California · Nonprofit
THE WRITERS GROTTO
THE WRITERS GROTTO (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,000 to it, the largest being THE ZELLERBACH FAMILY FOUNDATION ($35,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $279k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $40k
- Net assets
- $19k
What The Writers Grotto does
Mission
The Writers Grotto is a community of writers and narrative artists who connect in physical and virtual space, pooling our talents to support each other, mentor and teach others, and engage the wider world.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The Writers Grotto runs a robust program of classes open to the public, taught by writers accomplished in the genres they teach, and proud to mentor others in the writing life. Students come to grotto classes when they are ready to take their craft and writing career to the next level. Our growing community of more than 30 teachers puts on roughly 100 classes a year, and include memoirists, novelists, screenwriters, journalists, poets, and narrative artists in a range of other genres, many of them award-winning authors with deep experience to share.
$176,840 spent87% of program spendingRooted & written is The Writers Grotto's tuition-free writing conference dedicated to writers of color. The program helps emerging writers of color hone their craft with guidance from established writers in their community. It also facilitates connections in the publishing industry. Rooted & written empowers marginalized writers to create and share work for broader audiences or community engagement. The program collaborates with artists from the bay area to create art that represents historically under- represented or excluded communities. Rooted & written benefits published and unpublished writers, concluding with a public event where participants share their work. Rooted and written attracts dozens of emerging writers. The 2024 conference hosted 40 writers and reached an even wider audience.
$25,385 spent13% of program spendingThrough our membership program, The Writers Grotto provides physical and virtual workspaces and other amenities to the community of narrative artists who are our members, allowing them to work in a quiet, supportive environment surrounded by their peers. In 2024, we added 61 new members, our biggest jump ever, bringing our membership to around 175. Our members published more than 20 books, including volumes of poetry, short story collections, novels, books for young people, and a variety of nonfiction. They also published countless shorter works, including articles, short stories, personal essays, poems, and more, in venues ranging from the most notable international publications to small independent presses.
Our free public events in 2024 included public readings at salesforce park, reading + meeting (our monthly friday lecture series,, and grotto nights at the san francisco public library. We relaunched our grottopod podcast with a new host, and a rotating team of co-hosts.
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $202,225.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $203k to $61k (−70%).
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 3% · 2022 8% · 2023 5% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
25% of THE WRITERS GROTTO’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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.
Board chair
Christopher Cook
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
From the IRS filings of THE WRITERS GROTTO’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
THE WRITERS GROTTO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 88% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
“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.
Where its funders are
88% of THE WRITERS GROTTO's grant income comes from California funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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 WRITERS GROTTO runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like THE WRITERS GROTTO
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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 WRITERS GROTTO: 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 WRITERS GROTTO?
- THE WRITERS GROTTO (California) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $40,000 to it, the largest being THE ZELLERBACH FAMILY FOUNDATION ($35,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE WRITERS GROTTO have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $40,000 in grants to THE WRITERS GROTTO, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WRITERS GROTTO?
- THE ZELLERBACH FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $35,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WRITERS GROTTO 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 Writers Grotto →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 2 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