· Private foundation
The Hobson Family Foundation
Its FY2023 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k2 grants · $2k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WEST MARIN FUND | $10,000 |
| NEPAL YOUTH FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| VIVALON HEALTHING AGE CENTER | $500 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY18–22, $12k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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.
44 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2023, 43 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
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 FY2023, 9% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $11k 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
- SFSan Francisco Center for the Book6× · 2017–2022 · $65k · revenue +53%
- GIGRABHORN INSTITUTE4× · 2019–2022 · $50k · revenue +265%
- SFSociety for Shamanic Practitioners4× · 2017–2022 · $23k · revenue +107%
Funded once
- BCBOLINAS COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTone grant, 2020 · $15k · revenue -23%
- MRMcKenzie River Trustgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +40%
- RSRoss School Foundationone grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue -9%
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.
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…
The aquarium of the pacific's mission is to instill a sense of wonder, respect, and stewardship for the pacific ocean, its inhabitants, and ecosystems.
Marin open studios is a non-profit visual arts organization dedicated to engaging and supporting marin county artists and their audiences through events, programs and services. marin open studios champions a diverse and inclusive community…
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
The monterey museum of art cultivates curiosity in the visual arts and engages community with the diversity of california art - past, present, and future.
The california film institute celebrates film and videos as art and education. its goal is to present and support emerging and established independent filmakers whose works address issues relevant to contemporary society. this is…
To connect all people with wildlife, inspire caring for nature, and advance conservation action.
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
To promote philanthropy to make santa cruz county a better place to live, now and in the future.we bring together people, ideas, and resources to inspire philanthropy and accomplish great things.
The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…
Marin academy asks every individual to think, question, and create in an environment of encouragement and compassion, and challenges each person to accept the responsibilities posed by education in a democratic society.
The mission of the San Francisco Public Press is to enrich civic life by publishing investigative and solutions journalism that engages diverse audiences and promotes public accountability. The San Francisco Public Press…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Exploratorium and the most unlike its peers is Society for Shamanic Practitioners. 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 32 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% 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.
65 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. 65 of the 90 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 SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds San Francisco Center for the Book ↗
- Who funds GRABHORN INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE EXPLORATORIUM ↗
- Who funds Society for Shamanic Practitioners ↗
- Who funds The Pachamama Alliance ↗
- Who funds MARIN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds BOLINAS COMMUNITY LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds SUN VALLEY WRITERS' CONFERENCE INC ↗
- Who funds CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS ↗
- Who funds THE ORION SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds McKenzie River Trust ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE OF NOETIC SCIENCES ↗
- Who funds Ross School Foundation ↗
- Who funds THE WEST MARIN FUND ↗
- Who funds GOLDEN STATE SALMON ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds SLIDE RANCH ↗
- Who funds COMMONWEAL ↗
- Who funds The Houston Food Bank ↗
- Who funds BOLINAS MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds PHOTO ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds MARIN MONTESSORI SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds KQED INC ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC ↗
- Who funds EVERY MOTHER COUNTS ↗
- Who funds CHOWAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC ART ↗
- Who funds Museum of Modern Art ↗
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: Marin Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Springcreek Foundation · Leonard & Beryl Buck Foundation · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · The Fred Gellert Family Foundation · Rsf Social Finance Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The West Marin Fund
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 Hobson Family 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.
- McKenzie River Trust — 8% of income from government
- The Orion Society Inc — 2% of income from government
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.