California · Nonprofit
San Francisco Transit Riders
San Francisco Transit Riders (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $948,351 to it, the largest being TRANSITCENTER INC ($515,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $356k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $948k
- Net assets
- $281k
What San Francisco Transit Riders does
Mission
San Francisco Transit Riders is the city's rider-based grassroots advocate forworld-class transit. Together with our members we work for an excellent,affordable, and growing public transit system because it is essential to thecharacter and soul of San Francisco.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Advocacy: We work to build the future of public transportation in San Francisco by engaging transit riders in advocacy efforts to improve the quality of transit. This includes attending public meetings, working with government officials, hosting forums, and educating everyday riders on how to be a transit advocate. During 2024, we focused on several projects that will drastically improve transit for thousands of San Franciscans. This includes advocating for transit that provides equitable access to resources, opportunities, and each other. We also advocated for transit priority lanes and service restoration as a result of the global pandemic. Additionally, we hosted a successful Transit Month, engaging thousands of daily transit riders to promote a positive culture on transit and strengthened our relationship with neighborhood groups and transportation allies.
$351,544 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $351,544.
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 2021 to 2022, from $96k to $201k (+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: 2022 20% · 2023 24% · 2024 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of San Francisco Transit Riders’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (62% 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
Sara Johnson
Executive Director
Board chair
Reanne Lacosta
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $3k → $267k.
6 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 San Francisco Transit Riders’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
San Francisco Transit Riders leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
32% 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 San Francisco Transit Riders.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 68% · 2021 84% · 2022 54% · 2023 32% — 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
43% of San Francisco Transit Riders's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
San Francisco Transit Riders draws 78% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $256k 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
San Francisco Transit Riders has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,971 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,971 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like San Francisco Transit Riders
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
94% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 San Francisco Transit Riders: 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 San Francisco Transit Riders?
- San Francisco Transit Riders (California) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $948,351 to it, the largest being TRANSITCENTER INC ($515,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does San Francisco Transit Riders have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $948,351 in grants to San Francisco Transit Riders, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of San Francisco Transit Riders?
- TRANSITCENTER INC is the largest funder on record, with $515,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like San Francisco Transit Riders 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.
Play a game about who funds San Francisco Transit Riders →
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 14 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