How much does Sahm Family Foundation give?

Sahm Family Foundation reported 46 grants totaling $2,547,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 33 and 54 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Sahm Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (25%), Human Services (16%), Philanthropy (12%).

Who are Sahm Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: The San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association ($1.8M), Idaho Base Camp Inc ($1.5M), Ocean Institute ($1.5M).

Does Sahm Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 14% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Sahm Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as Sahm Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The San Diego Foundation, The Conrad Prebys Foundation, Walter J & Betty C Zable Foundation.

Where is Sahm Family Foundation based?

Sahm Family Foundation is based in CA.

Sahm Family Foundation

Sahm Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sahm 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.

$2.5M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$500k

Largest

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.

Arts & Culture$5.6MHuman Services$3.5MPhilanthropy$2.7MYouth Development$2.4MEducation$1.7MReligion$1.6MRecreation & Sports$1.1MCrime & Legal$894kOther$0

02FY2025 · 46 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k2 grants · $10k
$10k–50k30 grants · $663k
$50k–250k11 grants · $750k
$250k+3 grants · $1.1M

$25,000

Median grant

States reached

$59M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
IDAHO BASECAMPINC	$500,000
SAN DIEGO SENIORS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION	$350,000
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF SAN DIEGO	$275,000
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGOSD ART INSTITUTE	$100,000
OUTDOOR OUTREACH	$100,000
THUNDER DRAGON FUND	$100,000
FLOURISH FOUNDATION	$75,000
FAR AND WISE INC	$65,000
THE SENIOR CONNECTION	$60,000
ONCOLOGY AND KIDS	$50,000
PRO KIDS GOLF ACADEMY & LEARNING CENTER	$50,000
THE FIRST TEE OF FRESNO	$50,000
OCEAN INSTITUTE	$50,000
MARJAREE MASON CENTER	$50,000
COAST GUARD FOUNDATION	$45,000

02The need

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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $6.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 76% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$18M · 58 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

58 repeat relationships: 38 still active in FY2025, 20 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$18M

$1.4M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%

+55%

Still filing today

81%

58%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $115k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesArts & CultureEducationYouth DevelopmentRecreation & SportsHousing & ShelterOther

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

TS
THE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION
3× · 2018–2020 · $1.8M · revenue +97%
IB
IDAHO BASE CAMP INC
7× · 2018–2025 · $1.5M · revenue +426% · 26% of their budget
VF
VOICES FOR CHILDREN
9× · 2017–2025 · $720k · revenue +44%

Funded once

IN
IMPACT NETWORK INTERNATIONAL INCgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $113k · revenue +51%
SD
SAN DIEGO WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIP INCgraduated
one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue +54%
SC
SOUTHERN CAREGIVER RESOURCE CENTER
one grant, 2019 · $100k

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.

San Diego Jewish Academy

San Diego Jewish Academy empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in strength of community.

Education

The New Childrens Museum

The New Childrens Museum (the Museum) in San Diego is an arts-based childrens museum whose mission is to stimulate imagination, creativity, and critical thinking in children and families through inventive, engaging experiences with…

Arts & Culture

Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum

Smvdm is a california public benefit corporation whose mission is to foster family and youth inspired learining by creating experiences to explore ourselves, our valley, our world, and beyond. smvdm serves schools, families, and youth…

—

San Diego Opera Association

Mission: the mission of san diego opera is to deliver exceptional performances and exciting, accessible programs to diverse audiences, focusing on community partnerships, and the transformative and expressive power of the human voice. as…

Arts & Culture

The San Diego Foundation

The san diego foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.

Philanthropy

San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre

Slo rep strengthens theatre's cultural influence and enriches the central coast by producing professional theatre, nurturing artists and providing theatre education for children and adults.

Arts & Culture

Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego

to advance regional contemporary art and artists while fostering cultural equity through access to meaningful art experiences

Arts & Culture

San Diego Youth Symphony & Conservatory

Since 1945, San Diego Youth Symphony (SDYS) has served as a catalyst for investing in the future of young people through joyful and transformative music-making experiences. We reach over 2,500 students and families annually throughout San…

—

United Way of San Diego County

To spark breakthrough community action that elevates every child and family toward a brighter future.

Philanthropy

San Luis Obispo Children's Museum

The mission of the san luis obispo children's museum is to inspire learning through play.

Arts & Culture

Associated Students of San Diego State University

To support the social, recreational, cultural and education programs and facilities, both on campus and in the community, and to advocate for student interests, provide leadership opportunities and participate in shared governance.

—

San Diego Junior Theatre

San Diego Junior Theatre (Junior Theatre) was incorporated in 1948 as a nonprofit corporation and is the oldest youth theatre in the nation, offering affordable camps, classes, and outreach programs for children ages 3-18; as well as six…

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Diego Seniors Community Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Henry E Huntington Library and Art Gallery. 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

78 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. 78 of the 99 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

74/78

Grantees still filing

60/78

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Human Services$6,178,435Arts & Culture$4,128,000Other$6,743,909Environment$1,550,000Religion$1,509,550Education$1,286,700Youth Development$1,015,000

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.

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.

The San Diego FoundationCA45.1× affinity25 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The San Diego Foundation · The Conrad Prebys Foundation · Walter J & Betty C Zable Foundation · David C Copley Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · Pratt Memorial Fund · The Parker Foundation · French Fund Samuel Katherine Tua · Price Philanthropies Foundation · The William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett 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 Sahm Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sahm Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

2get no government money at all

29report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%

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 Sahm Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Sahm 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 Sahm 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