California · Nonprofit
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO (California) receives grants from 97 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,834,539 to it, the largest being MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF AMERICA ($6,378,418). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.0M
- Funders on record
- 97
- Grants received
- $16M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Make-A-Wish Foundation of San Diego does
Mission
Together, we create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
It is the founding principle of our vision to grant the wish of every eligible child, between the ages of 2 1/2 and 18. For wish kids, just the act of making their wish come true can give them the courage to comply with their medical treatments. With our wish making process, we strive to bring a sense of excitement and hope during extremely difficult times and deliver a joyful life changing experience whether the wish is a princess party, swim with the dolphins, or the countless other possibilities dreamed up by the magical mind of a child. The Make-A-Wish Foundation of San Diego granted 200 life changing wishes in the fiscal year ending august 31, 2025. The total cost of wishes granted for the fiscal year was $4,644,594. Of this amount, $542,711 was contributed by various vendors who provided in-kind contributions such as travel and travel services, transportation, lodging, and other services and use of facilities to complete a child's wish. For financial statement purposes, these amounts are included as contribution revenue and granted wish expense. For form 990, however, the irs requires this amount be excluded from both revenue and expense.
$4,167,731 spentof which $2,313,658 as grants$78,725 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,167,731.
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 2023 to 2024, from $9.5M to $12M (+26%).
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: 2021 7% · 2022 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Suzanne Husby
President & CEO
Board chair
Lisa Paul-Hill
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $1.8M.
21 of 97 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 97 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
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
94% 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 MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 49% · 2019 44% · 2020 38% · 2021 52% · 2022 31% · 2023 35% — 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
40% of MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO'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
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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.
Organizations like MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
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 MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO: 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 MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO?
- MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO (California) receives grants from 97 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,834,539 to it, the largest being MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF AMERICA ($6,378,418). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO have?
- IRS filings report 97 organizations giving $15,834,539 in grants to MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO?
- MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF AMERICA is the largest funder on record, with $6,378,418 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO 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 97 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