California · Nonprofit
SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION
SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,247,284 to it, the largest being SANTA BARBARA FOUNDATION ($1,588,128). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $460k
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $7.8M
What Santa Cruz Island Foundation does
Programs
The Santa Cruz Island Foundation is specifically designated to make a unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the cultural histories of the eight california channel islands. The foundation's archives, located in carpinteria,california, is a space open to the public without charge devoted to the display of and to make available for public and scholarly research, rare materialsrelated to the california channel islands. The foundations archives, include artifacts; art; genealogies; historic books, photographs, documents, and newspaper clippings; oral histories, and subject files.
$353,027 spentHoly mass - gives members, guests, and other community members the chance to experience and learn about the history and culture of the california channel islands.
$33,885 spentHosted annual santa cruz island advisory council meeting.
$500 spent
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-PF.
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 2018 to 2019, from $4.1M to $6.3M (+55%).
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.
Board chair
Joseph Walsh
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-PF.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $44k → $396k.
8 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION’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
SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
70% 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 CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 47% · 2019 73% · 2020 49% · 2021 32% · 2022 38% · 2023 25% — 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
55% of SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION'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
55% of SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION'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 $1.4M that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M 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
SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 7,668 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,668 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like SANTA CRUZ ISLAND 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.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SANTA CRUZ ISLAND 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 CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION?
- SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,247,284 to it, the largest being SANTA BARBARA FOUNDATION ($1,588,128). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $3,247,284 in grants to SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SANTA CRUZ ISLAND FOUNDATION?
- SANTA BARBARA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,588,128 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SANTA CRUZ ISLAND 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 28 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