James S. Bower Foundation Grants

The James S. Bower Foundation offers grants to public charities in the Santa Barbara area focused on educational, scientific, religious, and charitable efforts. By prioritizing collective impact, the foundation aims to support initiatives that create substantial community-level changes. Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) organizations operating within the designated regions. The foundation encourages potential grantees to assess alignment with their mission before applying, ensuring a meaningful connection between goals and funding opportunities.

Funding Areas
We fund qualified public charities engaged in educational, scientific, religious, and charitable activities. We have chosen grant-making arenas where we believe we have an opportunity to make a meaningful impact in Santa Barbara and the world around us. While the funding areas are expressed separately, we understand that there will be projects that have beneficial impacts in more than one area and we welcome those.
Making population level changes is often beyond the capacity of a single non-profit organization and we will work with collaboratives or groups working within them.
What does all this mean for potential grantees? Whether or not you are a new applicant or have received funds from us before, we ask that you read the website carefully to see if you think there is a good fit between your goals and ours. If you have questions, please call and ask before you spend your valuable resources on applying.
Early YearsLater YearsConsciousnessEnvironmentCommunity Priorities

Eligibility

With very few exceptions, our grant making area is the Santa Barbara South Coast, between Rincon Point and Point Conception, the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Channel Islands.We fund public 501(c)3 non-profit organizations in good standing and we adhere to all applicable laws regarding grant making for private foundations.