· Private foundation
The Barth 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of The Barth Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year The Barth Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 30 organizations, $379k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k25 grants · $94k
- $10k–50k16 grants · $225k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $60k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Headlands Center of Arts | $60,000 |
| THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND | $35,000 |
| VINEYARD THEATRE | $29,500 |
| Ensemble Studio Theatre | $25,000 |
| PLAYWRIGHTS FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| Lindsay Wildlife Experience | $10,000 |
| CASA OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY | $10,000 |
| EARTH JUSTICE | $10,000 |
| SAN FRANCISCO PLAYHOUSE | $10,000 |
| Jelly's Place | $10,000 |
| MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE | $10,000 |
| Food Bank of Contra Costa | $10,000 |
| MARIN THEATRE COMPANY | $10,000 |
| HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| THE SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 52% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +37% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
62 repeat relationships — 36 still active in FY2023, 26 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, 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
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- HCHEADLANDS CENTER FOR THE ARTS6× · 2017–2022 · $408k · revenue +76%
THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND7× · 2017–2023 · $230k · revenue +109%- ESENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC8× · 2017–2024 · $203k · revenue +201%
Funded once
- MTMARIN THEATRE COone grant, 2017 · $14k
- BRBERKELEY REPETORY THEATREone grant, 2022 · $12k
- ATACT THEATER SAN FRANCISCOone grant, 2020 · $10k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
SFP presents internationally acclaimed and emerging performing artists, introduces innovative programs, and builds new and diversified audiences for the arts through education and outreach activities.
Sfbatco unites artists and audiences through live theatre that is reflective of the authentic perspectives and history of the san francisco bay area.
The oregon shakespeare festival creates world-class theater, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations.
The american theatre guild is dedicated to providing the experience of live theatre to foster passion, inspire creativity and empower youth within our communities.
Stages makes plays and tells stories that invite everyone to live more deeply and love more boldly.
The Television Academy is dedicated to celebrating excellence, innovation and the advancement of the telecommunications arts and sciences through recognition, education and leadership, while fostering a diverse, inclusive and accessible…
Our mission is to ignite imagination and foster meaningful connections as an outstanding professional theatre that celebrates diverse experiences and our shared humanity, enriching silicon valley and beyond.
Seeks to expand the boundaries of theater, producing, performing and presenting works of literary, experimental and educational value. provide a home for outstanding artists, a training ground for young artists (including an extensive…
We believe opera is a uniquely compelling, entertaining and emotionally thrilling art form. our mission is to bring together growing audiences to experience opera's transformative power.
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…
The mission of the presidio theatre is to ensure that the magic of live performance is accessible to the entire community.
Silicon valley shakespeare is innovating the classics through unique and relevant theatrical experiences that illuminate and inspire modern audiences.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Playground and the most unlike its peers is Animal Refugee Response. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 49 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
51 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 51 of the 89 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds HEADLANDS CENTER FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND ↗
- Who funds ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds PLAYWRIGHTS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds MANHATTANVILLE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Shotgun Players ↗
- Who funds CHILD ADVOCATES OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE ↗
- Who funds San Francisco Playhouse ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds The Aurora Theatre Company ↗
- Who funds Marin Theatre Company ↗
- Who funds EARTHJUSTICE ↗
- Who funds JOHN MUIR HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ↗
- Who funds JELLYS PLACE ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATRE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EAST BAY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CONTRA COSTA HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds LINDSAY WILDLIFE MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds Save The Bay ↗
- Who funds LUTHER COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP INC ↗
- Who funds KQED INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED ANIMAL NATIONS DBA REDROVER ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Shubert Foundation Inc · Phyllis C Wattis Foundation · The Bernard Osher Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Kenneth Rainin Foundation · The Sam Mazza Foundation · Fleishhacker Foundation · East Bay Community Foundation · The Zellerbach Family Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · The Rock Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Barth Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.