Praenum

Foundations that fund Science & Technology in California

530 grantmakers on record have funded science & technology work in California, according to the IRS filings they submit themselves. Here is what those filings say about how they give.

From Form 990 and 990-PF filings, 2026-08-13.
Grantmakers on record530
Accept unsolicited applications102
Typical grant range$5,000 to $38,500
Median grant$15,000
Grants recorded44,273
Combined giving on file$10.8 billion
Most recent filing year2025

What this tells you

Only 19% say they accept unsolicited applications, against 26% across this data as a whole. This is a group where an introduction tends to matter more than a strong letter of inquiry.

The money is concentrated: the average grant across all 44,273 payments is far larger than the $15,000 the typical funder gives, which means a small number of very large grants dominate the total. Most organizations here are competing for the $5,000 to $38,500 band, not the headline figure.

17% are public charities that make grants, such as community foundations, rather than private foundations. They are easy to miss because they file a Form 990 rather than a 990-PF, and most foundation directories are built around the 990-PF.

How to read these numbers

The typical grant range is the middle half of what these funders give: a quarter give less than $5,000 on average and a quarter give more than $38,500. It is drawn from 529 funders who itemized their grants, so it describes what they actually paid rather than what they say they will consider.

Two limits worth knowing. IRS filings run 6 to 18 months behind the money, so the most recent year here is 2025 rather than today. And a foundation that accepts applications is not a foundation that wants yours: the filing says the door is open, not that your work fits. Check each funder's own guidelines before you write anything.

Which of them would fund your work?

That is the part this page cannot answer. Praenum reads your organization's mission and ranks the grantmakers whose own filings show they fund work like yours, then emails you a short list every Tuesday. It also reads your own IRS filing, so it knows which foundations have already funded you.

See how it works

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