History/Location

The McCarthy Family Foundation is a small private foundation established in 1988. Organized as a California public benefit nonprofit corporation, it operates from San Diego, California. Officers and directors are members of the McCarthy extended family (two generations). The foundation operates without permanent staff and its directors serve without compensation for administration and grant evaluation purposes. Originally funded with $1 million, foundation assets have grown from additional family contributions and investment results to approximately $9.6 million at the end of 2010.

The McCarthy Family Foundation can be reached at:

The McCarthy Family Foundation
P. O. Box 27389
San Diego, CA 92198-1389

email: mail@mccarthyfamilyfdn.org

telephone: 858-485-0129

Program Areas

The foundation’s current program interest areas have been funded throughout its over two decades history. These funding areas are: K-12 science education; HIV/AIDS research, education and direct services; assistance to homeless persons; and child abuse prevention and services for victims and families. The board will occasionally fund a special project outside these categorical areas and/or for regional, national or international charitable purposes. A small portion of the grantmaking budget is provided for director matching grants to encourage and amplify personal philanthropy by the foundation’s board of directors.

In 22 years of grantmaking (1989 through 2010), grants have totaled almost $6 million with the following mix:

HIV/AIDS	28%
Homelessness	27%
Child Abuse	21%
Science Education	17%
Environment/Other	7%
Total	100%

Grants have ranged from $500 to $250,000. Most are in the range from $5,000 to $15,000 and recent average (median) is $10,000. Most grants are for a one-year period although a few multi-year awards have been made.