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· Private foundation

The Elizabeth R & William J Patterson 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.

$6.7M
Granted FY2024still arriving
26
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0194% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2019–2024.

Environment$16MArts & Culture$6.0MFood & Nutrition$5.0MEmployment$4.5MPhilanthropy$2.9MHuman Services$2.0MEducation$1.9MAnimals$1.5MYouth Development$950kOther$4.0M
02FY2024 · 26 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $115
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $35k
  • $50k–250k11 grants · $1.6M
  • $250k+11 grants · $5.1M
$200,000
Median grant
8
States reached
$49M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SUMMER SEARCH$1,000,000
PBS FOUNDATION$1,000,000
SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION$500,000
THE DRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION$500,000
POINT BLUE CONSERVATION SCIENCE$400,000
ADVENTURERS AND SCIENTISTS FOR CONSERVATION$300,000
CARBON CYCLE INSTITUTE$300,000
THE CLIMATE CENTER$300,000
CALIFORNIA ASSOC OF RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT$300,000
KITCHEN TABLE ADVISORS$250,000
FOUNDATION FOR NATIONAL PROGRESS$250,000
MAD AGRICULTURE$200,000
DAILY ACTS ORGANIZATION$200,000
SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC INTEGRATED LIVELIHOODS$200,000
FIRST NATIONS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE$175,206
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY20–21, $2.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%NPX CHARITABLE INC: $1.0M → 10%NPX CHARITABLE INC: $1.0M → 10%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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

VT
MT
NY
MA
OR
CA
CO
VA
DC
TX

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 9% of The Elizabeth R & William J Patterson Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 83% of the giving stays in CA; read by stated purpose it is 79% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The Elizabeth R & William J Patterson Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 7.8% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$41M · 35 repeat orgs$2.7M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +45% since the first grant, against -17% for the ones you funded once.

35 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2024, 16 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

35
6

Total granted

$41M
$945k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+45%
-17%

Still filing today

100%
83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.7M went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentFood & NutritionArts & CultureEmploymentPhilanthropyEducationOther

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

  • CA
    CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
    4× · 2019–2022 · $3.7M · revenue +20%
  • SS
    SUMMER SEARCH
    5× · 2019–2024 · $3.7M · revenue +43%
  • ST
    SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE
    4× · 2019–2022 · $3.0M · revenue +130%

Funded once

  • OS
    Oceanic Society Expeditionsgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $250k · revenue +51%
  • TC
    THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING INC
    one grant, 2023 · $250k
  • SF
    SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN SOCIETY AT STRYBING ARBORETUM
    one grant, 2021 · $250k · revenue -69%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
CarbonPlan

Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.

Environment
2
Climate Foundation

To research and develop healthy climate solutions comprising global food security, ecosystem regeneration and carbon balance in seas and soils.

Science & Tech
3
The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International
4
Grist Magazine Inc

Grist is an independent, non profit media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.

Environment
5
California Institute for Biodiversity

Create and publish educational materials, conduct professional development, promote awareness, and sponsor research on the spectacular biological diversity of the State of CA.

Education
6
California Farmland Trust

The mission of the California Farmland Trust is to help farmers protect the best farmland in the world.

Environment
7
California Coastkeeper dba California Coastkeeper Alliance

California Coastkeeper Alliance unites Waterkeeper programs statewide to fight for swimmable, fishable, and drinkable waters for all Californians.

Environment
8
Cascade Climate Inc

To accelerate progress in interventions that harness Earths natural systems to stabilize the climate.

Environment
9
Bay Nature Institute dba Bay Nature Bay Nature Magazine

Bay Nature connects the people of the San Francisco Bay Area to our natural world and motivates people to solve problems with nature in mind. Our vision is that all people have a close relationship with theirnatural world.

Environment
10
California Ocean Science Trust

California ocean science trust (ost) is a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating progress towards a healthy and productive ocean future for california. created by state legislation, ost bridges the gap between cutting-edge…

Environment
11
Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International
12
Climate Action Reserve

The Climate Action Reserve develops and implements trusted market-based programs to advance climate action for people and planet. A pioneer in carbon accounting, the Reserve promotes and fosters the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG)…

Environment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Trust for Public Land and the most unlike its peers is San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 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 23 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number24%4%<5yr15%11%5–10yr20%29%10–20yr17%22%20–35yr11%20%35–55yr13%13%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value24%3%<5yr15%7%5–10yr20%20%10–20yr17%19%20–35yr11%31%35–55yr13%20%55yr+

The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/48
the rest of the field
14%
26,003/186,930

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.

05the grantee network

48 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. 48 of the 50 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
48/48
Grantees still filing
31/48
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE — $3,000,000 · EnvironmentSAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUECONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION — $1,812,680 · EnvironmentCONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATIONUrban Tilth — $1,650,000 · EnvironmentUrban TilthTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND — $1,500,000 · EnvironmentTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LANDSustainable Conservation — $1,400,000 · EnvironmentSustainable ConservationDaily Acts Organization — $1,200,000 · EnvironmentDaily Acts OrganizationADVENTURERS AND SCIENTISTS FOR CONSERVATION — $1,200,000 · EnvironmentADVENTURERS AND SCIENTISTS FOR CONSERVAT…MULTIPLIER — $1,050,000 · EnvironmentMULTIPLIERCALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICTS — $900,000 · EnvironmentCALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF RESOURCE CONSE…Ten Strands — $750,000 · EnvironmentFIBERSHED — $540,000 · Environment+6 more — $810,100 · EnvironmentCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES — $3,731,637 · Arts & CultureCALIFORNIA ACAD…BAY AREA DISCOVERY MUSEUM — $1,200,000 · Arts & CultureBAY AREA DISCOV…PBS FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 · Arts & CulturePBS FOUNDATION+3 more — $104,892 · Arts & CultureMARIN AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST — $2,482,500 · Food & NutritionMARIN AGRICU…SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC INTEGRATED LIVELIHOODS C/O MELANIE STEVENSON — $1,050,000 · Food & NutritionSUSTAINABLE …MAD AGRICULTURE — $400,000 · Food & NutritionMAD AGRICULT…Civil Eats — $400,000 · Food & NutritionCivil EatsFOODCORPS INC — $300,000 · Food & NutritionFOODCORPS IN…KITCHEN TABLE ADVISORS — $250,000 · Food & Nutrition+1 more — $150,000 · Food & NutritionSUMMER SEARCH — $3,700,000 · EmploymentSUMMER SEAR…PIE RANCH — $750,000 · EmploymentPIE RANCHCOMMUNITY INITIATIVES — $1,400,000 · PhilanthropyDRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — $500,000 · PhilanthropyFIRST NATIONS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE — $1,409,042 · OtherFIRST NATIONS DEVELOP…The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc — $500,000 · OtherThe Center for Invest…The Climate Center — $900,000 · OtherThe Climate CenterCAREMESSAGE — $850,000 · OtherCAREMESSAGEPOINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY — $1,490,000 · OtherPOINT REYES BIRD OBSE…PEER HEALTH EXCHANGE INC — $950,001 · OtherPEER HEALTH EXCHANGE …CARBON CYCLE INSTITUTE — $900,000 · OtherCARBON CYCLE INSTITUT…+7 more — $1,340,000 · Other+7 moreNPX CHARITABLE INC — $2,000,000 · Human Services
Environment$15,812,780Arts & Culture$6,036,529Food & Nutrition$5,032,500Employment$4,450,000Philanthropy$2,900,000Other$8,339,043Human Services$2,000,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES — $3,731,637 over 4y, 1.6% of budgetSUMMER SEARCH — $3,700,000 over 5y, 4.3% of budgetSAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE — $3,000,000 over 4y, 4.8% of budgetMARIN AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST — $2,482,500 over 4y, 17% of budgetNPX CHARITABLE INC — $2,000,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetCONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION — $1,812,680 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetUrban Tilth — $1,650,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND — $1,500,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetPOINT REYES BIRD OBSERVATORY — $1,490,000 over 4y, 3.1% of budgetFIRST NATIONS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE — $1,409,042 over 4y, 2.2% of budgetCOMMUNITY INITIATIVES — $1,400,000 over 2y, 3.2% of budgetSustainable Conservation — $1,400,000 over 6y, 5.7% of budgetBAY AREA DISCOVERY MUSEUM — $1,200,000 over 3y, 5.9% of budgetDaily Acts Organization — $1,200,000 over 5y, 21% of budgetADVENTURERS AND SCIENTISTS FOR CONSERVATION — $1,200,000 over 4y, 39% of budgetMULTIPLIER — $1,050,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetSUSTAINABLE ORGANIC INTEGRATED LIVELIHOODS C/O MELANIE STEVENSON — $1,050,000 over 5y, 18% of budgetPBS FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 over 1y, 4.8% of budgetDRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 over 2y, 4.0% of budgetPEER HEALTH EXCHANGE INC — $950,001 over 6y, 3.6% of budgetThe Climate Center — $900,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetCARBON CYCLE INSTITUTE — $900,000 over 3y, 34% of budgetCALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICTS — $900,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetCAREMESSAGE — $850,000 over 6y, 4.8% of budgetPIE RANCH — $750,000 over 3y, 6.8% of budgetTen Strands — $750,000 over 4y, 15% of budgetFIBERSHED — $540,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetThe Center for Investigative Reporting Inc — $500,000 over 2y, 3.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — $500,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetMAD AGRICULTURE — $400,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetCivil Eats — $400,000 over 4y, 17% of budgetFOODCORPS INC — $300,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetACCOUNTABILITY COUNSEL — $275,000 over 2y, 19% of budgetOceanic Society Expeditions — $250,000 over 1y, 7.7% of budgetThe Center for Investigative Reporting formrly Foundation for National Progress — $250,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetKITCHEN TABLE ADVISORS — $250,000 over 1y, 3.2% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN SOCIETY AT STRYBING ARBORETUM — $250,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetOccidental Arts and Ecology Center — $225,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetCENTER ON RURAL INNOVATION INC — $200,000 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetExtrafood — $150,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College — $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMOVEMENT STRATEGY CENTER — $90,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPROTECT OUR WINTERS — $50,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetWild Farm Alliance — $10,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetEconomic Development and Financing Corporation Inc — $4,877 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetReal Organic Project Inc — $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFirst Look Institute Inc — $15 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Marin Community Found…The San Francisco Fou…Clif Family FoundationSilicon Valley Commun…The Schmidt Family Fo…PatagoniaorgImpactassetsincMcNabb FoundationClarence E Heller Cha…Tomkat Ranch Educatio…Community Foundation …Tides Foundation
Marin Community FoundationCA34.3× affinity16 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Clif Family Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Schmidt Family Foundation · Patagoniaorg · Impactassetsinc · McNabb Foundation · Clarence E Heller Charitable Foundation · Tomkat Ranch Educational Foundation · Community Foundation for San Benito County · Tides 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 Elizabeth R & William J Patterson 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 21%
  • Center On Rural Innovation Inc — 37% of income from government
  • Foodcorps Inc — 21% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College — 7% of income from government
  • Real Organic Project Inc — 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
15report 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

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Elizabeth R & William J Patterson Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Elizabeth R & William J Patterson 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 50 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines