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Sojourner Trust at a glance

· Public charity

Sojourner Trust

Advocacy, education, and philanthropy relating to the root causes of climate change, extractive capitalism, structural inequities, and disinformation; protection of biodiversity through ecosystem restoration; land preservation; nature-based climate and environmental solutions; advocacy and support of indigenous americans, people of…

$505k
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$300k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

56% of Sojourner Trust’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Marin Community Foundation, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 8 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year Sojourner Trust named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $502k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

2
’22
2
’23
9
’24
8
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2022 to 2024.

Environment$4.9MPhilanthropy$67kArts & Culture$10k
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k4 grants · $25k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $77k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
  • $250k+1 grant · $300k
$20,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$119M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SAVE OUR HOME PLANET ACTION INC$300,000
MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$100,000
LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INC$25,000
VENTURA CITZENS FOR HILLSIDE PRESERVATION INC$20,000
SOAR INC$20,000
SANTA BARBARA DEMOCRATIC WOMENS CLUB$12,000
SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER$7,705
PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY$6,000
STEPHEN BENNETT FOR ASSEMBLY 2024$5,500
HARTMANN FOR SUPERVISOR 2024$5,500
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 (FY22–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 2% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $2.8M → 8%VENTURA CITZENS FOR HILLSIDE PRESERVATION INC: $20k → 10%STEPHEN BENNETT FOR ASSEMBLY 2026: $6k → 14%DEMOCRATIC WOMEN OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY: $12k → 14%LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INC: $25k → 14%SOAR INC: $20k → 18%GEORGETOWN TRUST FOR CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION INC: $10k → 7%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $25k → 7%SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER: $10k → 8%HOLDFAST TRUST: $1.7M → 5%MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $2.2M → 8%VENTURA CITZENS FOR HILLSIDE PRESERVATION INC: $20k → 10%STEPHEN BENNETT FOR ASSEMBLY 2024: $6k → 14%SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: $10k → 14%LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INC: $25k → 14%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $25k → 7%HOLDFAST TRUST: $1.5M → 5%MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $100k → 8%SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER: $8k → 14%PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: $10k → 14%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON HOLE: $67k → 5%HARTMANN FOR SUPERVISOR 2024: $6k → 14%PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: $6k → 14%HARTMANN FOR SUPERVISOR: $6k → 14%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.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.3M · 5 repeat orgs$400k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, 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

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
3

Total granted

$3.3M
$30k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

0%
+46%

Still filing today

60%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $31k went to new ones.

50%100%’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentArts & CultureCivil RightsOther
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

  • HT
    HOLDFAST TRUST
    2× · 2023–2025 · $3.2M · revenue -37%
  • LO
    LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $50k · revenue 0%
  • VC
    VENTURA CITZENS FOR HILLSIDE PRESERVATION INC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $40k

Funded once

  • GT
    GEORGETOWN TRUST FOR CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +46%
  • SB
    SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INCgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +88%
  • SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue -30%
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
Sustainable Conservation Inc

Sustainable conservation, inc works with the conservation fund, a nonprofit corporation, to create partnerships with the private, nonprofit, and public sectors to protect the outdoor heritage of the united states.

Environment
2
Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International
3
Santa Lucia Conservancy

To protect and steward in perpetuity the unique natural, cultural, and asthetic resources of the preserve and serve as a model of ecologically sustainable development to committees outside the preserve.

Environment
4
The Trust for Public Land

The trust for public land creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. in the past year, we helped communities to plan for parks and conservation, fund parks and conservation,…

Environment
5
Amazon Conservation Association

Amazon conservation unites science, people, and innovation to protect the amazon - the greatest wild forest on earth. as guardians of the most iconic forest on the planet, we bring together the power of the latest science and technology…

Environment
6
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
7
Native Plant Trust Inc

The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.

Environment
8
Zoological Society of San Diego

San diego zoo wildlife alliance is committed to saving species worldwide by uniting our expertise in wildlife care and conservation science with our dedication to inspiring passion for nature.

Animals
9
Santa Catalina Island Conservancy

The catalina island conservancy protects and stewards 88% of catalina island. more than 42,000 acres of wildlands, coves and coastal habitats. founded to preserve the island's natural resources, the conservancy advances a mission rooted in…

—
10
The Trust for Public Land Action Fund

Nonprofit support of park and conservation funding.

—
11
The Natomas Basin Conservancy a Calif Non-Profit Public Benefit Corp

The natomas basin conservancy serves as the plan operator for the natomas basin habitat conservation plan. it acquires and manages the habitat land for the benefit of the 22 "special status" species covered under the plan.

Environment
12
Sequoia Parks Conservancy

The sequoia parks conservancy funds and enables projects and programs that protect, preserve, and provide access to the natural and cultural resources of sequoia and kings canyon national parks.

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is League of Conservation Voters Inc; the most unlike its peers is Soar Inc. 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

13 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. 13 of the 19 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
8/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $5,106,384 · PhilanthropyMARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION+1 more: $67,000 · PhilanthropyHOLDFAST TRUST: $3,155,000 · EnvironmentHOLDFAST TRUST+3 more: $47,705 · EnvironmentSAVE OUR HOME PLANET ACTION INC: $300,000 · OtherTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $50,000 · OtherVENTURA CITZENS FOR HILLSIDE PRESERVATION INC: $40,000 · OtherSANTA BARBARA DEMOCRATIC WOMENS CLUB: $24,000 · OtherPEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: $16,000 · Other+5 more: $32,000 · OtherLEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INC: $50,000 · Civil RightsGEORGETOWN TRUST FOR CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION INC: $10,000 · Arts & CultureSANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC: $10,000 · Arts & Culture
Philanthropy$5,173,384Environment$3,202,705Other$462,000Civil Rights$50,000Arts & Culture$20,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $5,106,384 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetHOLDFAST TRUST: $3,155,000 over 2y, 6.4% of budgetSAVE OUR HOME PLANET ACTION INC: $300,000 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON HOLE: $67,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSOAR INC: $20,000 over 1y, 28% of budgetPEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: $16,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGEORGETOWN TRUST FOR CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetSANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER INC: $7,705 over 1y, 0.7% 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Sojourner Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sojourner Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%8%17%30%funder's 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
    2report 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
    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.

    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 19 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Sojourner’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