California · Nonprofit
SIMPLY THE BASICS
SIMPLY THE BASICS (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $650,633 to it, the largest being SUTTER BAY HOSPITALS ($130,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $443k
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $651k
- Net assets
- $172k
What Simply the Basics does
Mission
Simply the Basics (the "corporation") is a california nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to providing homeless individuals and those living in poverty with basic necessities to help them develop the tools to make significant life changes and lift themselves out of poverty. Under the "basic needs" approach to alleviating poverty, the core needs of any person, such as food, clothing, and shelter, must be satisfied in order for an individual to achieve self-actualization, sobriety and job security. The corporation seeks to refine this concept to incorporate the additional needs of health, hygiene and education. Accordingly, the corporation seeks to remove fundamental barriers to independence and success by providing basic necessities, and thus, giving people the opportunity not only to survive, but also thrive in their communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Hygiene bank program: Simply the Basics has a goal to make hygiene more equitable and accessible for everyone. The purpose of the "hygiene bank" is to ensure individuals, families, and organizations serving individuals and families living with limited income or experiencing homelessness always have access to their most basic needs. As such, Simply the Basics provides ongoing hygiene supplies through a myriad of methods including direct to recipient care for sustained health and wellness. Hygiene and public health are intimately interwoven, and poor hygiene is an inevitable result of homelessness. Establishing proper hygiene is key to a sense of self and better health. Simply the Basics provides basic hygiene to programs and people, thus building a healthier community and stronger homeless programs overall.
$424,147 spent100% of program spendingHygiene locator program: the Simply the Basics hygiene locator is an online platform that hosts network of hygiene services across the globe that connects people in need with local hygiene services making finding what they need most more equitably and efficiently. A person in need of hygiene, or looking to donate hygiene, is able to search by location, service area, needs, language, and more to find the service site that will most efficiently and effectively meet their needs.
Hygiene bank association (hba)program: established in 2022, the Simply the Basics hygiene bank association is the first ever alliance of nonprofit and community hygiene services to work together in the goals of improving and increasing access to hygiene! The goals of the hygiene bank association are twofold: to amplify the global impact of hygiene accessibility through collective action, advocating as a community, sharing data and resources, and launching joint campaigns. To elevate the quality of services and operations of organizations providing hygiene services through established quality control standards, virtual trainings, educational resources, and peer to peer learning.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $424,147.
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 $168k to $46k (−73%).
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.
100% of SIMPLY THE BASICS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 10 funders, grant income rose $1k → $148k.
8 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 SIMPLY THE BASICS’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
SIMPLY THE BASICS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
77% 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 SIMPLY THE BASICS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 94% · 2020 52% · 2021 25% · 2022 26% · 2023 24% — 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
57% of SIMPLY THE BASICS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
57% of SIMPLY THE BASICS'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 $278k that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $372k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
SIMPLY THE BASICS 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 SIMPLY THE BASICS
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
76%
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 SIMPLY THE BASICS: 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 SIMPLY THE BASICS?
- SIMPLY THE BASICS (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $650,633 to it, the largest being SUTTER BAY HOSPITALS ($130,000). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SIMPLY THE BASICS have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $650,633 in grants to SIMPLY THE BASICS, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIMPLY THE BASICS?
- SUTTER BAY HOSPITALS is the largest funder on record, with $130,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIMPLY THE BASICS 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 Simply the Basics →
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 21 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