Skip to content
The San Simeon Fund Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

The San Simeon Fund Inc

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.

$1.5M
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$5.9MEducation$5.5MScience & Tech$2.3MRecreation & Sports$1.0MHealth$750kPublic Benefit$500kInternational$450kCommunity Improvement$350k
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $50k–250k2 grants · $219k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.3M
$250,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$75M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO$1,000,000
GBH$250,000
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION$148,528
PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE$70,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $500k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%BRANNAN CENTER: $500k → 9%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.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
IL
NY
MA
OR
NJ
CA
AZ
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.
04

Where the work is directed

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

About 7% of The San Simeon Fund Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The San Simeon Fund Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
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 funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$12M · 10 repeat orgs$4.2M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +39% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

10 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
12

Total granted

$12M
$4.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%
0%

Still filing today

80%
92%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
EducationArts & CultureEnvironmentInternationalHuman ServicesHealthOther
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

  • University of Chicago
    4× · 2020–2024 · $3.0M · revenue +52%
  • CO
    CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS
    4× · 2020–2025 · $2.5M · revenue +35%
  • CS
    COMMON SENSE MEDIA
    3× · 2020–2022 · $1.8M · revenue +50%

Funded once

  • GG
    GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVANCY
    one grant, 2020 · $1.0M · revenue -10%
  • BC
    BRANNAN CENTER
    one grant, 2024 · $500k · revenue -12%
  • TC
    The Center for Investigative Reporting Inc
    one grant, 2020 · $500k · revenue -94%
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
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
2
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
4
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
5
Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…

Science & Tech
6
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
7
Claremont Graduate University

Claremont Graduate University prepares individuals to be leaders for positive change in the world. Unique in its transdisciplinary approach, the University is dedicated to the creation, dissemination, and application of new knowledge and…

Education
8
Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
9
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
10
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
11
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
12
Golden Gate University

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…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is California Pacific Medical Center Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Wgbh Educational Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the 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 23 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
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

CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS: $2,490,000 · Arts & CultureCORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMSCOMMON SENSE MEDIA: $1,750,000 · Arts & CultureCOMMON SENSE MEDIACALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $1,250,000 · Arts & CultureCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCESWGBH Educational Foundation: $750,000 · Arts & CultureWGBH Educational FoundationSAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION: $250,000 · Arts & Culture+1 more: $150,000 · Arts & CultureUniversity of Chicago: $3,050,000 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $1,000,000 · EducationARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION…UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION: $498,528 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATIONSTERNE SCHOOL: $300,000 · EducationSTERNE SCHOOLThe Thacher School Inc: $250,000 · Education+2 more: $90,000 · EducationGBH: $1,000,000 · OtherGBHThe Center for Investigative Reporting Inc: $500,000 · OtherThe Center f…THE INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND HEALING: $200,000 · OtherTHE INSTITUT…WINDHORSE INTEGRATIVE MENTAL HEALTH: $200,000 · OtherWINDHORSE IN…GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVANCY: $1,000,000 · EnvironmentGOLDEN GA…BLUE SKY SUSTAINABLE LIVING CENTER: $350,000 · EnvironmentBLUE SKY …BRANNAN CENTER: $500,000 · Human ServicesMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $450,000 · InternationalCALIFORNIA PACIFIC MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION: $350,000 · HealthBridge the Gap College Prep: $300,000 · Youth Development
Arts & Culture$6,640,000Education$5,188,528Other$1,900,000Environment$1,350,000Human Services$500,000International$450,000Health$350,000Youth Development$300,000

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 budgetUniversity of Chicago: $3,050,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS: $2,490,000 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetCOMMON SENSE MEDIA: $1,750,000 over 3y, 2.9% of budgetCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $1,250,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $1,000,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetGOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVANCY: $1,000,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetWGBH Educational Foundation: $750,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetBRANNAN CENTER: $500,000 over 1y, 24% of budgetThe Center for Investigative Reporting Inc: $500,000 over 1y, 6.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION: $498,528 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $450,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA PACIFIC MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION: $350,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetBLUE SKY SUSTAINABLE LIVING CENTER: $350,000 over 1y, 40% of budgetSTERNE SCHOOL: $300,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetBridge the Gap College Prep: $300,000 over 1y, 9.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION: $250,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetThe Thacher School Inc: $250,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetAmerican Museum of Natural History: $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $70,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Fidelity Investments …
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 San Simeon Fund Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The San Simeon Fund Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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 San Simeon Fund Inc?

Find your warmest path to The San Simeon Fund Inc 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 23 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 San Simeon’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