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Sunshine Polka-Dot Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sunshine Polka-Dot 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.

$318k
Granted FY2025still arriving
16
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$80k
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.

Food & Nutrition$822kEnvironment$360kEducation$293kHuman Services$130kArts & Culture$119kAnimals$90kYouth Development$42kHealth$35kOther$0
02FY2025 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k7 grants · $28k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $160k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $130k
$10,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$3.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SAN FRANCISCO MARIN FOOD BANK$80,000
AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MARIN$50,000
SAN FRANCISCO BAYKEEPER$40,000
REDWOOD EMPIRE FOOD BANK$40,000
MARIN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS$25,000
DREW SCHOOL$25,000
BRANDEIS MARIN$10,000
10000 DEGREES$10,000
BUEN DIA FAMILY SCHOOL$10,000
WOMENS DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER$5,000
MARIN COMMUNITY MUSIC SCHOOL$5,000
INTERNATIONAL BIRD RESCUE$5,000
THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER$5,000
CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE$5,000
CONGREGATION BERITH SHALOM$2,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $167k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 71% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%AFYA FOUNDATION: $2k → 9%Women's Daytime Drop-In Center: $5k → 10%Women's Daytime Drop-In Center: $5k → 10%Women's Daytime Drop-In Center: $5k → 10%WOMENS DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER: $5k → 10%Women's Daytime Drop-In Center: $5k → 10%WOMENS DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER: $5k → 10%BUEN DIA CORPORATION: $20k → 10%BUEN DIA CORPORATION: $15k → 10%Buen Dia Family School: $10k → 10%BUEN DIA FAMILY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%BUEN DIA FAMILY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%BUEN DIA FAMILY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%BUEN DIA CORPORATION: $6k → 10%BUEN DIA FAMILY SCHOOL: $5k → 10%Commonweal: $4k → 8%Commonweal: $3k → 8%COMMONWEAL: $1k → 8%COMMONWEAL: $1k → 8%CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE: $6k → 8%Center for Domestic Peace: $5k → 8%Center for Domestic Peace: $5k → 8%Center for Domestic Peace: $5k → 8%Center for Domestic Peace: $5k → 8%CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE: $5k → 8%CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE: $5k → 8%CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE: $5k → 8%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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.9M · 25 repeat orgs$84k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +66% since the first grant, against -34% for those funded once.

25 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

25
13

Total granted

$1.9M
$54k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+66%
-34%

Still filing today

80%
46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k 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
Human ServicesAnimalsArts & CultureEnvironmentFood & NutritionEducationOther
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

  • SF
    SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK
    9× · 2017–2025 · $520k · revenue +74%
  • B
    Baykeeper
    9× · 2017–2025 · $353k · revenue +151%
  • RE
    REDWOOD EMPIRE FOOD BANK
    6× · 2020–2025 · $160k · revenue +17%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $10k
  • BA
    Bay Area Wilderness Training
    one grant, 2020 · $8k
  • CF
    CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue -58%
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
Marin Open Studios

Marin open studios is a non-profit visual arts organization dedicated to engaging and supporting marin county artists and their audiences through events, programs and services. marin open studios champions a diverse and inclusive community…

Arts & Culture
2
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
3
Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association

Our mission is to support california farmers and communities by providing farmers markets for our diverse bay area neighborhoods. we do this by operating certified farmers markets in six bay area counties. these farmers markets provide…

—
4
Transportation Alternatives for Marin
Public Benefit
5
San Francisco Public Press

The mission of the San Francisco Public Press is to enrich civic life by publishing investigative and solutions journalism that engages diverse audiences and promotes public accountability. The San Francisco Public Press…

Education
6
Marin Academy

Marin academy asks every individual to think, question, and create in an environment of encouragement and compassion, and challenges each person to accept the responsibilities posed by education in a democratic society.

Education
7
Extrafood

Food Rescue - The Organization rescues excess fresh food from Bay Area businesses, schools and non-profits and immediately delivers the food to safety net partners - such as senior housing centers, after-school programs, and homeless…

Food & Nutrition
8
Bay Nature Institute dba Bay Nature Bay Nature Magazine

Bay Nature connects the people of the San Francisco Bay Area to our natural world and motivates people to solve problems with nature in mind. Our vision is that all people have a close relationship with theirnatural world.

Environment
9
Monterey Museum of Art

The monterey museum of art cultivates curiosity in the visual arts and engages community with the diversity of california art - past, present, and future.

Arts & Culture
10
Jobs with Justice San Francisco

A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…

Employment
11
Marin Brain Injury Network Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery

Provide continued rehabilitation, hope, and community for people affected by brain injury.

—
12
California Forward

Ca fwd drives action to identify solutions that can be taken to scale to meet the challenges the state is facing. the organization is driven by the belief that regional solutions across the state will help ensure economic, environmental,…

Public Benefit
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is North Valley Community Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Commonweal. 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

30 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. 30 of the 41 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)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
29/30
Grantees still filing
19/30
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK: $520,000 · OtherSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANKBrandeis Marin: $209,025 · OtherBrandeis Marin+19 more: $153,000 · Other+19 moreBaykeeper: $353,000 · EnvironmentBaykeeperAGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MARIN: $125,000 · EnvironmentAGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MA…+1 more: $5,000 · EnvironmentREDWOOD EMPIRE FOOD BANK: $160,000 · Food & NutritionREDWOOD EM…MARIN AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST: $17,000 · Food & NutritionMARIN AGRI…Buen Dia Corporation: $86,000 · Human ServicesBuen Dia C…Center for Domestic Peace: $41,000 · Human ServicesCenter for…WOMENS DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER: $40,000 · Human ServicesWOMENS DAY…COMMONWEAL: $8,000 · Human Services+1 more: $2,000 · Human ServicesMARIN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS FOUNDATION: $75,000 · Education10000 DEGREES: $29,000 · EducationTHE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER: $41,000 · AnimalsINTERNATIONAL BIRD RESCUE: $27,000 · AnimalsMARIN HUMANE SOCIETY: $7,500 · AnimalsNORTH VALLEY ANIMAL DISASTER GROUP: $3,000 · AnimalsWE PLAYERS: $25,000 · Arts & CultureART WORKS DOWNTOWN INC: $7,000 · Arts & CultureKQED INC: $6,000 · Arts & CultureMarin Community Music School: $5,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$882,025Environment$483,000Food & Nutrition$177,000Human Services$177,000Education$104,000Animals$78,500Arts & Culture$43,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK: $520,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetBaykeeper: $353,000 over 9y, 3.3% of budgetREDWOOD EMPIRE FOOD BANK: $160,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetAGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MARIN: $125,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetBuen Dia Corporation: $86,000 over 8y, 2.1% of budgetMARIN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS FOUNDATION: $75,000 over 3y, 4.9% of budgetCenter for Domestic Peace: $41,000 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetTHE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER: $41,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetWOMENS DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER: $40,000 over 8y, 1.2% of budget10000 DEGREES: $29,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetSANDRA J WING HEALING THERAPIES FOUNDATION: $29,000 over 4y, 3.1% of budgetINTERNATIONAL BIRD RESCUE: $27,000 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetWE PLAYERS: $25,000 over 5y, 1.7% of budgetDREW SCHOOL: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMARIN AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST: $17,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCommunity Resource Initiative: $9,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetCOMMONWEAL: $8,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetWE FUND A HERO: $8,000 over 2y, 7.7% of budgetMARIN HUMANE SOCIETY: $7,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetART WORKS DOWNTOWN INC: $7,000 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetKQED INC: $6,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBAY AREA CANCER CONNECTIONS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMarin Community Music School: $5,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetSONOMA LAND TRUST: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDrawBridge: $3,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetNORTH VALLEY ANIMAL DISASTER GROUP: $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE AFYA FOUNDATION OF AMERICA INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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 SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK ↗
  • Who funds Baykeeper ↗
  • Who funds REDWOOD EMPIRE FOOD BANK ↗
  • Who funds AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MARIN ↗
  • Who funds Buen Dia Corporation ↗
  • Who funds MARIN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Center for Domestic Peace ↗
  • Who funds THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER ↗
  • Who funds WOMENS DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER ↗
  • Who funds 10000 DEGREES ↗
  • Who funds SANDRA J WING HEALING THERAPIES FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds INTERNATIONAL BIRD RESCUE ↗
  • Who funds WE PLAYERS ↗
  • Who funds DREW SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds MARIN AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST ↗
  • Who funds Community Resource Initiative ↗
  • Who funds COMMONWEAL ↗
  • Who funds WE FUND A HERO ↗
  • Who funds MARIN HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds ART WORKS DOWNTOWN INC ↗
  • Who funds KQED INC ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds BAY AREA CANCER CONNECTIONS ↗
  • Who funds Marin Community Music School ↗
  • Who funds SONOMA LAND TRUST ↗
  • Who funds NORTH VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
  • Who funds DrawBridge ↗
  • Who funds NORTH VALLEY ANIMAL DISASTER GROUP ↗
  • Who funds THE AFYA FOUNDATION OF AMERICA INC ↗

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…Silicon Valley Commun…Dandelion FoundationMcNabb FoundationThe Yelp FoundationThe San Francisco Fou…American Endowment Fo…Morgan Stanley Global…National Philanthropi…American Online Givin…The Bank of America C…Vanguard Charitable E…
Marin Community FoundationCA20.2× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Dandelion Foundation · McNabb Foundation · The Yelp Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Sunshine Polka-Dot Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sunshine Polka-Dot Foundation. 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
    14report 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 Sunshine Polka-Dot Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Sunshine Polka-Dot 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.

    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 41 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 Sunshine Polka-Dot’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