California · Nonprofit
TIDES FOUNDATION
TIDES FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 1000 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,096,668,312 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($149,102,738). 460 of them have funded it in more than one year. TIDES FOUNDATION administers funds for other donors, so those contributions arrive into funds it holds rather than supporting a program it runs itself.
Hosts funds for others
TIDES FOUNDATION administers funds on behalf of other donors. The grants recorded as coming in are contributions into those funds, so they count custody rather than support for a programTIDES FOUNDATION runs itself. This page therefore states the flows and does not draw the comparisons it would draw for an operating charity: concentration, funder retention, grant dependency and the peer field are all left out, because each of them would read a vehicle as if it were a program.
Paid out
$3.0B
Recipients
6,653
Contributions on record
$1.2B
Donors on record
1,017
Payments out run 2.5x the contributions on record, which says the incoming side is incomplete rather than that the vehicle is unusually busy: most donors to a fund like this are individuals, who file no return for us to read.
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- The Marisla Foundationshared funders
- The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundationportfolio match
- Kelson Foundationshared funders
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.
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 133 funders to 298 funders, grant income rose $43M → $144M.
151 of 1000 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $63M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Tides Center). These are real filings, and they are not money TIDES FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of TIDES FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 1000 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.
Where its funders are
TIDES FOUNDATION draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 42 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $460M arriving through sponsors registered in 33 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 1000 funders put you well-backed among the 400 organizations that share them.
- The Marisla Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 52 organizations that share your funders
- The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Kelson Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 48 organizations that share your funders
- The Donald and Carole Chaiken Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 56 organizations that share your funders
- The Chris and Melody Malachowsky Family Foundationshared fundersCA · backs 62 organizations that share your funders
- The Fine and Greenwald Foundationshared fundersFL · backs 53 organizations that share your funders
- Marty and Dorothy Silverman Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 71 organizations that share your funders
- Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Incshared fundersNY · backs 89 organizations that share your funders
- Ting Tsung & Wei Fong Chao Foundationshared fundersTX · backs 53 organizations that share your funders
- American Council of Learned Societiesshared fundersNY · backs 62 organizations that share your funders
- Ploughshares Foundationshared fundersIL · backs 62 organizations that share your funders
- Novo Foundationshared fundersNY · backs 93 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Government funding TIDES FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $218k on record.
- Department of State$218k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Part of a family of 7 related entities
- Ebde LLC · disregarded
- Tides Real Estate Holdings LLC · disregarded
- Tides Inc · exempt
- Tides Two Rivers Fund · exempt
- Tides Network · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TIDES FOUNDATION: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds TIDES FOUNDATION?
- TIDES FOUNDATION (California) receives grants from 1000 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,096,668,312 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($149,102,738). 460 of them have funded it in more than one year. TIDES FOUNDATION administers funds for other donors, so those contributions arrive into funds it holds rather than supporting a program it runs itself.
- How many funders does TIDES FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 1000 organizations giving $1,096,668,312 in grants to TIDES FOUNDATION, 460 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TIDES FOUNDATION?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $149,102,738 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TIDES FOUNDATION 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 1000funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing