Some opponents of Measure H suggest that RVSD’s funding gap could be closed by fundraising rather than by tax revenue — that local foundations and donations could substitute for the parcel-tax money the district needs.

It’s a generous-spirited argument and worth taking seriously. The data, unfortunately, doesn’t support it. Even the best-funded education foundations in Marin can’t reach the dollar magnitudes parcel taxes generate, and they certainly can’t generate the kind of predictable, multi-year operating revenue districts need to plan around.

What Marin foundations actually raise

Per public reporting and the foundations’ own published materials:

Foundation	District	Annual revenue (recent)
YES Foundation	RVSD (Fairfax/San Anselmo)	~$700,000
Kiddo!	Mill Valley SD	$3–4 million
KIK (Kentfield Schools Foundation)	Kentfield SD	$1.1+ million
Reed Schools Foundation	Reed Union SD	~$1.5 million
Ross School Foundation	Ross SD	~$1 million

Every Marin K-8 district has a parent-funded education foundation. The two best-known are Mill Valley’s Kiddo! (often cited as one of the largest education foundations in California, with about $1,450 raised per student) and Kentfield’s KIK. RVSD’s YES Foundation does excellent work — funding music, art, library staff, instructional aides, and program supplements — and is meaningfully smaller than Kiddo! or KIK in absolute dollar terms.

Why our foundation is smaller than Mill Valley’s

Three reasons:

1. Smaller and less wealthy donor base. Mill Valley has roughly 2,500 students and is one of the wealthier zip codes in California. Per-capita disposable income for charitable giving is meaningfully higher than in Fairfax and San Anselmo, which are well-off but not in the same range.

2. Different fundraising ecosystem. Kiddo! has been at it since 1982 and has built a large infrastructure of major donors, business sponsors, and event-based fundraising. YES Foundation operates with a smaller staff and a smaller volunteer base.

3. Smaller student population. RVSD has ~1,700 students against Mill Valley’s ~2,500. Even at the same per-student fundraising rate, YES Foundation’s potential ceiling is ~32% lower than Kiddo!‘s.

These aren’t problems with YES Foundation — they’re structural features of the donor base and student population. Kiddo!‘s scale comes from its district’s specific demographics, not from any failure on YES Foundation’s part to fundraise effectively.

Why even Mill Valley levels of fundraising wouldn’t close RVSD’s gap

This is the part of the argument that matters most. Even if YES Foundation suddenly grew to Kiddo!‘s scale — call it $4M per year, six times its current — it still wouldn’t close the gap that Measure H is designed to close.

The math:

• Measure H new revenue: ~$3.8M per year ($8.6M total minus the existing $4.8M)
• Hypothetical YES Foundation at Kiddo! scale: ~$3M per year additional ($4M total minus current $700K)

Those are similar dollar magnitudes, so on the surface, foundation growth might substitute for the new parcel-tax revenue. But there are three structural problems with relying on foundation revenue to do parcel-tax work:

1. Foundation revenue is unpredictable year-to-year. A bad fundraising year — driven by recession, a single major donor loss, or a marketing misfire — can drop a foundation’s revenue by 20–40%. Districts can’t plan multi-year contracts (teacher salaries, special-education staffing, vendor agreements) on revenue that fluctuates by that much. Parcel-tax revenue is contractually predictable for 10 years.

2. Foundation revenue isn’t permanent. A parcel tax persists until it sunsets or voters repeal it. Foundation revenue depends on a continuous fundraising effort that has to be re-mobilized every single year. That’s a real burden on parents, donors, and foundation staff, and it’s not sustainable as a long-term substitute for stable funding.

3. Foundation revenue can’t legally fund certain things. Foundations operate as 501(c)(3) nonprofits with their own restrictions and IRS scrutiny. Some district functions — particularly things that look like supplanting district staff salaries with private donor money — face complicated legal constraints. Parcel-tax revenue is unrestricted operating revenue (within the legally defined categories of the measure) and doesn’t carry the same constraints.

What YES Foundation actually does (and why it’s still essential)

YES Foundation funds several of the things that make RVSD schools feel rich relative to their state-funding profile:

• Music program staff and supplies
• Art program staff and supplies
• Library staff
• Instructional aides
• Field-trip funding for low-income families
• Technology supplements

It does this work on top of the district’s parcel-tax-supplemented operating budget. If RVSD loses the parcel tax and YES Foundation has to backfill basic operations (teacher salaries, classroom basics), the enrichment work it currently funds has to scale back. The dollars don’t multiply.

The foundation’s own priorities are clear: they support the enrichment layer on top of a baseline that the parcel tax is supposed to fund. If you ask YES Foundation to backstop the parcel-tax baseline, you lose the enrichment.

This is consistent with how every Marin foundation operates. Kiddo! supplements Mill Valley schools but doesn’t replace Mill Valley’s parcel-tax revenue. Reed Union has both KIK and a parcel tax. Ross has both. The foundations and the parcel taxes aren’t substitutes; they’re additive layers, each filling a different need.

What this means for your vote

If the argument is “RVSD should rely more on foundation fundraising and less on the parcel tax,” the math doesn’t work. Foundation revenue is unpredictable, scaled by the donor base (which can’t grow to Mill Valley levels in Fairfax and San Anselmo on any reasonable timeline), and constrained in what it can legally fund. Parcel-tax revenue is predictable, sized to actually meet the budget gap, and legally suited to fund teacher retention, class size, and core academic programs.

Voters who care about supporting RVSD students through donations should keep doing so — YES Foundation is one of the best ways to be civically generous in our community. But foundation generosity doesn’t substitute for the structural funding piece that Measure H is designed to provide.

That’s why we recommend a Yes vote on Measure H — and why we hope you also support YES Foundation, which does excellent work on top of what the parcel tax funds.

Sources

1. YES Foundation annual revenue figure (~$700,000) is from the foundation’s published materials and the Marin IJ’s coverage of Marin education foundations. The Mill Valley Kiddo! figure ($3–4 million) is widely cited in Mill Valley press coverage and in Kiddo!‘s own annual reports. The Kentfield KIK figure ($1.1+ million) is from

   the Marin IJ’s April 1, 2026 Kentfield Measure C coverage

   . Reed and Ross figures from district published materials.

2. Foundation contributions are captured in the National Center for Education Statistics

   F-33 School District Finance Survey

   within “Local revenue,” not as a separate line — meaning F-33 per-pupil revenue figures already include foundation revenue. The relative scale of Marin foundations does not change the ranking of districts in the F-33 data; it just adds modestly to the local revenue share at each district.

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