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· Private foundation

The Victor and Susan Schaff 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.

$500k
Granted FY2025still arriving
49
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0170% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2023–2025.

Human Services$246kHealth$129kEnvironment$116kHousing & Shelter$115kPhilanthropy$35kFood & Nutrition$33kCrime & Legal$18kAnimals$10kYouth Development$10kOther$316k
02FY2025 · 49 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k26 grants · $98k
  • $10k–50k22 grants · $302k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
$7,500
Median grant
4
States reached
$5.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNITY SHOPPE INC$100,000
CALIFORNIA NATIVE GRASSLANDS ASSN$29,500
TRANSITION HOUSE$25,000
SANTA BARBARA FOUNDATION$25,000
SANTA BARBARA RESCUE MISSION$20,000
SANTA BARBARA NEW HOUSE$20,000
CASA SERENA$15,000
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF SOUTHERN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY$15,000
HELP OF CARPINTERIA INC$12,500
AHA$10,000
THEODORE PAYNE FOUNDATION$10,000
SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA$10,000
CALFLORA$10,000
UNITED BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SB COUNTY$10,000
FOOD FROM THE HEART$10,000
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 (FY23–25, $205k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%COMMUNIFY: $5k → 14%UNITY SHOPPE INC: $100k → 14%UNITY SHOPPE INC: $50k → 14%UNITY SHOPPE INC: $50k → 14%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.

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.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$915k · 39 repeat orgs$82k to everyone else

39 repeat relationships — 36 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

39
8

Total granted

$915k
$19k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+16%
+33%

Still filing today

67%
13%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $64k went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24’25
EnvironmentHealthHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterFood & NutritionCrime & LegalOther

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

  • US
    UNITY SHOPPE INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $200k · revenue +23%
  • TH
    TRANSITION HOUSE
    3× · 2023–2025 · $55k · revenue +9%
  • SB
    SANTA BARBARA BOTANIC GARDEN
    3× · 2023–2025 · $50k · revenue +79%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2024 · $10k
  • THE HERITAGE FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue +33%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2024 · $1k

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
The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County

To conserve natural resources, agricultural land and open spaces for present and future generations.

Environment
2
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
3
Santa Barbara Channelkeeper Inc

The organization was established to protect and restore the santa barbara channel and its watersheds through science-based advocacy, education, field work, community engagement, and citizen enforcement of environmental laws.

Environment
4
California Housing Partner Corporation

The California Housing Partnership Corporation creates and preserves affordable and sustainable homes for Californians with low incomes by providing expert financial and policy solutions to nonprofit and public partners.

Unclassified
5
Habitat for Humanity for San Luis Obispo County

Seeking to put god's love into action, habitat for humanity for san luis obispo brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope.

—
6
Sonoma Botanical Garden
—
7
Santa Barbara County Trails Council

Our mission is to protect public trail access build and maintain safe and sustainable trails and promote public engagement in land stewardship and trail use for all types of outdoor recreation.

Recreation & Sports
8
Fund for Santa Barbara Inc

Provide cash grants and free consulting to grassroots organizations in santa barbara county.

Philanthropy
9
Habitat for Humanity of La Plata County Inc

To build decent, affordable homes in partnership with families in need.

—
10
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation

It is the mission of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation to solicit, receive, invest, maintain and distribute funds for the support of charitable, scientific, and educational activities of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Health
11
California Institute for Biodiversity

Create and publish educational materials, conduct professional development, promote awareness, and sponsor research on the spectacular biological diversity of the State of CA.

Education
12
Housing Trust Fund of Santa Barbara County Inc

The housing trust fund's mission is to provide affordable housing opportunities to low, moderate and middle income residents of santa barbara county.

Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Santa Barbara Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Help of Carpinteria. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 51 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number25%0%<5yr16%3%5–10yr20%17%10–20yr17%23%20–35yr10%23%35–55yr13%33%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value25%0%<5yr16%0%5–10yr20%4%10–20yr17%39%20–35yr10%25%35–55yr13%32%55yr+

The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/39
the rest of the field
15%
9,287/60,966

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

36 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 36 of the 61 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)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
36/36
Grantees still filing
25/36
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CALIFORNIA NATIVE GRASSLANDS ASSN — $40,500 · OtherCALIFORNIA NATIVE GRASSLANDS ASSNHABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF SOUTHERN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — $35,000 · OtherHABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF SOUTHERN SANTA …SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA — $30,000 · OtherSCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARACALFLORA — $20,000 · OtherCALFLORAUNITED BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SB COUNTY — $20,000 · OtherUNITED BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SB COUNTYTHE SALVATION ARMY — $20,000 · OtherTHE SALVATION ARMYLou Grant Parent-Child Workshop — $17,000 · OtherSERCAL — $15,000 · OtherHELP OF CARPINTERIA — $12,500 · OtherAHA — $12,000 · OtherPacific Legal Foundation — $15,000 · Other+27 more — $117,199 · Other+27 moreUNITY SHOPPE INC — $200,000 · Human ServicesUNITY SHOPPE INCTHE COLAB FOUNDATION — $30,600 · Human ServicesTHE COLAB FOUNDATIONFOOD FROM THE HEART INC — $10,000 · Human Services+1 more — $5,000 · Human ServicesSANTA BARBARA NEW HOUSE — $40,000 · HealthSANTA BARBARA …Casa Serena — $35,000 · HealthCasa SerenaTEDDY BEAR CANCER FOUNDATION — $20,000 · HealthTEDDY BEAR CAN…Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse — $19,000 · HealthCouncil on Alc…MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — $15,000 · HealthMENTAL HEALTH …SANTA BARBARA BOTANIC GARDEN — $50,000 · EnvironmentSANTA BARBAR…THEODORE PAYNE FOUNDATION FOR WILD FLOWERS AND NATIVE PLANTS INC — $25,000 · EnvironmentTHEODORE PAY…California Native Plant Society — $15,000 · EnvironmentCalifornia N…HEAL THE OCEAN INC — $10,000 · EnvironmentHEAL THE OCE…VENTURA BOTANICAL GARDENS INC — $7,500 · EnvironmentVENTURA BOTA…Channel Islands Restoration — $6,000 · Environment+1 more — $2,500 · EnvironmentTRANSITION HOUSE — $55,000 · Housing & ShelterTRANSITION H…SANTA BARBARA RESCUE MISSION — $55,000 · Housing & ShelterSANTA BARBAR…SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC — $5,000 · Housing & ShelterSANTA BARBARA FOUNDATION — $25,000 · PhilanthropyCARPINTERIA ROTARY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION — $10,000 · PhilanthropyFoodbank of Santa Barbara County Inc — $30,000 · Food & NutritionCALIFORNIA INVASIVE PLANT COUNCIL — $2,500 · Food & Nutrition
Other$354,199Human Services$245,600Health$129,000Environment$116,000Housing & Shelter$115,000Philanthropy$35,000Food & Nutrition$32,500

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$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUNITY SHOPPE INC — $200,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetTRANSITION HOUSE — $55,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetSANTA BARBARA RESCUE MISSION — $55,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetSANTA BARBARA BOTANIC GARDEN — $50,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetSANTA BARBARA NEW HOUSE — $40,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetCasa Serena — $35,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF SOUTHERN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — $35,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetTHE COLAB FOUNDATION — $30,600 over 3y, 12% of budgetSCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA — $30,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetFoodbank of Santa Barbara County Inc — $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHEODORE PAYNE FOUNDATION FOR WILD FLOWERS AND NATIVE PLANTS INC — $25,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetTEDDY BEAR CANCER FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetCouncil on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse — $19,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetLou Grant Parent-Child Workshop — $17,000 over 3y, 2.8% of budgetPacific Legal Foundation — $15,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCalifornia Native Plant Society — $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetMENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetHELP OF CARPINTERIA — $12,500 over 1y, 9.2% of budgetHEAL THE OCEAN INC — $10,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetSANTA BARBARA HUMANE SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS — $10,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCARPINTERIA ROTARY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 2y, 21% of budgetGIRLS INCORPORATED OF CARPINTERIA — $10,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSTORYTELLER CHILDRENS CENTER INC — $10,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetVENTURA BOTANICAL GARDENS INC — $7,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetChannel Islands Restoration — $6,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE PROJECT — $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetPARTNERS IN HOUSING SOLUTIONS INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetFISH REEF PROJECT — $2,500 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetCARPINTERIA CHILDREN'S PROJECT — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

Santa Barbara Foundat…June G Outhwaite Char…Hutton Foundation Dba…Williams-Corbett Foun…The Wood-Claeyssens F…Towbes FoundationLa Centra-Sumerlin Fo…Latkin Charitable Fou…Ann Jackson Family Fo…Alice Tweed Tuohy Fou…Mosher FoundationThe B & B Foundation
Santa Barbara FoundationCA39.2× affinity17 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Santa Barbara Foundation · June G Outhwaite Charitable Trust JS Poucher KL Englert & CM Cooney Co-Tr · Hutton Foundation Dba Hutton Parker Foundation · Williams-Corbett Foundation · The Wood-Claeyssens Foundation · Towbes Foundation · La Centra-Sumerlin Foundation · Latkin Charitable Foundation · Ann Jackson Family Foundation · Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation · Mosher Foundation · The B & B 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 Victor and Susan Schaff 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Victor and Susan Schaff Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Victor and Susan Schaff Family 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.

    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 61 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

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