· Private foundation
McCarthy Family Foundation Inc
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of McCarthy Family Foundation Inc’s FY2022 grant dollars went to The San Diego Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2019, the last year McCarthy Family Foundation Inc named its own grantees at scale: 34 organizations, $524k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2022.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k12 grants · $54k
- $10k–50k27 grants · $370k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SAN DIEGO GRANTMAKERS | $100,000 |
| JUST IN TIME FOR FOSTER YOUTH | $20,000 |
| VOICES FOR CHILDREN | $20,000 |
| YWCA OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY | $20,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $20,000 |
| HANNAH'S HOUSE | $15,000 |
| ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO | $15,000 |
| ANGELS FOSTER FAMILY NETWORK | $15,000 |
| CANYON CREST ACADEMY FOUNDATION TEAM 3128 ALUMINUM NARWHALS | $15,000 |
| SAN DIEGUITO ACADEMY FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| ELEMENTARY INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE | $15,000 |
| CRISIS HOUSE | $15,000 |
| KIDS' TURN SAN DIEGO | $15,000 |
| NORTH COUNTY LGBTQ RESOURCE CENTER | $15,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF OCEANSIDE | $15,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–19, $245k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 12% of McCarthy Family Foundation Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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.
24 repeat relationships — 20 still active in FY2019, 4 since wound down; 20 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call). Read against FY2019, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2021, 54% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.0M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties5× · 2017–2021 · $2.4M · revenue +208% · 39% of their budget- PCPOWAY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION5× · 2017–2021 · $1.1M · revenue +13%
- PFPROMISES2KIDS FOUNDATION3× · 2017–2020 · $1.0M · revenue +85%
Funded once
- HAHIV AIDS UCLA FOUNDATION (AIDS INSTITUTE)one grant, 2017 · $150k
- AIAccess Incone grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue -8%
- ASARMED SERVICES YMCA SAN DIEGOone grant, 2018 · $25k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
San Diego Jewish Academy empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in strength of community.
Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. STEM Advantage mentors, prepares, and inspires first-generation, low-income, and underserved college students for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). We level…
To partner with youth, families, adults and communities to reach their full potential and is achieved through comprehensive and integrated programming in the areas of child and youth development; youth, adult and family wellness and…
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…
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…
Partners in College Success (PiCS) ensures equal access to higher education and an equitable college experience for low-income, refugee, immigrant, foster, homeless and disadvantaged youth in San Diego County. PiCS provides dedicated,…
Institute of Public Strategies (IPS) is a nonprofit corporation that receives its funding from local and federal governmental agencies and private foundations, through long-term grants or contracts to provide community-level services…
To spark breakthrough community action that elevates every child and family toward a brighter future.
Kidworks inspires purpose in youth, fuels their growth, and catalyzes their impact in the community and the world.
The university of san diego is a contemporary catholic university, grounded in the liberal arts and anchored along an international border, advancing academic excellence to create a more inclusive, sustainable and hopeful world.
The policy & innovation center's (pic) mission is to unlock the region's potential by cultivating and building partnerships. our niche is to address intractable issues that can only be solved with cross-sector, multi-jurisdictional…
The mission of the san diego cooperative preschool is to provide the highest quality care, while creating a nurturing and supportive community of children, parents, and highly skilled staff. through a play-based program that attends to the…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Diego Center for Children and the most unlike its peers is Musicians for Education Inc Dba Street of Dreams. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 41 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
67 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. 67 of the 84 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties ↗
- Who funds UCLA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds POWAY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PROMISES2KIDS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VOICES FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF GREATER SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds YWCA OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY ↗
- Who funds ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds CRISIS HOUSE ↗
- Who funds HANNAHS FAMILY CENTER ↗
- Who funds ELEMENTARY INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE ↗
- Who funds Kids Turn San Diego ↗
- Who funds JUST IN TIME FOR FOSTER YOUTH ↗
- Who funds ANGELS FOSTER FAMILY AGENCY ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGUITO ACADEMY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Access Inc ↗
- Who funds HOME START INC ↗
- Who funds PTA CALIFORNIA CONGRESS OF PARENTS TEACHERS & STUDENTS INC ↗
- Who funds Casa De Amparo ↗
- Who funds REALITY CHANGERS ↗
- Who funds WALDEN ENVIRONMENT DBA WALDEN FAMILY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds CARLSBAD EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds REUBEN H FLEET SCIENCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO CENTER FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds NORTH COUNTY LIFELINE INC DBA LIFELINE COMMUNITY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds SECOND CHANCE INC ↗
- Who funds OCEAN DISCOVERY INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF OCEANSIDE INC ↗
- Who funds ALLIANCE FOR HOPE INTERNATIONAL ↗
- Who funds YMCA OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY ↗
- Who funds ENCORPSINC ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The San Diego Foundation · The Conrad Prebys Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Price Philanthropies Foundation · Walter J & Betty C Zable Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · David C Copley Foundation · Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · Sempra Foundation · The Cushman Foundation · Boys and Girls Aid Society of San Diego Ltd · The Parker 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 McCarthy Family Foundation Inc 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to McCarthy Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to McCarthy Family Foundation Inc 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.