Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Schaffner Family 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.

$40k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What you fund
0197% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Arts & Culture$257kEnvironment$85kAnimals$55kHuman Services$10kOther$0
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $10k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $30k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$1.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE$20,000
Forgotten Felines$10,000
Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation$5,000
Native Songbird Care and Conservati$5,000
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 (FY20–20, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%XENOPHON THERAPEUTIC RIDING CENTER: $10k → 9%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.

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 45% of The Schaffner Family 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, 100% of the giving stays in CA; read by stated purpose it is 57% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The Schaffner Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

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.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$377k · 4 repeat orgs$40k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +65% since the first grant, against +52% for the ones you funded once.

4 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
4

Total granted

$377k
$30k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+65%
+52%

Still filing today

75%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
AnimalsArts & CultureEnvironmentHuman ServicesOther

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

  • TA
    THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
    9× · 2017–2025 · $180k · revenue +30%
  • AC
    AUDUBON CANYON RANCH INC
    7× · 2018–2024 · $80k · revenue +65%
  • SC
    Sebastopol Center for the Arts
    7× · 2017–2023 · $77k · revenue +74%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2022 · $10k
  • XT
    XENOPHON THERAPEUTIC RIDING CENTERgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +72%
  • CW
    COMPASSION WITHOUT BORDERSgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue +52%

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
Sonoma Botanical Garden
2
Wildlife Rescue Center of Napa County Inc

See Schedule O.We support and advocate for wildlife through: rehabilitation education, community outreach and partnerships in order to promote sustainable and healthy eco-systems in Napa County for the present and future generations.

Unclassified
3
Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue Inc

Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue is an all-volunteer organization that has rescued and found permanent, loving homes for Golden Retrievers and Golden Retriever mixes since its inception in 1994. Through the dedicated work of its foster…

Animals
4
California Animal Rescue and Education Sanctuary Inc

C.A.R.E.S.MISSION STATEMENT*Rescue, foster and find good homes for abandoned and homeless domestic and farm animals.*Spay/neuter abandoned and homeless cats and dogs, as well as help low income families with same.*Conduct TNR+ programs to…

5
Northern California Animal Rescue Friends

We work in cooperation with humane organizations shelters and other groups interested in animal rescue. We rescue domestic animals and place them in nurturing foster homes. All animals are evaluated altered and vaccinated prior to…

Animals
6
High Sierra Animal Rescue Inc

High Sierra Animal Rescues mission is to save the lives of homeless dogs in the regions served. Our staff and volunteers are dedicated to making our communities better through successful adoptions advancing their welfare and creating human…

Animals
7
Rancho Burro Donkey Sanctuary
Animals
8
Sustainable Conservation

Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…

Environment
9
Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch

Jameson humane is an impact-driven nonprofit organization whose program model includes a variety of novel solutions and approaches to create a truly unique animal welfare organization that is unlike any animal rescue or sanctuary. jameson…

Animals
10
Norcal Boxer Rescue

To provide sanctuary for dogs of the Boxer breed, both full and partial-bred; to educate the public on the importance of spaying or neutering; to provide instruction for proper pet care.

Animals
11
Wild Souls Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation
Animals
12
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for Monterey County

The SPCA Monterey County's Mission is assuring compassionate treatment of all animals through rescue, rehabilitation, protection and education. The SPCA shelters homeless, neglected, and abused pets, including dogs, cats, horses, exotic…

Animals

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Audubon Canyon Ranch Inc and the most unlike its peers is Dogwood Animal Rescue Project Inc. 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

8 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 10 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE — $180,000 · Arts & CultureTHE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTESebastopol Center for the Arts — $77,000 · Arts & CultureSebastopol Center for the ArtsAUDUBON CANYON RANCH INC — $80,000 · EnvironmentAUDUBON CANYON RANCH …Forgotten Felines — $40,000 · OtherForgotten Feli…Individual grant recipient — $10,000 · OtherIndividual gra…Laguna De Santa Rosa Foundation — $5,000 · OtherLaguna De Sant…NATIVE SONGBIRD CARE & CONSERVATION — $5,000 · AnimalsCOMPASSION WITHOUT BORDERS — $5,000 · AnimalsDOGWOOD ANIMAL RESCUE PROJECT INC — $5,000 · AnimalsXENOPHON THERAPEUTIC RIDING CENTER — $10,000 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$257,000Environment$80,000Other$55,000Animals$15,000Human Services$10,000

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$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE — $180,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetAUDUBON CANYON RANCH INC — $80,000 over 7y, 0.5% of budgetSebastopol Center for the Arts — $77,000 over 7y, 2.8% of budgetXENOPHON THERAPEUTIC RIDING CENTER — $10,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetNATIVE SONGBIRD CARE & CONSERVATION — $5,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetLaguna De Santa Rosa Foundation — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCOMPASSION WITHOUT BORDERS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetDOGWOOD ANIMAL RESCUE PROJECT INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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.

Sonoma County Community FoundationCA15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Sonoma County Community Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Network for Good · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Schaffner 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    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 10 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