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The Baker Street Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Baker Street Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$6.8M
Granted FY2024still arriving
60
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0196% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$17MRecreation & Sports$9.1MEducation$6.8MHealth$5.6MFood & Nutrition$3.6MHuman Services$2.6MEnvironment$1.7MScience & Tech$1.6MOther$0
02FY2024 · 60 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k3 grants · $15k
  • $10k–50k15 grants · $430k
  • $50k–250k37 grants · $3.7M
  • $250k+5 grants · $2.6M
$75,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$126M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SAN FRANCISCO BALLET$1,000,000
SAN FRANCISCO PARK ALLIANCE$625,000
BROWN UNIVERSITY$500,000
A HOME WITHIN$263,107
WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE NATIONAL MONUMENT FOUNDATION$250,000
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO$225,000
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER$200,273
INDEPENDENT ARTS & MEDIA$200,000
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE$200,000
SAN FRANCISCO MARIN FOOD BANK$200,000
GIVEDIRECTLY INC$150,000
CHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING$150,000
Individual grant recipient$142,455
SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART$100,000
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION$100,000
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 (FY21–24, $1.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%A HOME WITHIN: $275k → 10%A HOME WITHIN: $275k → 10%A HOME WITHIN: $263k → 10%WORKING SOLUTIONS: $100k → 10%A HOME WITHIN: $275k → 10%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.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
NY
RI
CA
CO
VA
TN
DC
GA
FL
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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$48M · 92 repeat orgs$2.9M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +38% since the first grant, against -7% for those funded once.

92 repeat relationships: 53 still active in FY2024, 39 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

92
33

Total granted

$48M
$2.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+38%
-7%

Still filing today

65%
48%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $400k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationHealthEnvironmentYouth DevelopmentHuman ServicesOther
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 BALLET ASSOCIATION
    8× · 2017–2024 · $8.0M · revenue +37%
  • SF
    SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK
    8× · 2017–2024 · $3.6M · revenue +74%
  • EARTHJUSTICE
    7× · 2017–2023 · $1.5M · revenue +82%

Funded once

  • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2020 · $550k · revenue 0%
  • RO
    REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
    one grant, 2020 · $200k
  • US
    USF SCHOOL OF LAW-IMMIGRATION CLNIC
    one grant, 2017 · $175k
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
Ucsf Foundation Investment Company

The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.

Education
2
San Francisco Film Society

SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM connects and inspires audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through our film…

—
3
Sf Partnership

SF Partnership is an organization comprised of SF's leading employers dedicated to supporting an equitable, resilient, and vibrant economy shared by all people working and living in San Francisco. Through education, advocacy, and research,…

—
4
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
5
SFMade Inc

Our mission is to help manufacturers thrive, innovate, and create good jobs, for a more diverse and sustainable Bay Area.

Community Improvement
6
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory

The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory is dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats through science and outreach.

Environment
7
The Bar Association of San Francisco

The bar association of san francisco champions equal access to justice and promotes humanity, excellence, and diversity in the legal profession. we provide legal services to disadvantaged and underserved individuals in san francisco. we…

—
8
San Francisco Center for the Book

San Francisco Center For The Book is a center of inspiration for the Book Arts world, featuring the art and craft of letterpress printing, bookbinding, and artists' bookmaking. We are dedicated to the art of the book!

Education
9
California College of the Arts

California college of the arts educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. benefitting from its san francisco bay area location, the college prepares…

Education
10
Advance Sf

Advance SF is an organization comprised of SF's leading employers dedicated to supporting an equitable, resilient, and vibrant economy shared by all people working and living in San Francisco through education, advocacy, and research. The…

Human Services
11
San Francisco Challenge dba AmericaOne
Recreation & Sports
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The San Francisco Foundation; the most unlike its peers is The 5 Gyres Institute. 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

86 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. 86 of the 135 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
20
Early backer (in before they grew)
85/86
Grantees still filing
56/86
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION: $8,000,000 · Arts & CultureSAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATIO…CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $900,000 · Arts & CultureCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCESTHE EXPLORATORIUM: $700,000 · Arts & CultureSAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: $700,000 · Arts & CultureKQED INC: $600,000 · Arts & Culture+21 more: $4,270,000 · Arts & Culture+21 moreSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK: $3,600,000 · OtherSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANKSAN FRANCISCO JAZZ FESTIVAL: $1,800,000 · OtherSAN FRANCISCO JAZZ FESTIVALMEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING: $800,000 · OtherCITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: $750,000 · OtherALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $800,000 · Other+79 more: $12,326,397 · Other+79 moreSAN FRANCISCO PARKS ALLIANCE: $5,590,000 · Recreation & SportsSAN FRANCISC…+1 more: $145,000 · Recreation & SportsGOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVANCY: $2,894,495 · EnvironmentGOLDEN GA…EARTHJUSTICE: $1,500,000 · EnvironmentEARTHJUST…+2 more: $135,000 · EnvironmentUniversity of San Francisco: $925,000 · EducationUniversit…UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $550,000 · EducationUNIVERSIT…University of Chicago: $500,000 · EducationUniversit…Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library: $500,000 · EducationFriends a…THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SAN FRANCISCO: $400,000 · EducationTHE INTER…826 Valencia: $360,000 · Education826 Valen…Kingmakers of Oakland: $300,000 · EducationKingmaker…MUSEUM OF PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN: $240,000 · EducationMUSEUM OF…GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $206,824 · Education+4 more: $322,586 · Education+4 moreBROWN UNIVERSITY: $2,250,000 · Community ImprovementICAFUND: $100,000 · Community ImprovementCentro Community Partners: $100,000 · Community ImprovementA HOME WITHIN INC: $1,088,107 · Human ServicesGIVEDIRECTLY INC: $550,000 · Human ServicesWORKING SOLUTIONS CDFI: $100,000 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$15,170,000Other$20,076,397Recreation & Sports$5,735,000Environment$4,529,495Education$4,304,410Community Improvement$2,450,000Human Services$1,738,107

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 budgetSAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION: $8,000,000 over 8y, 3.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO PARKS ALLIANCE: $5,590,000 over 8y, 11% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK: $3,600,000 over 8y, 0.6% of budgetGOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVANCY: $2,894,495 over 8y, 1.4% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $2,250,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetEARTHJUSTICE: $1,500,000 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetA HOME WITHIN INC: $1,088,107 over 4y, 22% of budgetUniversity of San Francisco: $925,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $900,000 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $800,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetTHE EXPLORATORIUM: $700,000 over 7y, 0.4% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: $700,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetKQED INC: $600,000 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetCHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND: $600,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $575,000 over 5y, 1.3% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $550,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGIVEDIRECTLY INC: $550,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $500,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFriends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library: $500,000 over 5y, 3.3% of budgetWomens Suffrage National Monument Found: $500,000 over 2y, 79% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO FREE CLINIC: $425,000 over 8y, 2.3% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO ELITE ACADEMY: $425,000 over 5y, 9.0% of budgetBAY AREA DISCOVERY MUSEUM: $410,000 over 8y, 0.7% of budgetTHE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SAN FRANCISCO: $400,000 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetGIRLS INC: $390,000 over 8y, 0.4% of budget826 Valencia: $360,000 over 8y, 1.4% of budgetGRABHORN INSTITUTE: $325,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetSAFE & SOUND: $320,000 over 8y, 0.7% of budgetKingmakers of Oakland: $300,000 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetCOMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER: $300,000 over 7y, 1.8% of budgetLos Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center: $300,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetSunburst Projects: $280,000 over 7y, 4.9% of budgetHEALTHRIGHT 360: $275,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO: $275,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetTIPPING POINT COMMUNITY: $275,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetYERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $270,000 over 8y, 0.3% of budgetSilicon Valley Community Foundation: $250,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPRO PUBLICA INC: $250,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCalMatters: $250,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetIndependent Arts & Media: $250,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetTHE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $250,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMUSEUM OF PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN: $240,000 over 8y, 13% of budgetGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $206,824 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetODC: $200,000 over 8y, 0.6% of budgetInterMusic SF: $200,000 over 5y, 6.7% of budgetTHE LITQUAKE FOUNDATION: $175,000 over 6y, 9.2% of budgetPerforming Arts Workshop Inc: $175,000 over 7y, 1.8% of budgetSan Francisco CASA: $175,000 over 7y, 1.5% 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 BALLET ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO PARKS ALLIANCE ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK ↗
  • Who funds GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVANCY ↗
  • Who funds BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds EARTHJUSTICE ↗
  • Who funds A HOME WITHIN INC ↗
  • Who funds University of San Francisco ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ↗
  • Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
  • Who funds THE EXPLORATORIUM ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ↗
  • Who funds KQED INC ↗
  • Who funds CHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds GIVEDIRECTLY INC ↗
  • Who funds University of Chicago ↗
  • Who funds Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library ↗
  • Who funds Womens Suffrage National Monument Found ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO FREE CLINIC ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO ELITE ACADEMY ↗
  • Who funds BAY AREA DISCOVERY MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SAN FRANCISCO ↗
  • Who funds GIRLS INC ↗
  • Who funds 826 Valencia ↗
  • Who funds GRABHORN INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds SAFE & SOUND ↗
  • Who funds Kingmakers of Oakland ↗
  • Who funds COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER ↗

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 Francisco Fou…Marin Community Found…Jewish Community Fede…McNabb FoundationThe Rock FoundationKoret FoundationThe Miner Anderson Fa…Silicon Valley Commun…The Bernard Osher Fou…The William & Flora H…Walter and Elise Haas…Crankstart Foundation
The San Francisco FoundationCA55× affinity33 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The San Francisco Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · McNabb Foundation · The Rock Foundation · Koret Foundation · The Miner Anderson Family Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Bernard Osher Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Walter and Elise Haas Fund · Crankstart 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 The Baker Street Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Baker Street Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    30report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
    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 The Baker Street Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Baker Street 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 135 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Baker Street’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