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The Bernard Osher Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Bernard Osher Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$3.6M
Granted FY2024still arriving
132
Grants FY2024still arriving
18
States reached
$119k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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 2024.

Education$44MArts & Culture$20MHealth$6.7MRecreation & Sports$6.0MHuman Services$574kScience & Tech$557kFood & Nutrition$463kEnvironment$382kOther$0
02FY2024 · 132 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k47 grants · $292k
  • $10k–50k61 grants · $1.3M
  • $50k–250k24 grants · $2.0M
$15,000
Median grant
18
States reached
$28M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - NRC$119,000
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY$115,000
SAN FRANCISCO BALLET$100,000
ASIAN ART MUSEUM$100,000
UCSF COMMUNITY CARE FUND$100,000
SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART$100,000
KQED$100,000
FINE ARTS MUSEUM OF SAN FRANCISCO$100,000
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES$100,000
REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY$100,000
THE EXPLORATORIUM$100,000
SUMMER SEARCH$85,000
ACADEMIC CONSORTIUM FOR INTEGRATIVE HEALTH MEDICINE AND HEALTH$75,000
BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE$75,000
OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA$75,000
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, $85k) 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%CENTRAL WORKS: $5k → 10%ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF SAN FRANCISCO: $38k → 10%ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF SAN FRANCISCO: $29k → 10%CHILDREN'S BOOK PROJECT: $7k → 10%CHILDREN'S BOOK PROJECT: $7k → 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

AK
ME
WA
MT
ND
IL
MI
NY
MA
OR
WY
SD
IA
IN
OH
PA
CT
CA
CO
MO
WV
VA
MD
AR
TN
NC
OK
MS
AL
GA
TX
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.

78%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$62M · 150 repeat orgs$18M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +19% since the first grant, against +2% for those funded once.

150 repeat relationships: 110 still active in FY2024, 40 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

150
85

Total granted

$62M
$17M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+19%
+2%

Still filing today

79%
15%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $568k 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 & CultureEducationEnvironmentRecreation & SportsFood & NutritionHuman 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

  • Northwestern University
    4× · 2021–2024 · $5.9M · revenue +14%
  • DRAKE UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2021–2023 · $1.2M · revenue +4%
  • CA
    Clark Atlanta University Inc
    3× · 2021–2023 · $1.1M · revenue +18%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2021 · $5.3M
  • UO
    University of Miamigraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $2.1M · revenue +48%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
    one grant, 2021 · $2.1M
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
San Francisco Opera Association

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.

Arts & Culture
2
California Institute of Contemporary Art
—
3
San Jose Chamber Orchestra

The mission of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra (SJCO) is to share exciting, though-provoking, and vibrant Music by contemporary and time-honored composers reflecting the cultural diversity of our everchanging community, and to support and…

Unclassified
4
Theatre Bay Area

(cont from page 1) democratic society, and invaluable as a source of personal enrichment and growth.

Arts & Culture
5
Midsummer Mozart Festival

The only music festival in North America dedicated to Mozart, our mission embraces both performance of highest artistic excellence and cultivation of new potential audience, including young people to assure the future appreciation of great…

Arts & Culture
6
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
7
San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra

Take world-class symphonic music off the pedestal and into the heart of our community. San Francisco Philharmonic is an orchestral group dedicated to cultural enrichment, music education and creating a performance platform for women and…

Arts & Culture
8
Opera Santa Barbara

See schedule 0founded in 1994, opera santa barbara is the signature provider of professional opera on the california central coast. we aspire to be a cultural leader in the santa barbara region, voicing and advancing our community's spirit…

Arts & Culture
9
San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company

Sfbatco unites artists and audiences through live theatre that is reflective of the authentic perspectives and history of the san francisco bay area.

Arts & Culture
10
Camerata Pacifica

Camerata Pacifica's mission is to affect positively how people experience live performances of classical music. The Organization will engage our audience intellectually and emotionally by presenting the finest performance of familiar and…

Arts & Culture
11
San Francisco Bach Choir

The san francisco bach choir brings people together to experience choral musics transformative power to touch, engage and inspire.

—
12
Opera Parallle

Opera Parallle presents compelling performances of contemporary operas with high musical and dramatic standards, embracing modern aesthetics, creative use of technology, and social relevance as essential to the future of the art form.…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Francisco Symphony; the most unlike its peers is Pickleberry Pie 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

145 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. 145 of the 255 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)
25
Early backer (in before they grew)
143/145
Grantees still filing
105/145
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

EDUCATION: $17,923,507 · OtherEDUCATIONARTS AND HUMANITIES GRANTS: $12,359,000 · OtherARTS AND HUMANITIES GRANTSIndividual grant recipient: $5,250,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientNORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - NRC: $3,308,000 · OtherNORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - NRCUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $2,100,000 · Other+100 more: $16,026,138 · Other+100 moreUniversity of Miami: $2,100,000 · EducationUniversity of…Vanderbilt University: $2,100,000 · EducationVanderbilt Un…DRAKE UNIVERSITY: $1,175,000 · EducationDRAKE UNIVERS…Clark Atlanta University Inc: $1,150,000 · EducationClark Atlanta…University of Dayton: $1,100,000 · EducationUniversity of…THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $1,050,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES …+23 more: $1,033,250 · Education+23 moreSAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: $400,000 · Arts & CultureSAN FRANC…CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS: $375,000 · Arts & CultureCORPORATI…SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY: $345,000 · Arts & CultureSAN FRANC…THE CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM: $325,000 · Arts & CultureCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $300,000 · Arts & CultureKQED INC: $300,000 · Arts & CultureSAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION: $300,000 · Arts & CultureOAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA: $300,000 · Arts & CultureASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO: $250,000 · Arts & Culture+50 more: $3,461,000 · Arts & Culture+50 moreNorthwestern University: $5,876,005 · Recreation & Sports+2 more: $48,750 · Recreation & SportsHUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INC: $275,000 · InternationalSUMMER SEARCH: $255,000 · EmploymentCHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND: $150,000 · Food & NutritionAlameda Emergency Food DBA Alameda Food Bank: $72,000 · Food & Nutrition
Other$56,966,645Education$9,708,250Arts & Culture$6,356,000Recreation & Sports$5,924,755International$275,000Employment$255,000Food & Nutrition$222,000

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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 budgetNorthwestern University: $5,876,005 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of Miami: $2,100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVanderbilt University: $2,100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDRAKE UNIVERSITY: $1,175,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetClark Atlanta University Inc: $1,150,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetUniversity of Dayton: $1,100,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $1,050,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: $400,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetCORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS: $375,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY: $345,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTHE CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM: $325,000 over 4y, 3.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $300,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetKQED INC: $300,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION: $300,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetOAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA: $300,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetHUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INC: $275,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetSUMMER SEARCH: $255,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO: $250,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetTHE EXPLORATORIUM: $200,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetSan Francisco Performances Inc: $191,250 over 4y, 3.7% of budgetPHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA & CHORALE: $175,000 over 3y, 4.1% of budgetStern Grove Festival Association: $157,500 over 4y, 2.4% of budgetBERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE: $150,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK: $150,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATRE FOUNDATION: $150,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetCHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND: $150,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetCALIFORNIA FILM INSTITUTE: $150,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetCITY ARTS & LECTURES INC: $140,000 over 4y, 6.9% of budgetBREAD & ROSES PRESENTS: $137,500 over 5y, 4.1% of budgetBAY AREA DISCOVERY MUSEUM: $135,000 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetTHE COMMONWEALTH CLUB - WORLD AFFAIRS OF CALIFORNIA: $120,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO JAZZ ORGANIZATION: $112,500 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetSHAKESPEARE-SAN FRANCISCO: $112,500 over 4y, 3.2% of budgetCONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA: $112,500 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetMerola Opera Program: $112,500 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetYERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $105,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetRINGLING COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN INC: $100,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMAGIC THEATRE INC: $99,000 over 4y, 3.9% of budgetEAST BAY PERFORMING ARTS dba OAKLAND SYMPHONY: $92,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetCOMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER: $90,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetSmuin Ballet: $87,500 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetEnvironmental Traveling Companions: $87,500 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetALONZO KING LINES BALLET: $83,250 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetKala Art Institute: $81,000 over 4y, 2.4% of budget826 Valencia: $72,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetAlameda Emergency Food DBA Alameda Food Bank: $72,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $70,000 over 2y, 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 Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds University of Miami ↗
  • Who funds Vanderbilt University ↗
  • Who funds DRAKE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Clark Atlanta University Inc ↗
  • Who funds University of Dayton ↗
  • Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ↗
  • Who funds CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY ↗
  • Who funds THE CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ↗
  • Who funds KQED INC ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA ↗
  • Who funds HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INC ↗
  • Who funds SUMMER SEARCH ↗
  • Who funds ASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO ↗
  • Who funds THE EXPLORATORIUM ↗
  • Who funds San Francisco Performances Inc ↗
  • Who funds PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA & CHORALE ↗
  • Who funds Stern Grove Festival Association ↗

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 William & Flora H…The San Francisco Fou…The Sam Mazza Foundat…Phyllis C Wattis Foun…Marin Community Found…The Zellerbach Family…Ann & Gordon Getty Fo…Jewish Community Fede…Fleishhacker Foundati…Kenneth Rainin Founda…McNabb FoundationKoret Foundation
The William & Flora Hewlett FoundationCA73.4× affinity45 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · The Sam Mazza Foundation · Phyllis C Wattis Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · The Zellerbach Family Foundation · Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Fleishhacker Foundation · Kenneth Rainin Foundation · McNabb Foundation · Koret 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 Bernard Osher Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Bernard Osher Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 9%
  • Brandeis University: 9% of income from government
  • University of Miami: 5% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
53report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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 255 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 Bernard Osher’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