California · Nonprofit
THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS (California) receives grants from 193 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,601,062 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($7,889,468). 120 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $58M
- Funders on record
- 193
- Grants received
- $28M
- Net assets
- $127M
What The San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does
Mission
To ensure every companion animal has access to quality medical care, compassionate shelter, and a loving home.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Community veterinary servicesour community veterinary services include our public veterinary hospital, behavior resource center, high-volume spay/neuter clinic, community veterinary clinic, mobile vaccine clinic, and other programs. We also provide high volume, high quality subsidized spay/neuter surgeries and free vaccines in the central valley, specifically tulare, kings, and fresno counties and the city of stockton. Veterinary hospital: the sf spca operates a full-service animal veterinary hospital, located in the mission district. The hospital is open to the public and treats more than 25,000 animals a year. Accredited by the american animal hospital association, the hospital offers comprehensive veterinary services for dogs and cats, including complete medical and surgical care, dental services, urgent care, radiology, and ultrasound. The hospital offers significant discounts for over 700 san francisco residents each year who need financial assistance to address critical pet health conditions, emergency surgeries, or humane euthanasia. Behavior resources: trainers and veterinary behaviorists use humane, evidence-based training techniques with a personalized pet plan developed…
$34,407,840 spentof which $2,897,363 as grants$16,500,959 earned by the program74% of program spendingShelter & adoptions shelter medicine program: all animals entering the shelter receive comprehensive medical care to ensure they are ready for their new homes. Before adoption, all animals receive a medical and behavioral screening and quality care. They are also vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and microchipped. In addition to the sf spca's shelter population, many unaltered animals accepted by the san francisco department of animal care and control shelters receive spay or neuter services in our state-of-the-art shelter medicine surgical suite.shelter behavior training and specialization: dogs receive basic training, plenty of exercise, socialization, and dog play. Cats enjoy socialization and interactive play. The sf spca has specialized programs for dogs and cats to help these animals and ensure they are ready to find their forever homes.adoption center: the sf spca operates a large adoption center in the mission district. The adoption center finds homes for over 4,000 animals each year. Trained staff and volunteers work with potential adopters to ensure a good adoption match and outcome. The mission adoption center was the first adoption center ever designed without cages, a…
$6,308,496 spentof which $471,525 as grants$852,578 earned by the program14% of program spendingPublic education and advocacypublic education and advocacy: the sf spca advocates for more humane treatment of animals on a state level. The shelter policy and legal services (spals) program champions policy change and seeks to transform sheltering in california. Shelter pals also assists other animal shelters and rescues in california with free legal assistance to improve their lifesaving capabilities. Shelter pals is the country's only pro bono legal-aid program dedicated exclusively to the needs of animal shelters, providing free legal advice and coordinating strategic litigation.
$3,633,970 spent8% of program spendingOther/volunteer services:volunteer services: the sf spca would not be able to accomplish all it does without the more than 1,400 generous volunteers who support its many programs. These services are the fuel for many of the sf spca programs including the shelter, shelter medicine, community medicine, our central valley clinics, and the foster and the animal assisted therapy programs. Foster: underage, sick, or injured cats and dogs are nurtured in volunteer foster homes until they are old enough or well enough to be adopted. Animal assisted therapy: the sf spca animal assisted therapy program (aat) brings the healing presence of animals to people in a variety of facilities across the city. Each year, the sf spca volunteers and staff take animals to visit nearly 60,000 community members in over san francisco facilities: hospital wards, nursing homes, psychiatric clinics, senior centers, special schools, hospices, and san francisco international airport. The loving, non-judgmental presence of animals is often successful in breaking down barriers that isolate people with physical and emotional difficulties. The dogs, cats, rabbits, and other small animals chosen for the aat must meet…
$2,042,406 spent$10,876 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $46,392,712.
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 2020 to 2021, from $94M to $119M (+26%).
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: 2020 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
57% of THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (67% 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.
Chief executive
Jennifer Scarlett Dvm
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Ashley Goldsmith
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 49 funders to 82 funders, grant income rose $3.4M → $3.4M.
36 of 193 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 66% 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 SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 193 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 SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
73% 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 SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 49% · 2019 45% · 2020 22% · 2021 16% · 2022 27% · 2023 27% — 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
44% of THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
66% of THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS'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 $9.4M that is directly attributable, 66% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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 SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS's revenue grew 69% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 134 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
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
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 38 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS: 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 SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS?
- THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS (California) receives grants from 193 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,601,062 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($7,889,468). 120 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 66% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS have?
- IRS filings report 193 organizations giving $27,601,062 in grants to THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS, 120 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $7,889,468 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS 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 193 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