California · Nonprofit
SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA
SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA (California) receives grants from 112 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,598,216 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE AND DALE CAVALLETTO CHARITIES ($8,230,000). 84 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $32M
- Funders on record
- 112
- Grants received
- $27M
- Net assets
- $81M
What Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara does
Mission
The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara inspires, encourages and supports santa barbara county students to and through college, graduate and vocational school by providing information, advising, and scholarships.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara helps santa barbara county students access postsecondary and vocational education through scholarships and financial aid advising. It is the nation's largest community-based provider of postsecondary education scholarships, having cumulatively awarded in excess of $167 million to over 64,000 students throughout santa barbara county since its founding in 1962. In 2025, the scholarship foundation awarded $7.7 million to 2,125 santa barbara county students. Scholarships for undergraduates studying at two-year and four-year colleges and universities averaged $3,500. Sixty-one percent of this year's recipients are the first in their family to attend college. The primary criteria for award selection are donor intent, financial need, potential, and motivation.
$8,117,387 spentof which $7,509,261 as grants$85,392 earned by the program93% of program spendingThe Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara serves more than 20,000 individuals each year through financial aid workshops and individual appointments. Specifically, scholarship foundation program advisors assist students with scholarship applications, help decipher complex federal and state financial aid forms, and explain financial aid award letters and loan programs, all free of charge. Office financial aid workshops and presentations take place at schools throughout santa barbara county. Financial aid advising appointments are available for students and their families countywide. The organization employs four full- time bilingual program advisors. Thanks to our programs team, scholarship foundation recipients receive tens of millions of dollars in additional federal, state, and institutional aid each year.
$650,524 spent7% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,767,911.
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 2020 to 2021, from $59M to $74M (+27%).
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 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Melinda Cabrera
CEO
Board chair
Danna Mcgrew
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 40 funders to 54 funders, grant income rose $2.4M → $2.8M.
17 of 112 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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: $10M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Santa Barbara Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA raised.
From the IRS filings of SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 112 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
SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 35% · 2019 42% · 2020 32% · 2021 30% · 2022 30% · 2023 30% — 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
62% of SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA'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
86% of SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
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
- Charitable Remainder Trust (4) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA: 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 SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA?
- SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA (California) receives grants from 112 organizations whose IRS filings report $26,598,216 to it, the largest being THE GEORGE AND DALE CAVALLETTO CHARITIES ($8,230,000). 84 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA have?
- IRS filings report 112 organizations giving $26,598,216 in grants to SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA, 84 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA?
- THE GEORGE AND DALE CAVALLETTO CHARITIES is the largest funder on record, with $8,230,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA 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 Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara →
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 112 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