· Private foundation
The Banks 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DESTINY ARTS CENTER | $25,000 |
| OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA | $20,000 |
| ST VINCENTS DAY HOME | $20,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $20,000 |
| ST MARY'S CENTER PRESCHOOL | $15,000 |
| CREATIVE GROWTH ART CENTER | $15,000 |
| CYCLES OF CHANGE | $15,000 |
| OAKLAND LACROSSE CLUB | $15,000 |
| MAPS ARTS | $10,000 |
| OAKLAND LEAF FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $113k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 9% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 6% of The Banks Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 94% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 92%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +69% since the first grant, against -40% for those funded once.
32 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2025, 22 since wound down.
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 FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CGCreative Growth Art Center9× · 2017–2025 · $105k · revenue +69%
- DADestiny Arts Center7× · 2018–2025 · $103k · revenue +109%
- BGBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF OAKLAND4× · 2019–2023 · $100k · revenue +78%
Funded once
- CCCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF OAKLANDone grant, 2020 · $250k · revenue -66%
- ACALAMEDA CTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANKone grant, 2020 · $15k
- LBLOTUS BLOOMone grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue -50%
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.
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.
To advance arts justice by ensuring that all students in under-resourced oakland public schools receive a comprehensive arts education in order to improve learning and promote achievement.
For more than 70 years, East Bay Agency for Children continues to improve the well-being of children, youth and families by reducing the impact of trauma and social inequalities.
To establish and maintain a positive school culture in which all students are motivated to learn, support each other, and have structures in place that assist students in accessing their full artistic and academic potential.
To prepare its students for admission to and success in college and career,and to become happy and productive members of society.
The Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) in Oakland aims to ensure the arts are a fundamental part of the community by providing quality, hands-on art experiences, particularly for children at risk academically or in underserved areas. Their…
The school is committed to providing a high quality education for children from all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. the faculty and staff create an atmosphere where every child can grow academically, emotionally, physically and…
BRIDGEGOOD increases opportunity and digital literacy for under-resourced students with a focus on Black Indigenous and Women People of Color. We prepare first-generation college students for careers in UX UI and Visual Design while…
The mission of Oakland Bloom is to advance food and economic justice community power and resilience with working-class immigrant and diaspora chef-entrepreneurs. Oakland Bloom does this through stewarding Open Test Kitchen as a kitchen and…
Oakland Genesis provides afterschool soccer programming to 4 Oakland Unified School District Middle Schools. Oakland Genesis also provides cost free competitive soccer programming to middle school aged participants that include…
Education of preschool aged children, toddlers, and parents. the play-based programs are designed to develop all aspects of the child's growth: social, emotional, physical, creative, and intellectual and to prepare them for kindergarten.
Our vision: a thriving oakland community without barriers to educational opportunity.our mission: engaging the oakland community to advance equity and economic mobility through cradle to college and career achievement.
Through a combined effort of staff, students, parents, and community baytech students will learn the necessary skills required for college and career readiness by engaging in a rigorous curriculum emphasizing stem. our students will…
How this is measured
33 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. 33 of the 51 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF OAKLAND ↗
- Who funds OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA ↗
- Who funds Creative Growth Art Center ↗
- Who funds Destiny Arts Center ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF OAKLAND ↗
- Who funds ST VINCENTS DAY HOME ↗
- Who funds Oakland Lacrosse Club ↗
- Who funds NIROGA INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds Prescott Circus Theatre ↗
- Who funds Oakland Leaf Foundation ↗
- Who funds YOUTH ALIVE ↗
- Who funds East Oakland Youth Development Center ↗
- Who funds CYCLES OF CHANGE ↗
- Who funds PARK DAY SCHOOL CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds Oakland Youth Chorus ↗
- Who funds ST MARY'S CENTER ↗
- Who funds Oakland Soccer Club ↗
- Who funds BROTHERS ON THE RISE ↗
- Who funds SUPER STARS LITERACY INC ↗
- Who funds Community Education Partnerships ↗
- Who funds LOTUS BLOOM ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY HELP IN PARK SLOPE INC ↗
- Who funds EAST BAY ASIAN YOUTH CENTER ↗
- Who funds ALTERNATIVES IN ACTION ↗
- Who funds Oakland Kids First ↗
- Who funds THE OAKLAND PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND ↗
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.
Open a dossier: East Bay Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · The Barrios Trust · Lowell Berry Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Oakland Public Education Fund · Bernard E & Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation · The Morris Stulsaft Foundation · The California Wellness Foundation · T Gary and Kathleen Rogers Private Family Foundation · West Davis & Bergard Foundation · Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Banks Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Banks Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Banks Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Banks 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 Banks Family’s filings →