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The Bolton Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Bolton 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.

$8k
Granted FY2025still arriving
18
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$1k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Recreation & Sports$9kYouth Development$7kPhilanthropy$6kEducation$5kHealth$4kPublic Safety & Disaster$4kArts & Culture$4kAnimals$2kOther$0
02FY2025 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$400
Median grant
3
States reached
$98k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
OAK VALLEY ELEMENTARY PTO$1,000
TULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS$700
MOOSE CHARITIES$700
MOOSE CHARITIES$700
EAT BAY REGIONAL PARKS$500
EAST BAY REGIONAL PARKS$500
TRI-CITY ECOLOGY CENTER UFF$500
NILES ROTARY FOUNDATION$500
Individual grant recipient$400
SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNI$400
Individual grant recipient$400
WASHINGTON HS HUSKIES BOOSTERS$300
GOLDEN GATE AREA COUNCIL SCOUTSBSA$300
WIKIMEDIA$250
ABODE SERVICES$250
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 81% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%TULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $600 → 9%CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $1k → 12%KERN COUNTY LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $500 → 18%RUFFLED RESCUE: $500 → 18%CHAFFEE ZOO: $700 → 19%MOOSE CHARITIES: $700 → 8%SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNI: $400 → 9%ALAMEDA COUNTY LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $900 → 10%CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $800 → 12%RUFFLED RESCUE: $500 → 18%CHAFFEE ZOO: $500 → 19%MOOSE CHARITIES: $700 → 8%SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNI: $400 → 9%ALAMEDA COUNTY LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $500 → 10%CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $600 → 12%TULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $700 → 18%CHAFFEE ZOO: $500 → 19%MOOSE CHARITIES: $600 → 8%SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNI: $400 → 9%CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $600 → 12%TULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $600 → 18%CHAFFEE ZOO: $500 → 19%MOOSE CHARITIES: $600 → 8%SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNI: $400 → 9%CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $500 → 12%TULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $600 → 18%MOOSE CHARITIES: $600 → 8%B STREET THEATER: $500 → 12%TULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $500 → 18%MOOSE CHARITIES: $500 → 8%TULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $500 → 18%MOOSE CHARITIES: $500 → 8%OAK VALLEY ELEMENTARY PTO: $1k → 18%MOOSE CHARITIES: $500 → 8%GOLDEN GATE AREA COUNCIL SCOUTSBSA: $500 → 10%GOLDEN GATE AREA COUNCIL SCOUTSBSA: $400 → 10%WASHINGTON HS HUSKIES BOOSTERS: $750 → 10%NILES CENTERVILLE LITTLE LEAGUE: $500 → 10%TRI-CITY ECOLOGY CENTER UFF: $500 → 10%MATH SCIENCE NUCLEUS: $400 → 10%WASHINTGON HS ACADEMICS: $400 → 10%WASHINGTON HS HUSKIES BOOSTERS: $400 → 10%WASHINGTON HS ACADEMICS: $400 → 10%CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CA OAKZOO: $800 → 10%EAST BAY REGIONAL PARKS: $500 → 10%EAT BAY REGIONAL PARKS: $500 → 10%CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CA OAKZOO: $500 → 10%CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA: $450 → 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.
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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$43k · 32 repeat orgs$6k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +62% since the first grant, against +2% for those funded once.

32 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 21 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

32
11

Total granted

$43k
$3k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+62%
+2%

Still filing today

41%
64%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationAnimalsRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • MC
    MOOSE CHARITIES INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $5k · revenue +74%
  • HT
    HAPPY TRAILS RIDING ACADEMY
    5× · 2020–2024 · $2k · revenue +82%
  • SO
    SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $2k · revenue +5%

Funded once

  • KC
    Kern County Library Foundation
    one grant, 2023 · $500 · revenue -10%
  • CS
    CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIAgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $450 · revenue +59%
  • ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK
    one grant, 2021 · $400 · revenue +2%
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
Sonoma Botanical Garden
—
2
Bay Area Barns and Trails
Human Services
3
Northern California Sled Dog Rescue

Northern California Sled Dog Rescue (NORSLED) is an all volunteer non-profit group dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, fostering and finding new homes for unwanted, abused and abandoned siberian huskies, alaskan malamutes, samoyeds and…

Animals
4
The San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

To ensure every companion animal has access to quality medical care, compassionate shelter, and a loving home.

Animals
5
Sempervirens Fund

To ensure coast redwood forests in the santa cruz mountains thrive for generations to come. since 1900, sempervirens has protected more than 36,000 acres. learn more about our mission, vision, and strategic plan through 2030 at:…

Environment
6
California Wildlife Foundation

The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species

Animals
7
Northcoast Marine Mammal Center

The northcoast marine mammal centers (nmmc) mission is to promote the long-term health of marine mammals along approximately two hundred miles of remote coastline in humboldt and del norte counties in northern california. the nmmc does…

Animals
8
Napa County Seed Library
Environment
9
Kiwanis Club of San Leandro Foundation
Philanthropy
10
Encinal Sailing Foundation
Philanthropy
11
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center Inc

CSERC protects water, wildlife, and wild places of the Northern Yosemite region.

Unclassified
12
Amador Fire Safe Council

Protect the people of amador county and their property from the effects of catastrophic fires through education, cooperation, innovation and action

Public Safety & Disaster
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Regional Parks Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Kern County Library Foundation. 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

20 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. 20 of the 49 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)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
20/20
Grantees still filing
13/20
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $3,500 · OtherCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATIONTULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $3,500 · OtherTULARE COUNTY SPECIAL OLYMPICSIndividual grant recipient: $2,400 · OtherIndividual grant recipientCONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CA OAKZOO: $1,750 · OtherCONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CA OAKZOOWASHINGTON HS HUSKIES BOOSTERS: $1,450 · OtherGOLDEN GATE AREA COUNCIL SCOUTSBSA: $1,400 · OtherABODE SERVICES: $1,150 · Other+32 more: $17,250 · Other+32 moreMOOSE CHARITIES INC: $4,700 · PhilanthropyMOOSE CHAR…Alameda County Library Foundation: $1,850 · EducationMATH-SCIENCE NUCLEUS: $600 · EducationKern County Library Foundation: $500 · EducationSOUTH COUNTY YOUTH COALITION: $2,400 · Youth DevelopmentSPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INC: $2,000 · Recreation & SportsFRIENDS OF OCEANO DUNES: $300 · Recreation & SportsHAPPY TRAILS RIDING ACADEMY: $2,100 · Public Safety & DisasterSWEET NECTAR SOCIETY INC: $1,800 · Human ServicesAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $200 · Human Services
Other$32,400Philanthropy$4,700Education$2,950Youth Development$2,400Recreation & Sports$2,300Public Safety & Disaster$2,100Human Services$2,000

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 budgetMOOSE CHARITIES INC: $4,700 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $3,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTH COUNTY YOUTH COALITION: $2,400 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetHAPPY TRAILS RIDING ACADEMY: $2,100 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetSPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INC: $2,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetAlameda County Library Foundation: $1,850 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetSWEET NECTAR SOCIETY INC: $1,800 over 5y, 3.0% of budgetABODE SERVICES: $1,150 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe Ohlone Humane Society Inc: $1,050 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetNILES ROTARY FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetREGIONAL PARKS FOUNDATION: $650 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMATH-SCIENCE NUCLEUS: $600 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetNILES-CENTERVILLE LITTLE LEAGUE: $600 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetKern County Library Foundation: $500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA: $450 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK: $400 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF OCEANO DUNES: $300 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetEAST BAY SPCA: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFREMONT EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $200 over 1y, 0.1% 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 MOOSE CHARITIES INC ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds SOUTH COUNTY YOUTH COALITION ↗
  • Who funds HAPPY TRAILS RIDING ACADEMY ↗
  • Who funds SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INC ↗
  • Who funds Alameda County Library Foundation ↗
  • Who funds SWEET NECTAR SOCIETY INC ↗
  • Who funds ABODE SERVICES ↗
  • Who funds The Ohlone Humane Society Inc ↗
  • Who funds NILES ROTARY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds REGIONAL PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds MATH-SCIENCE NUCLEUS ↗
  • Who funds NILES-CENTERVILLE LITTLE LEAGUE ↗
  • Who funds Kern County Library Foundation ↗
  • Who funds CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA ↗
  • Who funds ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF OCEANO DUNES ↗

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.

Fremont Bank Foundati…East Bay Community Fo…The Intuit FoundationSilicon Valley Commun…The Blackbaud Giving …Paypal Charitable Giv…The Bank of America C…American Online Givin…Network for GoodVanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …
Fremont Bank FoundationCA17.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fremont Bank Foundation · East Bay Community Foundation · The Intuit Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Bolton Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Bolton Family 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%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    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 Bolton Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Bolton 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.

    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 49 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 Bolton Family’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