California · Nonprofit
ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES
ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES (California) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,049,725 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO ($12,730,740). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.9M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $20M
- Net assets
- $6.3M
What ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties does
Mission
ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties, Inc. (the Foundation) is a California Nonprofit Corporation (exempt under Section 501(c)(3)) incorporated on December 23, 1988. The Foundation works to protect and expand fairness, equity, and freedom through community engagement, building power, policy advocacy, and impact litigation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Foundation works to protect and expand fairness, equity, and freedom through community engagement, building power, policy advocacy, and impact litigation.
$3,479,471 spentof which $6,500 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,479,471.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $11M to $9.2M (−17%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $86k → $6.0M.
13 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 76% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $4.5M from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES raised.
From the IRS filings of ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
77% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 69% · 2019 49% · 2020 47% · 2021 55% · 2022 87% · 2023 85% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
33% of ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 51% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
76% of ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $4.8M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $15M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
76%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties · exempt
- American Civil Liberties Union Fdn Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES?
- ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES (California) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,049,725 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO ($12,730,740). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $20,049,725 in grants to ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES?
- JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO is the largest funder on record, with $12,730,740 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 35 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing