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California · Nonprofit

ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES

ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES (California) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,999,225 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO ($12,730,740). 17 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.

$3.9M
Revenue FY2025
34
Funders on record
$20M
Grants received
$6.3M
Net assets
17/34 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($4.5M) Expenses 100 ($3.4M) Net assets 100 ($8.2M)2018 Revenue 104 ($4.6M) Expenses 122 ($4.1M) Net assets 109 ($8.9M)2019 Revenue 74 ($3.3M) Expenses 129 ($4.4M) Net assets 97 ($8.0M)2020 Revenue 85 ($3.8M) Expenses 123 ($4.2M) Net assets 90 ($7.4M)2021 Revenue 104 ($4.6M) Expenses 132 ($4.5M) Net assets 109 ($9.0M)2022 Revenue 136 ($6.1M) Expenses 144 ($4.9M) Net assets 126 ($10M)2023 Revenue 54 ($2.4M) Expenses 128 ($4.3M) Net assets 98 ($8.0M)2024 Revenue 61 ($2.7M) Expenses 131 ($4.4M) Net assets 84 ($6.9M)2025 Revenue 86 ($3.9M) Expenses 140 ($4.7M) Net assets 76 ($6.3M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (86)Expenses (140)Net assets (76)

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$1.1M
17
$502k
18
$1.1M
19
$336k
20
$165k
21
$1.2M
22
$1.9M
23
$1.7M
24
$879k
25
3.3
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

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 34 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 34 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 64% 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.

64%
largest funder
82%
top three
~2
effective funders

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; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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, 97% of it comes from California funders.

WA
MN
IL
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CA
DE

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $15M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 34 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In California

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

73% of spending goes to programs.

Program 73%Management 14%Fundraising 13%

Governance

23
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

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

CA

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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. 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 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,999,225 to it, the largest being JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO ($12,730,740). 17 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 34 organizations giving $19,999,225 in grants to ACLU FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO & IMPERIAL COUNTIES, 17 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 34funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing