· Private foundation
The Shelby and Frederick Gans 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 $10k5 grants · $25k
- $10k–50k15 grants · $259k
- $50k–250k10 grants · $776k
- $250k+1 grant · $600k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SAN FRANCISCO BALLET | $600,000 |
| EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD PROJECT | $200,000 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS OF SAN FRANCISCO | $100,900 |
| MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP | $100,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY BERKELEY FOUNDATION | $75,000 |
| SAN FRANCISCO SPCA | $50,500 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY BANCROFT LIBRARY | $50,000 |
| UC REGENTS | $50,000 |
| CROWDEN MUSIC CENTER | $50,000 |
| CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART | $50,000 |
| SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE COOPER HEWITT DESIGN MUSEUM | $50,000 |
| CONGREGATION EMANU-EL | $30,000 |
| UCSF FOUNDATION CARDIOLOGY | $25,000 |
| ALONZO KING LINES BALLET | $25,000 |
| LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY | $25,000 |
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 (FY24–24, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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 +30% since the first grant, against +30% for those funded once.
34 repeat relationships: 26 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 4 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, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $35k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- SFSAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION7× · 2017–2025 · $941k · revenue +37%
- TEThe Edible Schoolyard Project dba The Alice Waters Institute7× · 2018–2025 · $722k · revenue +189%
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION8× · 2018–2025 · $711k · revenue +30%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $150k
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue -21%- TATHE ASPEN INSTITUTE SOCIETY OF FELLOWSone grant, 2020 · $50k
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 san francisco jazz organization (the organization) is a recognized international leader in jazz creation, presentation, and education. the organization explores the full spectrum of jazz, from the music's origins in the african…
Nurture empathy and connection by engaging communities with socially relevant contemporary art
Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
The philadelphia museum of art - in partnership with the city, the region, and art museums around the globe - seeks to preserve, enhance, interpret, and extend the reach of its great collection in particular, and the visual arts in…
We believe opera is a uniquely compelling, entertaining and emotionally thrilling art form. our mission is to bring together growing audiences to experience opera's transformative power.
The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.
Munson-williams-proctor arts institute (mwpai) is a fine arts center dedicated to serving diverse audiences by advancing the appreciation, understanding, and enjoyment of the arts. the art institute aims to promote interest and…
Manhattan school of music is deeply committed to excellence in education, performance, and creative activity; to the humanity of the school's environment; and to the cultural enrichment of the larger community. a premiere international…
The contemporary jewish museum (the cjm) makes the diversity of the jewish experience relevant for a twenty-first-century audience through innovative exhibitions and programs that educate, challenge, and inspire.
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)
How this is measured
36 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. 36 of the 63 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
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 SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds The Edible Schoolyard Project dba The Alice Waters Institute ↗
- Who funds SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ↗
- Who funds DISCALCED INC ↗
- Who funds Crystal Bridges-Museum of American Art Inc ↗
- Who funds The Crowden Music Center ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS OF SAN FRANCISCO INC ↗
- Who funds ALONZO KING LINES BALLET ↗
- Who funds THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds EXPERIENCE CAMPS ↗
- Who funds PBS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ↗
- Who funds THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
- Who funds CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Charlie Cart Project ↗
- Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC ↗
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: Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Impactassetsinc · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Jewish Communal Fund · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Shelby and Frederick Gans Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Shelby and Frederick Gans Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- From the Top Inc: 6% of income from government
- Year Up Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Shelby and Frederick Gans Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Shelby and Frederick Gans 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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