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· Private foundation

The Nicholson Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$313k
Granted FY2025still arriving
49
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2022–2025.

Arts & Culture$349kHealth$320kYouth Development$254kHuman Services$100kFood & Nutrition$89kEducation$58kEnvironment$40kCrime & Legal$25kOther$0
02FY2025 · 49 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k34 grants · $148k
  • $10k–50k15 grants · $165k
$5,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$6.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GEORGE MARK CHILDREN'S HOUSE$25,000
SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE$10,000
ARTOGETHER$10,000
HOSPICE OF SANTA CRUZ$10,000
SURVIVORS HEALING CENTER$10,000
SAN FRANCISCO YOUTH THEATRE$10,000
VISTA CENTER FOR THE BLIND$10,000
PERFORMING ARTS WORKSHOP$10,000
TIDES CENTER FIRST EXPOSURES$10,000
FIRST GRADUATE$10,000
BERKELEY ART CENTER$10,000
BE A MENTOR INC$10,000
CAMPING UNLIMITED$10,000
ULTIMATE IMPACT$10,000
HACK THE HOOD$10,000
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 (FY22–25, $108k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 74% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%NATIONAL CENTER FOR PEDIATRIC PALLATIVE CARE HOMES: $5k → 11%MY NEW RED SHOES: $10k → 7%NEW LIFE CENTER: $5k → 11%NEW LIFE CENTER: $5k → 11%MY NEW RED SHOES: $10k → 7%GIRL VENTURES: $10k → 10%NEW LIFE CENTER: $5k → 11%PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN: $5k → 12%NEW LIFE CENTER: $5k → 11%PACIFICA RESOURCE CENTER: $2k → 7%GIRLVENTURES: $5k → 10%PACIFICA RESOURCE CENTER: $1k → 7%ANIMAL ASSISTED HAPPINESS INC: $5k → 8%PAJARO VALLEY SHELTER SERVICES: $5k → 13%LOVED TWICE: $5k → 10%FAMILY CONNECTIONS CENTERS: $5k → 10%BEYOND EMANCIPATION: $10k → 10%BEYOND EMANCIPATION: $10k → 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.

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.

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.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$982k · 49 repeat orgs$327k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +12% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.

49 repeat relationships — 29 still active in FY2025, 20 since wound down; 20 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

49
42

Total granted

$982k
$211k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+12%
0%

Still filing today

78%
64%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $116k went to new ones.

50%100%’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureYouth DevelopmentHuman ServicesHealthEducationCivil RightsOther

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

  • GM
    George Mark Childrens Fund
    4× · 2022–2025 · $175k · revenue +37%
  • HO
    HOSPICE OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
    3× · 2022–2025 · $30k · revenue +37%
  • MI
    Music In Schools Today
    3× · 2022–2024 · $30k · revenue +14%

Funded once

  • UR
    United Roots
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue -95%
  • 1G
    1 Grain to 1000 Grains
    one grant, 2022 · $8k · revenue -64%
  • TF
    TRIPS FOR KIDS MARIN
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue -2%

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
San Francisco Casa

San Francisco CASA transforms the lives of children and youth traumatized and displaced in the foster care and related systems by providing one consistent, caring volunteer advocate, trained to address each childs needs in the court and…

Civil Rights
2
Jobs with Justice San Francisco

A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…

Employment
3
Arts for Oakland Kids

To advance arts justice by ensuring that all students in under-resourced oakland public schools receive a comprehensive arts education in order to improve learning and promote achievement.

Arts & Culture
4
Unitedly

Unitedly is a nonprofit organization based in San Mateo County, California. Unitedly was established to ensure Asian families and communities have access to equitable opportunities and resources to thrive in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Human Services
5
Youth in Arts

Youth in Arts builds visual and performing arts skills through innovative and in-depth programs that foster confidence, compassion and resilience in students of all abilities. We develop capacity among educators and teaching artists,…

Arts & Culture
6
Santa Cruz Local Inc

Independent nonpartisan newsroom serving Santa Cruz County, California we are all watching and engaged in our local government, our needs are addressed, democracy works better and our community is stronger.

—
7
The California Center for Civic Participation

To educate california youth about the operations of local, state, and federal government.

Public Benefit
8
Ross Valley Children for Change

Our mission is to empower youth to become global change-makers with the knowledge, confidence and empathy to make a positive impact in their world. We envision a just and inclusive world in which empathy, care and social engagement are at…

Youth Development
9
The Kids Co-op Inc Dba Mariposa Kids

Support and inspire children's natural curiosity and independence through free play during their out-of-school time.

Education
10
Bay Area Creative Foundation

The Bay Area Creative Foundation celebrates, cultivates, and inspires creativity in youth and young adults. We believe in fostering a society that embodies creative spirit, art, and innovation.

Arts & Culture
11
Children's Council of San Francisco

By advocating for quality early care and education, empowering families with information and financial support, and building the capabilities of educators, Children's Council of San Francisco ensures that every child in San Francisco has…

Human Services
12
Institute for Applied Tinkering

Institute for Applied Tinkering IAT develops, practices and shares educational methods that challenge and support all children to engage deeply in their learning via real interests and real tools.

Youth Development

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Young STEAMers and the most unlike its peers is Building for Generations. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyArts Presenting & Artist Su…Independent K-8 SchoolsYouth Sports ProgramsHealthcare Access and Advoc…Animal Rescue and AdoptionSchool Parent-Teacher Organ…Social Innovation & Systems…Affordable Housing ProvidersCommunity Support Services
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

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%5%<5yr15%6%5–10yr19%30%10–20yr17%36%20–35yr15%14%35–55yr11%10%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value24%2%<5yr15%5%5–10yr19%24%10–20yr17%48%20–35yr15%13%35–55yr11%8%55yr+

The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
1%1/85
the rest of the field
12%
3,335/28,553

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.

04the grantee network

84 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. 84 of the 111 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
83/84
Grantees still filing
40/84
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

HOSPICE OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — $30,000 · OtherHOSPICE OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTYPAJARO VALLEY ARTS — $30,000 · OtherPAJARO VALLEY ARTSLEAP ARTS IN EDUCATION FKA LEAP IMAGINATION IN LEARNING — $30,000 · OtherLEAP ARTS IN EDUCATION FKA LEAP IMAGINATIO…BERKELEY ARTS CENTER — $30,000 · OtherBERKELEY ARTS CENTERIndividual grant recipient — $20,000 · OtherSURVIVORS HEALING CENTER — $20,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $20,000 · OtherCAMPING UNLIMITED — $20,000 · Other+43 more — $288,670 · Other+43 moreGeorge Mark Childrens Fund — $175,000 · HealthGeorge Mark Childrens …Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired — $30,000 · HealthVista Center for the B…COASTAL KIDS HOME CARE — $20,000 · HealthCOASTAL KIDS HOME CAREDOWN SYNDROME CONNECTION OF THE BAY AREA — $15,000 · HealthDOWN SYNDROME CONNECTI…Project Commotion — $15,000 · HealthProject Commotion+2 more — $10,000 · HealthSHINE TOGETHER INC — $30,000 · Youth DevelopmentSHINE TOGETHER I…FIRST GRADUATE — $30,000 · Youth DevelopmentFIRST GRADUATETEEN KITCHEN PROJECT — $25,000 · Youth DevelopmentTEEN KITCHEN PRO…DIGITAL NEST INC — $20,000 · Youth DevelopmentDIGITAL NEST INCFoodWhat Incorporated — $20,000 · Youth DevelopmentFoodWhat Incorpo…Ultimate Impact Inc — $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentUltimate Impact …CYCLES OF CHANGE — $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentOld Skool Cafe — $10,000 · Youth Development+6 more — $30,000 · Youth Development+6 moreMusic In Schools Today — $30,000 · Arts & CultureMusic In School…ARTogether — $22,500 · Arts & CultureARTogetherSAN FRANCISCO YOUTH THEATRE — $20,000 · Arts & CultureSAN FRANCISCO Y…Hack the Hood Inc — $15,000 · Arts & CultureHack the Hood I…CANTARE CON VIVO — $10,000 · Arts & CultureCANTARE CON VIV…Young Audiences of Northern California — $10,000 · Arts & CultureYoung Audiences…GOLDEN GATE PERFORMING ARTS INC — $10,000 · Arts & CultureGOLDEN GATE PER…Performing Arts Workshop Inc — $10,000 · Arts & CulturePerforming Arts…+11 more — $51,000 · Arts & Culture+11 moreNew Life Center — $20,000 · Human ServicesNew Life …MBOLDEN CHANGE — $20,000 · Human ServicesMBOLDEN C…BEYOND EMANCIPATION — $20,000 · Human ServicesBEYOND EM…GIRLVENTURES — $15,000 · Human ServicesGIRLVENTU…Animal Assisted Happiness Inc — $5,000 · Human ServicesNATIONAL CENTER FOR PEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE CARE HOMES — $5,000 · Human ServicesLoved Twice — $5,000 · Human ServicesPAJARO VALLEY SHELTER SERVICES — $5,000 · Human ServicesFAMILY CONNECTIONS CENTERS — $5,000 · Human ServicesPartnership for Children — $5,000 · Human Services+1 more — $3,000 · Human ServicesBUILDING FOR GENERATIONS — $13,100 · EducationUnited Roots — $10,000 · EducationLIVE EARTH FARM DISCOVERY PROGRAM — $10,000 · EducationREACH FOUNDATION — $5,000 · EducationTHE OAKLAND PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND — $5,000 · EducationCommunity Resources for Science — $5,000 · EducationJUDICIAL DISTRICT VII CASA PROGRAM — $20,000 · Civil RightsVOICE OF WITNESS A NONPROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION — $5,000 · Civil RightsCourt Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Cruz County — $5,000 · Civil Rights
Other$488,670Health$265,000Youth Development$190,000Arts & Culture$178,500Human Services$108,000Education$48,100Civil Rights$30,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetGeorge Mark Childrens Fund — $175,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetHOSPICE OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — $30,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetMusic In Schools Today — $30,000 over 3y, 4.5% of budgetVista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired — $30,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetSHINE TOGETHER INC — $30,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetLEAP ARTS IN EDUCATION FKA LEAP IMAGINATION IN LEARNING — $30,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetFIRST GRADUATE — $30,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetTEEN KITCHEN PROJECT — $25,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetARTogether — $22,500 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetDIGITAL NEST INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFoodWhat Incorporated — $20,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetNew Life Center — $20,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetMBOLDEN CHANGE — $20,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetCOASTAL KIDS HOME CARE — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO YOUTH THEATRE — $20,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetBEYOND EMANCIPATION — $20,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetJUDICIAL DISTRICT VII CASA PROGRAM — $20,000 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetONeill Sea Odyssey — $15,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetUltimate Impact Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetGIRLVENTURES — $15,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetDOWN SYNDROME CONNECTION OF THE BAY AREA — $15,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetProject Commotion — $15,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetBe A Mentor Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetHack the Hood Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetZACCHO SF — $15,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetBUILDING FOR GENERATIONS — $13,100 over 2y, 9.0% of budgetCANTARE CON VIVO — $10,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE INC — $10,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetCOASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL — $10,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetCYCLES OF CHANGE — $10,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetYoung Audiences of Northern California — $10,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetGOLDEN GATE PERFORMING ARTS INC — $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetUnited Roots — $10,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetOld Skool Cafe — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetDestiny Arts Center — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetLIVE EARTH FARM DISCOVERY PROGRAM — $10,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetPerforming Arts Workshop Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetVALLEY CHURCHES UNITED — $8,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetPajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes Inc — $8,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budget1 Grain to 1000 Grains — $7,500 over 1y, 15% of budgetVOLUNTEER CENTERS OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — $7,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTRIPS FOR KIDS MARIN — $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetAnimal Assisted Happiness Inc — $5,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetCABRILLO FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetREACH FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetEND WELL FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetELEVATE TUTORING INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNATIONAL CENTER FOR PEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE CARE HOMES — $5,000 over 1y, 2.9% 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.

East Bay Community Fo…The Morris Stulsaft F…The Joseph and Vera L…Monterey Peninsula Fo…Bothin FoundationThe San Francisco Fou…Kaiser Foundation Hos…Silicon Valley Commun…The William & Flora H…The Barrios TrustCommunity Foundation …Marin Community Found…
East Bay Community FoundationCA49.6× affinity29 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: East Bay Community Foundation · The Morris Stulsaft Foundation · The Joseph and Vera Long Foundation · Monterey Peninsula Foundation · Bothin Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Kaiser Foundation Hospitals · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · The Barrios Trust · Community Foundation Santa Cruz County · Marin Community 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 Nicholson 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    42report 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 Nicholson Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Nicholson 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 111 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 2025, released 2025. 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 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