California · Nonprofit
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,994,581 to it, the largest being MCCARTHY FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($2,445,500). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.1M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $5.4M
What Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties does
Mission
Our Mission is to connect and activate funders to learn, lead and invest in our community.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Catalyst of San Diego Imperial Counties Catalyst is a nonprofit network of over 70 foundations, giving circles, individual funders, and impact investors seeking to improve outcomes for residents of San Diego and Imperial Counties. Catalyst connects and activates funders to learn, lead, and invest in our community through learning opportunities, collaborative grantmaking funds, mission-aligned fiscal sponsorship support, and by serving as a connective hub for social change in Californias Southern Border Region. The vision of Catalyst is an equitable, collaborative, and impactful social change ecosystem that improves the lives of all residents in San Diego and Imperial Counties.
$3,597,557 spent$493,820 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,597,557.
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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $2.2M to $4.7M (+109%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 2% · 2021 6% · 2022 22% · 2023 46% · 2024 33%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
80% of Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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.
Chief executive
Megan Thomas
President CEO
Board chair
Kimberly Phillips Boehm
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $1.7M → $2.8M.
8 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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: $1.1M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The San Diego Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties raised.
From the IRS filings of Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 59% · 2018 42% · 2019 25% · 2020 47% · 2021 48% · 2022 38% · 2023 55% — diversifying over time.
“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
38% of Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
91% of Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.
Against its field
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Catalyst 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 Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties?
- Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties (California) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,994,581 to it, the largest being MCCARTHY FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($2,445,500). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $13,994,581 in grants to Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties?
- MCCARTHY FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,445,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Catalyst 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 55 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing