does Helzel Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2021, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Helzel Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include East Bay Community Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma.
Where is Helzel Family Foundation based?
Helzel Family Foundation is based in CA.

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 24 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 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2022) is on record and reports $1k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2021, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Helzel Family’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