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The Surplus Line Association of California at a glance

· Public charity

The Surplus Line Association of California

Our mission is to ensure that a responsive and lawful surplus line insurance market is maintained in california.

$179k
Granted FY2023
6
Grants FY2023
3
States reached
$75k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

93% of The Surplus Line Association of California’s FY2024 grant dollars went to University Of Southern California, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year The Surplus Line Association of California named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $172k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

3
’17
3
’18
4
’19
3
’20
4
’21
4
’22
6
’23
4
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$1.4MPhilanthropy$227kMembership Benefit$112kHealth$85kCommunity Improvement$45kPublic Safety & Disaster$40kRecreation & Sports$11kCivil Rights$10kOther$0
02FY2023 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 6 grants below total $171,837, the rows itemized in this filing. The $179,001 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $7,164 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k2 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $83k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $75k
$33,337
Median grant
3
States reached
$62M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION$75,000
CALIFORNIA INSURANCE EMERGENCY RESPONSE ASSOCIATION$40,000
INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION$33,337
GREENBERG TRAURIG$10,000
CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION$7,500
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF INSURANCE LEGISLATORS$6,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 96% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%CALIFORNIA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION: $12k → 7%CALIFORNIA INSURANCE EMERGENCY RESPONSE ASSOCIATION: $40k → 9%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION: $150k → 10%CA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION: $75k → 10%WOMEN OF WHOLESALE: $10k → 10%EMERGING INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS: $6k → 11%USC MARSHALL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: $10k → 14%GREENBERG TRAURIG: $10k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $50k → 12%NATIONAL COUNCIL OF INSURANCE LEGISLATORS: $6k → 6%DONOR NETWORK WEST FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION INC: $20k → 10%CA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS: $50k → 10%WOMEN OF WHOLESALE: $10k → 10%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $49k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $30k → 12%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION INC: $20k → 10%CALIFORNIA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION: $25k → 10%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $33k → 14%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION INC: $20k → 10%CA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION INC: $25k → 10%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $31k → 14%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION: $15k → 10%CA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS: $25k → 10%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $28k → 14%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION: $11k → 10%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $27k → 14%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION: $10k → 10%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $26k → 14%CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION: $8k → 10%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $26k → 14%INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC: $7k → 14%USC MARSHALL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: $1.0M → 14%USC MARSHALL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: $20k → 14%USC MARSHALL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: $10k → 14%USC MARSHALL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: $10k → 14%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.
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

92%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$792k · 5 repeat orgs$72k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2023, 2 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
1

Total granted

$792k
$6k

Still filing today

80%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
PhilanthropyEducationHealthOther
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

  • CS
    CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION
    8× · 2017–2024 · $253k · revenue +52%
  • II
    INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
    8× · 2017–2024 · $227k · revenue +59%
  • CI
    CALIFORNIA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION INC
    6× · 2018–2024 · $212k · revenue +222%

Funded once

  • EI
    EMERGING INSURANCE PROFESSIONALS
    one grant, 2017 · $6k
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
04the grantee network

7 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. 7 of the 11 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/7
Grantees still filing
5/7
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $1,050,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $80,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATIONCAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION: $253,000 · PhilanthropyCAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTH…INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $226,741 · PhilanthropyINSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABL…CALIFORNIA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION INC: $212,050 · OtherCALIFORNIA INSURA…CALIFORNIA INSURANCE EMERGENCY RESPONSE ASSOCIATION: $40,000 · OtherCALIFORNIA INSURA…WOMEN OF WHOLESALE: $20,000 · OtherWOMEN OF WHOLESAL…GREENBERG TRAURIG: $10,000 · Other+2 more: $11,500 · OtherDONOR NETWORK WEST FOUNDATION: $10,000 · Health
Education$1,130,000Philanthropy$479,741Other$293,550Health$10,000

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 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $1,050,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION: $253,000 over 8y, 0.6% of budgetINSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $226,741 over 8y, 1.1% of budgetCALIFORNIA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION INC: $212,050 over 6y, 17% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $80,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDONOR NETWORK WEST FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetNational Council of Insurance Legislators: $6,000 over 1y, 0.3% 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.

  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗
  • Who funds CAL STATE FULLERTON PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds INSURANCE INDUSTRY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA INSURANCE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds DONOR NETWORK WEST FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds National Council of Insurance Legislators ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Surplus Line Association of California funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Surplus Line Association of California. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    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.

    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 11 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Surplus Line Association of California’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