California · Nonprofit
SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION
SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,861,217 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($765,814). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $9.5M
- Funders on record
- 56
- Grants received
- $5.9M
- Net assets
- $53M
What Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation does
Mission
To manage, maintain, and renovate the santa barbara bowl, to provide music and performing arts events in the santa barbara community, to promote cultural and artistic awareness in santa barbara county, to present music and performing arts to local students.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Performing arts: the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation is led by dedicated volunteers and staff to operate the santa barbara bowl, a preeminent outdoor performing arts venue, typically hosting approximately 35 shows and over 120,000 patrons annually. Following a $40 million renovation and restoration effort, the foundation continues to raise funds to protect the community's investment and stay at the forefront of technology, audience safety and amenities. The foundation also raises funds for outreach programming and endowment to provide need-based support, resources, and advocacy to music and performing arts education programs benefiting local school children. Following a shortened season and limited operations in 2021 (continue on schedule o) due to covid-19, the foundation resumed full operations in 2022 and saw increased program revenue and expenses in 2023.
$5,461,902 spent$4,951,053 earned by the program90% of program spendingOutreach program: the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation is a respected partner in the performing arts education community in the greater santa barbara area, typically reaching approximately 20,000 school children annually. Its programs include supporting the arts community by providing need-based support to the arts education programs, supporting community access to the performing arts, and serving as an arts advocate in the community. The foundation itself commits $1.00 per paid ticket to the outreach program.
$625,496 spentof which $535,353 as grants10% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,087,398.
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 2020 to 2021, from $45M to $50M (+11%).
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 33%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
34% of SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Richard Boller
Executive director & CEO
Board chair
Karen Kerns
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $219k → $923k.
16 of 56 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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: $608k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Santa Barbara Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 56 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
SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
35% 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 SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 34% · 2019 25% · 2020 39% · 2021 27% · 2022 16% · 2023 16% — 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
26% of SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% 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
SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION draws 64% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,728 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,728 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION: 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 SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION?
- SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 56 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,861,217 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($765,814). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 56 organizations giving $5,861,217 in grants to SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION, 42 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $765,814 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SANTA BARBARA BOWL FOUNDATION 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 56 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