Foundations that fund organizations in Berkeley, California
Worked out from where the grants went, not where the foundations sit.
Funding landscape for Berkeley nonprofits
1,575 private foundations gave $356M to Berkeley organizations in their latest filings; 30 of the 100 that say either way accept applications.
2,955 grants in total, with a typical foundation's median grant to Berkeley around $371K. 56 of these funders are based in California; the rest give here from elsewhere.
- Foundations giving here
- 1,575
- Accept applications
- 30
- of 100 that state a policy
- Dollars to Berkeley
- $356M
- latest filings
- Grants
- 2,955
- Typical median grant
- $371K
- Based in CA
- 56%
- of funders listed
Funders, by dollars given to Berkeley organizations
| Foundation | Based in | Grants here | Dollars here | Median | Accepts applications | Typical purposes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gerson Bakar Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 1 | $37M | $37M | Preselected only | General support |
| Lilly Endowment Inc | Indianapolis, IN | 5 | $16M | $999K | Yes | Pathways for tomorrow initiative; Christian faith&life storytellg init |
| The David and Lucile Packard Foundation | Los Altos, CA | 18 | $13M | $200K | Yes | Environment and Science; Just Societies; Fellowships for Science and Engineering |
| Good Ventures Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | 15 | $12M | $550K | Preselected only | Ml alignment & theory scholars winter 24-25 cohort; General support; Ai red-teaming bootcamp in summer 2025 |
| Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | 24 | $11M | $300K | Preselected only | Employee or trustee recommended gift for general operationa…; In support of fellowships for scientist-entrepreneurs to tr…; In support of programming and staffing. |
| The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | 2 | $11M | $5.4M | Preselected only | General operating support; Project support for genomics research |
| Waverley Street Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | 6 | $11M | $875K | Preselected only | General Operating Support; Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative; Green Schoolyards America |
| Simpson Psb Fund | Orinda, CA | 4 | $10M | $125K | Yes | To provide funds for unrestricted general support that furt…; To provide funds in support of the creation of a chief oper…; To provide funds for unrestricted general support to the un… |
| The James Irvine Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 20 | $9.2M | $38K | Preselected only | For general operating support; To support Just Prosperity in California; To support Priority Communities in California |
| The Simons Foundation Inc | New York, NY | 29 | $9.0M | $176K | Preselected only | Moire materials; Global categorical symmetries; Simons investigator in mathematics |
| The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation | Menlo Park, CA | 43 | $6.8M | $83K | Yes | For general operating support; Matching gift of staff and board members; For the berkeley wildlife program |
| Sequoia Climate Foundation | Irvine, CA | 2 | $6.3M | $3.1M | Preselected only | In support of capacity building and climate partnerships to…; To improve public health through decarbonization and the cl… |
| Alfred P Sloan Foundation | New York, NY | 24 | $5.1M | $105K | Yes | To producethe science of friendship,a one-hour documentary…; To support the development of realtalk as a mode of communa…; To increase the number of students from historically underr… |
| The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation | Palo Alto, CA | 4 | $4.6M | $740K | Preselected only | The schmidt center ds4e; Support for building the circular bioeconomy with future fe…; To provide support for a project that explores the use of g… |
| Freedom Together Foundation | New York, NY | 8 | $4.2M | $371K | Preselected only | The climate breakthrough project proposal for us-based awar…; Advancing just transition; Lessons from sunrise |
| The California Endowment | Los Angeles, CA | 15 | $4.1M | $250K | Preselected only | General operating support; Climate science alliance - building tribal climate resilien…; Increasing health and racial equity news reporting |
| The Heising-Simons Foundation | Los Altos, CA | 13 | $4.0M | $143K | Preselected only | For general support; To support a meeting of child care leaders; For the 51 pegasi b fellowship |
| Gates Foundation | Seattle, WA | 10 | $3.8M | $424K | Yes | Agricultural development; Global health and development public awareness and analysis; Neglected tropical diseases |
| The Weill Family Foundation | Albany, NY | 1 | $3.8M | $3.8M | Preselected only | $3,653,607 satisfaction of pledge |
| The Schmidt Family Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | 15 | $3.7M | $250K | Yes | Working towards a resilient and equitable food system; Ocean stewardship and research; Encouraging a just transition away from fossil fuels |
| Rippleworks Inc | San Francisco, CA | 3 | $3.6M | $500K | Preselected only | General support |
| Founders Pledge Inc | New York, NY | 5 | $3.5M | $598K | Preselected only | General support; General support of beri-cltc and beri-chai collaborations,…; General support of lightcone infrastructure and coordinatio… |
| The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | Princeton, NJ | 17 | $3.4M | $26K | Yes | Matching gifts; 79867 general operating support for the american nonsmokers…; 82237 reducing commercial-tobacco-related death and disease… |
| The Andrew W Mellon Foundation | New York, NY | 6 | $3.2M | $425K | Yes | To support planning for the creation of an ai training data…; To support the development of fellowships for humanities sc…; To support the mobile refuge room installation for the 2024… |
| John Templeton Foundation | West Conshohocken, PA | 8 | $3.1M | $270K | Yes | Virtuous ai?: artificial intelligence, cultural evolution,…; Tex fellowship: unifying mind & machine: new theories of ph…; Tex fellowship: creation and characterization of novel mome… |
| The Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation | Torrance, CA | 8 | $3.1M | $250K | Preselected only | Research grant funding; Phd scholars program; Ph.d scholars program |
| Laura and John Arnold Foundation | Houston, TX | 17 | $2.9M | $115K | Preselected only | To support a state policy assessment pilot to advance state…; To convene a workgroup to consider the issue of out-of-netw…; To evaluate the advance peace gun-violence reduction progra… |
| The Arthur M Blank Family Foundation | Atlanta, GA | 6 | $2.7M | $130K | Preselected only | Good governance; Democracy communications collaborative; General operating support |
| Crankstart Foundation | San Jose, CA | 9 | $2.5M | $250K | Preselected only | To serve bay area immigrants as part of the bay area daca i…; To support the bay area family reunification initiative; General support |
| Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | 2 | $2.3M | $1.1M | Preselected only | Science: imaging |
| Skyline Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 4 | $2.3M | $575K | Preselected only | General support; The india energy & climate center (iecc); For the charitable purposes of berkeley policy advocacy cli… |
| Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation Inc | Stamford, CT | 2 | $2.2M | $1.1M | Preselected only | Field building; Research |
| Koret Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 15 | $2.2M | $70K | Yes | General operating support; Jewish peoplehood programs and activities; School of theatre education programs |
| Service Station Foundation F/K/A the Chernin Family Foundation Inc | Los Angeles, CA | 1 | $2.0M | $2.0M | Preselected only | For charitable purposes |
| Valhalla Foundation | Woodside, CA | 1 | $2.0M | $2.0M | Preselected only | Innovative genomics institute |
| The Ford Foundation | New York, NY | 14 | $2.0M | $137K | Yes | General support; Matching gift; For post-production and the impact campaign for the feature… |
| Foundation to Promote Open Society | New York, NY | 3 | $1.9M | $600K | Preselected only | To support transparency and improved quality of internation…; To support the othering and belonging institute, housed at…; To undertake research, public service, archiving and memori… |
| Wem Foundation | Minneapolis, MN | 1 | $1.9M | $1.9M | Preselected only | General |
| Barr-Campbell Family Foundation Inc | Wilmington, DE | 1 | $1.7M | $1.7M | Yes | General & Unrestricted |
| Woka Foundation | Newbury Park, CA | 2 | $1.7M | $850K | Preselected only | General operating expenses and climate tech fellows; General operating support |
| Pantas and Ting Sutardja Foundation | Foster City, CA | 1 | $1.5M | $1.5M | Preselected only | Contribution to uc berkeley foundation for education purpos… |
| Stupski Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 9 | $1.5M | $100K | Preselected only | To provide general operating support.; To support collaborative efforts among the Oakland Unified…; To support the Castanea Fellowship project. |
| Travers Family Foundation | Lafayette, CA | 2 | $1.4M | $696K | Yes | General purpose |
| Walter and Elise Haas Fund | San Francisco, CA | 21 | $1.4M | $32K | Yes | One year of general operating support; One year of general operating support to provide arts and c…; 18 months of project support for berkeley art center to col… |
| John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation | Chicago, IL | 6 | $1.3M | $200K | Preselected only | To examine racial and ethnic disparities and access to lang…; In support of the university of california-berkeley graduat…; In support of the university of california berkeley labor c… |
| The Anne Wojcicki Foundation | Los Altos, CA | 2 | $1.2M | $607K | Preselected only | Innnovative genomics initiative; Seed scholars program |
| Lisa & Douglas Goldman Fund | San Francisco, CA | 31 | $1.2M | $15K | Yes | Gspp; Strengthening k-12 education on jews, judaism, and israel; Shareholder action: plastic pollution |
| The Shimon Ben Joseph Foundation Dba Jim Joseph Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 10 | $1.2M | $15K | Preselected only | General operating support |
| The Della Pietra Foundation | Jericho, NY | 1 | $1.1M | $1.1M | Preselected only | Unrestricted |
| The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation Inc | New York, NY | 2 | $1.1M | $543K | Preselected only | Neutron stars as axion laboratories; General operating support |
| Conrad N Hilton Foundation | Westlake Village, CA | 9 | $1.1M | $70K | Yes | For the center for effective global action to support emerg…; For general operating support; For general operating support of the indigenous roots of am… |
| The Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust | New York, NY | 1 | $1.1M | $1.1M | Preselected only | Developing microbiome editing tools to advance understandin… |
| Mitchell Kapor Foundation | Oakland, CA | 1 | $1.1M | $1.1M | Yes | To support professor tyrone hayes |
| T Gary and Kathleen Rogers Private Family Foundation | Lafayette, CA | 3 | $1.0M | $1,000 | Yes | General support |
| Robert and Coley Elder California Foundation | Forestville, CA | 1 | $1.0M | $1.0M | Preselected only | Education |
| The Benificus Foundation | San Carlos, CA | 2 | $1.0M | $508K | Preselected only | General purpose |
| Wm Keck Foundation | Los Angeles, CA | 2 | $1.0M | $508K | Yes | For general support of charitable purposes.; To develop molecular tools to probe and manipulate cytokine… |
| Catena Foundation | Carbondale, CO | 2 | $1.0M | $503K | Preselected only | Conservation; Community engagement |
| Wal-Mart Foundation | Bentonville, AR | 1 | $1.0M | $1.0M | Yes | Nature |
| Joyful Noise Charitable Foundation | Minneapolis, MN | 1 | $1.0M | $1.0M | Preselected only | Program support |
| James M Schoonmaker II Foundation | Chicago, IL | 1 | $1.0M | $1.0M | Preselected only | General support |
| Mjs Foundation Inc | New York, NY | 2 | $1.0M | $500K | Preselected only | Gift to support the climatenginuity hub pilot program; Gift to support the chancellor's impact fund |
| The Tepper Foundation | New York, NY | 1 | $1.0M | $1.0M | Preselected only | General support |
| Gary Nfp C/O Dan Grant - William Blair & Company | Chicago, IL | 1 | $1.0M | $1.0M | Preselected only | General |
| Start Something That Matters Foundation | Beverly Hills, CA | 2 | $995K | $498K | Preselected only | Unrestricted donation for donee's exempt purpose |
| The Marisla Foundation | Laguna Beach, CA | 6 | $970K | $160K | Yes | General support |
| The Mosse Foundation | Berkeley, CA | 5 | $911K | $200K | Preselected only | Charitable organization; Charitable organization - see attached expenditure report |
| Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation | Irvine, CA | 10 | $783K | $110K | Yes | Research, general support & education |
| Tomkat Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 2 | $775K | $388K | Preselected only | General operating support |
| Sergey Brin Family Foundation C/O Pacific Foundation Services | San Francisco, CA | 5 | $772K | $130K | Preselected only | General operating support; Energy initiatives; Wildfire research |
| The Spencer Foundation | Chicago, IL | 5 | $756K | $109K | Yes | Linguistic variation and disciplinary action on african ame…; The role of social safety net programs in community college…; Education policies in a divided, multiracial democracy |
| The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation | Scottsdale, AZ | 1 | $750K | $750K | Yes | The Bob and Renee Parsons Endowed Chair - focused on psyche… |
| The Essex Avenue Foundation | Wilmington, DE | 1 | $750K | $750K | Preselected only | General & Unrestricted |
| The Hollyhock Foundation Inc C/O Robert a Karr | New York, NY | 1 | $750K | $750K | Preselected only | General operating support |
| Warren & Katharine Schlinger Foundation | Laguna Niguel, CA | 2 | $745K | $373K | Preselected only | General support |
| Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc | New York, NY | 2 | $725K | $363K | Preselected only | Organizing rural communities and movements for accountabili…; General tax-exempt activities of the center for effective g… |
| The Koum Family Foundation | Palo Alto, CA | 3 | $725K | $250K | Preselected only | General charity |
| The Henry Luce Foundation Inc | New York, NY | 3 | $700K | $200K | Yes | Support for academic research; Support for after school STEM programming for primary schoo…; Support for research network |
| The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation | Los Angeles, CA | 4 | $700K | $200K | Yes | Matching grant and endowed naming of the rosalinde and arth…; The helen diller institute for jewish law and israel studies; Rosalinde & arthur gilbert endowment for the berkeley insti… |
| Harvey and Leslie Wagner Foundation | Incline Village, NV | 6 | $685K | $125K | Preselected only | General budget |
| Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr Fund | San Francisco, CA | 4 | $672K | $16K | Preselected only | To support for alternative leadership models capacity build…; To support membership in the bay area democracy funders net…; Undocumented students program; underground scholars program… |
| Sunlight Giving | Palo Alto, CA | 11 | $670K | $45K | Preselected only | General support; General support, $75,000 per year for three years; General support, $45,000 per year for two years |
| Barbara and Gerson Bakar Foundation Dba the Achieve Foundation | San Francisco, CA | 4 | $665K | $23K | Preselected only | General support |
| Omidyar Network Fund Inc | Redwood City, CA | 3 | $655K | $250K | Preselected only | To support Grantee's Labor Center; To support Grantee's Othering and Belonging Institute |
| Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust | New York, NY | 2 | $650K | $325K | Yes | General purpose; Democracy communications fund |
| Democracy Fund Inc | Washington, DC | 3 | $640K | $250K | Preselected only | General support; Program support for Hearken's Election SOS project; Program support to research the history of community organi… |
| Rodan Family Foundation | Orinda, CA | 4 | $630K | $100K | Preselected only | Charitable Purposes of the Organization |
| Jonathan Logan Family Foundation | Berkeley, CA | 7 | $620K | $75K | Preselected only | Elevate grant for emerging filmmaker over 5 years; Resilience campaign gos; Symposium over 10 years |
| The Gerstner Family Foundation | Armonk, NY | 1 | $609K | $609K | Preselected only | Environmental research |
| Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation C/O Eve Fugiel | Glenview, IL | 2 | $600K | $300K | Preselected only | General support |
| William Fries II Foundation | Lafayette, CA | 1 | $600K | $600K | Preselected only | Unrestricted |
| Allen Family Philanthropies | Seattle, WA | 1 | $600K | $600K | Preselected only | To support the development of a foundation model for encodi… |
| The Rene Kern Family Foundation | Wilmington, DE | 1 | $600K | $600K | Preselected only | The marie-france kern and rene kern chancellor's chair in e… |
| Cadence Giving Foundation Inc | Wilmington, DE | 5 | $600K | $100K | Preselected only | Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science a…; General & Unrestricted; UC Berkeley AI Research Lab |
| Wk Kellogg Foundation | Battle Creek, MI | 8 | $591K | $52K | Yes | Matching Grant; Jobs and Family Economic Security; Food, Strong and Equitable Food Systems |
| Bernard E & Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation | Berkeley, CA | 30 | $581K | $15K | Preselected only | General support; Foster children programs; General preschool support |
| The Nancy P and Richard K Robbins Family Foundation | San Rafael, CA | 2 | $570K | $285K | Preselected only | Community service; Humanities |
| The California Wellness Foundation | Los Angeles, CA | 11 | $565K | $1,500 | Yes | Core operating support; For core operating support and efforts to sponsor the annua… |
| Brown Science Foundation | Escondido, CA | 1 | $550K | $550K | Preselected only | For scientific research |
| Growald Climate Fund Inc | Brookline, MA | 2 | $550K | $275K | Preselected only | Project support |
Source: IRS Form 990-PF Part XV, latest electronic return per foundation (2026-10-28). "Accepts applications" reflects the foundation's own checkbox on Part XV line 2. Grants to individuals excluded.
Common questions
Which foundations give to nonprofits in Berkeley, California?
Gerson Bakar Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Good Ventures Foundation, Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation and 95 others reported grants to Berkeley organizations on their latest Form 990-PF.
How do I approach a foundation that doesn't accept applications?
A foundation that checks "contributes only to preselected organizations" on its 990-PF won't review a cold proposal. Look at who it funds, find a shared board member, grantee or advisor, and ask for an introduction. Foundations that accept applications usually list a contact and deadlines in Part XV; we show that text on each foundation's page.
Is this list complete?
No. It covers private foundations (Form 990-PF filers) whose latest electronic return lists at least one grant to an organization in Berkeley. Community foundations and corporate giving programs file different forms and are not included yet.