California · Nonprofit
THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK
THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,511,169 to it, the largest being SUNLIGHT GIVING ($1,884,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $10M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $3.5M
- Net assets
- $7.1M
What The Merced County Food Bank does
Mission
The organization's mission is to improve the health and well-being of merced & mariposa county residents affected by hunger; through the acquisition, storage and distribution of nutritious food.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Our organization is actively involved in outreach pantries and partners with 105 food pantries. We host neighborhood food distribution programs located at places of worship, community centers, and senior centers throughout merced county. Neighborhood grocerty pantries provide a critical food safety net for low-income residents not reached by other hunger relief programs.
$8,392,316 spent$132,935 earned by the program98% of program spendingThe brown bag program provides 16 senior brown bag distribution sites throughout merced county with biweekly bags of groceries to hundreds of seniors struggling to maintain their health and independence. Through the program 4,200 senior adults received food monthly.
$200,327 spent$29,599 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $8,592,643.
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 2024 to 2025, from $14M to $8.5M (−38%).
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: 2018 1% · 2021 7% · 2022 8% · 2023 30% · 2024 20% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
William Gibbs
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $316k → $403k.
5 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 28 of 30 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
THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
34% 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 THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 98% · 2018 36% · 2019 70% · 2020 38% · 2021 58% · 2022 51% · 2023 50% — 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
47% of THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
99% of THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $177k 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
THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 191 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 191 food & nutrition nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK
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
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK: 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 THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK?
- THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK (California) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,511,169 to it, the largest being SUNLIGHT GIVING ($1,884,000). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $3,511,169 in grants to THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK?
- SUNLIGHT GIVING is the largest funder on record, with $1,884,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE MERCED COUNTY FOOD BANK 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 30 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