California · Nonprofit
Shelter Tech
Shelter Tech (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $197,846 to it, the largest being THE SKOLL FOUNDATION ($55,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $171k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $198k
- Net assets
- $88k
What Shelter Tech does
Mission
ShelterTech is solving the biggest technology challenges faced by those experiencing homelessness.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
ShelterTech leverages systematic data vetting processes to establish a reliable and up-to-date database, the SF Service Guide, "SFSG", for quick reference by the homeless community. This resides on a website that the organzation maintains. The data vetting process is facilitated through ShelterTech-designed community "datathons" with Community Representatives and volunteers. As a result of these efforts, finding services is easier with the continued evolution of SF Service Guide. Launched in 2019, SF Service Guide now serves 10,000+ monthly users. The guide includes 1,800+ services and 500+organizations, including access to food, job training and mental healthcare. ShelterTech also gathers and reports on data on the usage of the site, including number of total users, percent accessing site via mobile versus desktop, average length of session, top searches, top pages, and reports back to MOHCD on these metrics. These insights help the Agency improve delivery and utilization of services.
$182,534 spent74% of program spendingThe platform which the SFSG resides should be easisly accessible and formatted for smartphones. To facilitate usage, ShelterTech distributes WiFi access in community spaces and leverages the City visiblity to enhance platform success. ShelterConnect works with community-based organizations, ISPs like MonkeyBrains and SF Digital Fiber and installers like PCS, to install hardware and provide free wireless internet access to shelters, transitional and supportive housing facilities as well as community centers where individuals who are currently homeless congregate. Providing free wifi helps individuals access services through SFSG and other ShelterTech products. Currently ShelterConnect has wired 22 facilities, including 18 shelters and four SROs providing services to 1,800 residents each night.
$23,304 spent9% of program spendingShelterTech hosts and partners with other organizations to put on a minimum of 9 outreach events per year (subject to COVID restrictions) to get the word out about sfserviceguide.org and teach people how to access and use the database. ShelterTech performs outreach events both for staff at community-based nonprofits and also for people experiencing homelessness themselves. Aside from events aimed at introducing people to sfserviceguide.org, ShelterTech hosts events (in-person and remote) to educate the community about issues around homelessness and help bridge the gap between the housed/tech community and individuals who are currently or formerly homeless. These events range from speaker and panel events, interactive dinners and hackathons, and volunteering opportunities. ShelterTech also continues a program with Code Tenderloin where ST Community Reps participate in periodic street outreach events where they help distribute materials (food, masks, hygiene kits) and information to people in need while also building awareness of SFSG.
$40,938 spent17% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $246,776.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $69k to $158k (+130%).
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 47% · 2022 71% · 2024 86%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
72% of Shelter Tech’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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
2019 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $500 → $69.
5 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 Shelter Tech’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
Shelter Tech leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
62% 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 Shelter Tech.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 97% · 2021 55% · 2022 63% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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
25% of Shelter Tech's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% 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
62% of Shelter Tech'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 $76k that is directly attributable, 99% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $122k 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
Shelter Tech has grown faster than three-quarters of the 13,062 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,062 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Shelter Tech
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.
Public support
92%
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 Shelter Tech: 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 Shelter Tech?
- Shelter Tech (California) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $197,846 to it, the largest being THE SKOLL FOUNDATION ($55,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Shelter Tech have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $197,846 in grants to Shelter Tech, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Shelter Tech?
- THE SKOLL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $55,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Shelter Tech 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 Shelter Tech →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 11 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