· Private foundation
The Rock 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k15 grants · $59k
- $10k–50k13 grants · $215k
- $50k–250k15 grants · $1.2M
- $250k+4 grants · $2.2M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND | $1,000,000 |
| SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY | $500,000 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS OF SAN FRANCISCO | $400,000 |
| HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST | $300,000 |
| KQED | $130,000 |
| COMMONWEALTH CLUB OF CA | $125,000 |
| UNITED WAY BAY AREA | $100,000 |
| TNDC - (TENDERLOIN NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION) | $100,000 |
| JEWISH VOCATIONAL & CAREER COUNSELING | $100,000 |
| GO PUBLIC SCHOOLS | $100,000 |
| OAKLAND SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS | $75,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SAN FRANCISCO | $75,000 |
| ARCS FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP(ACHIEVEMENT REWARDS FOR COLLEGE SCIENTISTS) | $75,000 |
| NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO | $50,000 |
| FEEDING AMERICA | $50,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $435k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 98% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +27% since the first grant, against +27% for those funded once.
191 repeat relationships: 39 still active in FY2025, 152 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 55% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.6M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TBTHE BASIC FUND5× · 2017–2024 · $1.7M · revenue +82%
- MOMEALS ON WHEELS OF SAN FRANCISCO INC6× · 2017–2025 · $660k · revenue +44%
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY6× · 2017–2025 · $650k · revenue +45%
Funded once
- TOTHE OPPORTUNITY TRUST D/B/A ZEST EDUCATIONgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $250k · revenue +240%
- VCVOICES COLLEGE-BOUND LANGUAGE ACADEMIESgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $200k · revenue +204%
MISSION AREA HEALTH ASSOCIATESone grant, 2021 · $150k · revenue +8%
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.
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.
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
Guided by the principles of academic rigor and diversity, the international school of san francisco offers programs of study in french and english to prepare its graduates for a world in which the ability to think critically and to…
Golden gate university prepares individuals to lead and serve by providing high quality, practice-based educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions - as a nonprofit institution - in an innovative and challenging…
The bar association of san francisco champions equal access to justice and promotes humanity, excellence, and diversity in the legal profession. we provide legal services to disadvantaged and underserved individuals in san francisco. we…
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,…
The association serves its members by creating resources that enable california school administrators to develop and apply creative leadership and management skills and in turn, improve the educational process for all students.
Ca fwd drives action to identify solutions that can be taken to scale to meet the challenges the state is facing. the organization is driven by the belief that regional solutions across the state will help ensure economic, environmental,…
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 mission of the silicon schools fund is to improve education through supporting the launch of excellent new schools, improving academic instruction in existing schools, and by funding some of the boldest innovations in education…
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.
The AIA California, in collaboration with local components, is the voice of the architectural profession.
How this is measured
220 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. 220 of the 281 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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
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 THE BASIC FUND ↗
- Who funds CHRONICLE SEASON OF SHARING FUND ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS OF SAN FRANCISCO INC ↗
- Who funds SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds OAKLAND SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds KQED INC ↗
- Who funds Community Resources for Science ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SAN FRANCISCO ↗
- Who funds 826 Valencia ↗
- Who funds ISSUE ONE ↗
- Who funds 50CAN INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF THE BAY AREA ↗
- Who funds JEWISH VOCATIONAL & CAREER COUNSELING SERVICE ↗
- Who funds THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc ↗
- Who funds GIANTS COMMUNITY FUND ↗
- Who funds BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST ↗
- Who funds COMMONLIT INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF OAKLAND ↗
- Who funds WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS (AMERICAN SECTION) INC ↗
- Who funds BERKELEY CHESS SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds THE OPPORTUNITY TRUST D/B/A ZEST EDUCATION ↗
- Who funds IMMIGRANT LEGAL RESOURCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ↗
- Who funds Collegespring Inc ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds VOICES COLLEGE-BOUND LANGUAGE ACADEMIES ↗
- Who funds THE MODERN CLASSROOMS PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds EDSOURCE INC ↗
- Who funds TENDERLOIN NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC ↗
- Who funds Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area ↗
- Who funds THE WEST MARIN FUND ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Koret Foundation · East Bay Community Foundation · The Zellerbach Family Foundation · The James Irvine Foundation · Kenneth Rainin Foundation · McNabb Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Phyllis C Wattis Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Rock Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Rock Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities & Public Policy Inc: 45% of income from government
- Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
- American Hiking Society: 14% of income from government
- Icivics Inc: 13% of income from government
- Citizen Schools Inc: 8% of income from government
- American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 3% of income from government
- Oregon Shakespeare Festival Association Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Rock Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Rock 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.
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