California · Nonprofit
Randall Museum Friends
Randall Museum Friends (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $580,052 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($281,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.1M
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $580k
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Randall Museum Friends does
Mission
The mission of Randall Museum Friends, incorporated in 1957, is to advocate on behalf of the museum and to raise additional funds to support the museum's operations, programming, and facilities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Randall Classes and Summer Camps: In partnership with the Randall Museum, the Randall Museum Friends offers more than 200 classes in ceramics, woodworking, art, science, and creative technologies for all ages, from tots to adults. With a diverse array of subjects from spoon carving to laser printing, our community of participants is able to expand their creativity and discovery skills together, connect with and make new friends. Drop In programs and tots classes offer parents, caregivers and children the opportunity to learn about nature, science and develop creative skills together. The Randall Museum Friends also partners with the Museum in offering a highly regarded Summer Camp program focused on science, nature, art and technology study and physical play. Randall Museum Friends supports a camp scholarship program and financial aid for classes.
$502,626 spentof which $10,000 as grants$577,772 earned by the program89% of program spendingMuseum Exhibits, Events, Workshops, and Clubs: The Randall Museum is a nature exploration center nestled in Corona Heights Park offering free admission to interactive exhibits including Wildlife In California, Model Trains, Foundations and Geology, and Ocean exhibit. Randall Museum Friends partners with the Randall Museum to host an array of free community events, as well as community workshops and clubs. Annual community events include Bug Day, Science Fair Festival, Family Halloween, and Winter Craft Day. Community sponsored clubs connect to the Museum's diverse values for fostering creativity and discovery in the natural world and included the SF Beekeepers Association, the SF Amateur Astronomers, the SF Microscopical Society, the Mycological Society of SF, the Deutscher Musikverein of SF, Young People's Teen Musical Theater Company, and the Golden Gate Model Rail Roaders.
$33,437 spentof which $1,000 as grants$30,953 earned by the program6% of program spendingEvent Rentals: Randall Museum Friends partners with the Randall Museum in renting out two multipurpose rooms, a 200-seat theater, and outdoor patios to the public for meetings, weddings, birthday parties, and other private events. Permits are issued at three pricing levels: nonprofit aligned with Randall Museum (30% fee), other nonprofits (60% fee), and public (100% fee).
$19,733 spent$84,505 earned by the program3% of program spendingRandall Field Trips and Randall on the Road: Randall Museum Friends partners with Randall Museum staff in welcoming school groups for science and animal field trips programs with a 50% discount for SF Unified School District Schools. Students learn about native California flora, fauna, geology, and indigenous peoples while interacting with live animals, real historical specimens, and outdoors in our natural park space. The Randall on the Road program increases equitable access by leading art and science activities for after school programs in community centers located in underserved neighborhoods, at Title 1 SFUSD schools and at public events in communities across the city of San Francisco. Randall on the Road after school enrichment collaborates with SFRPD Tennis and Learning Center programs at 6 recreation centers and clubhouses throughout the school year.
$11,663 spent$14,166 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $567,459.
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 $1.4M to $861k (−41%).
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: 2017 1% · 2018 7% · 2021 18% · 2022 43% · 2023 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
22% of Randall Museum Friends’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $96k → $72k.
6 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% 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 Randall Museum Friends’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Randall Museum Friends leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
61% 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 Randall Museum Friends.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 78% · 2018 71% · 2019 65% · 2020 51% · 2021 35% · 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
70% of Randall Museum Friends's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
61% of Randall Museum Friends'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 $224k that is directly attributable, 57% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $356k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
Randall Museum Friends runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Randall Museum Friends
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
59% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
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 1 related entity
- San Francisco Dept of Rec & Parks · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Randall Museum Friends: 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 Randall Museum Friends?
- Randall Museum Friends (California) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $580,052 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($281,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Randall Museum Friends have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $580,052 in grants to Randall Museum Friends, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Randall Museum Friends?
- THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $281,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Randall Museum Friends 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 15 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