The non-profit behind rugby in Santa Barbara
SBRFC exists so that rugby in this county has something permanent behind it: an organization that can receive tax-deductible gifts, support the clubs that play here, and outlast any one committee or generation of players.
Why the club exists
The mission of the Santa Barbara Rugby Football Club is to promote the sport of rugby in our community by fostering athletic excellence, inclusivity, and personal development through teamwork, discipline, and sportsmanship. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we are committed to providing opportunities for youth and adults of all backgrounds to participate in and learn the game of rugby, supporting physical health, leadership, and lifelong community engagement.
In practice that mission is tested by a single question, asked of every decision: does this keep more people playing rugby in Santa Barbara? Paying a coach properly keeps more people playing. Covering the dues of a player who has just lost a job keeps that player on the field. Helping a family who cannot afford a youth season keeps a child in the sport. That is where the money and the volunteer hours go.
Our 501(c)(3) registration
The Santa Barbara Rugby Football Club is a non-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to the club are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Organization details
- Legal name
- Santa Barbara Rugby Football Club
- Tax status
- 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
- EIN / Tax ID
- 93-4659131
- Incorporated
- California, 2023
- IRS determination
- Tax exemption issued July 2025
- Mailing address
- 2516 Mesa School Lane, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
- Contact
- vicepresident@sbrfc.com
Rugby in Santa Barbara since 1978
The Grunion have played rugby in Santa Barbara since 1978, and the club was formally founded in 1980. The name is local: the California grunion is a small silver fish that comes ashore at night to spawn on Santa Barbara beaches, and the club took it as its own.
The Grunion's best-known run came in the mid-2000s. The club reached the Division II Sweet 16 in Newport, Rhode Island in both 2004 and 2005. In 2006 it came through the Sweet 16 in Columbia, South Carolina and reached the Division II Final Four in San Diego, beating Montauk 35 to 3 in the semifinal before losing the national final to Pearl City, 32 to 5. The following season, playing Division I, the Grunion beat the Denver Barbarians and lost to the Cincinnati Wolfhounds. Photographs from those seasons are kept in the club's MERchives archive.
Rugby in this county is broader now than it was then. The Stingrays, the youth club, were founded in 2010 and run age groups from U8 to U18. The Mermaids, the women's club, were founded in 2015 and play in the Southern California Senior Women's Division II. Between the three clubs there is rugby being played in Santa Barbara most weeks of the year.
The Santa Barbara Rugby Football Club came last. It was set up in 2023 to support rugby in Santa Barbara, and the IRS issued its 501(c)(3) tax exemption in July 2025.
How SBRFC supports rugby in this county
SBRFC is the registered non-profit behind rugby in Santa Barbara County. It receives tax-deductible donations and sponsorship on behalf of the sport here, and puts that money into coaching, into recruiting and keeping local players, and into individuals who would otherwise have to stop playing. Giving to SBRFC is giving to rugby in Santa Barbara rather than to one team.
Three clubs play here, and SBRFC supports all three. Each of them is separately organized, with its own coaches, its own committee and its own competition, and each runs its own training, fixtures and registration. SBRFC's job is the funding and the paperwork that sit underneath all of it.
Where the money goes
- Player recruitment and retention. Bringing local players into the sport and keeping them in it season after season.
- Coaching. Supporting qualified coaching at all three clubs rather than relying on a volunteer until they burn out.
- Club infrastructure. The unglamorous costs a club carries before a ball is kicked.
- Dues assistance. Season dues are $250 at the Grunion and $150 at the Mermaids. SBRFC covers them for players who cannot, and supports scholarship places in the youth club.
Board and officers
SBRFC is run by a volunteer board of officers drawn from the rugby community in Santa Barbara.
SBRFC board
- President
- Joseph King
- Vice President
- James Buchanon
- Treasurer
- Josh Timpe
- Secretary
- Connor Worden
- Community Director
- Jordan Killebrew
Where the money goes
SBRFC is small, volunteer-run, and funded by players, their families, local businesses and a group of long-standing donors. The club has no paid staff and no office.
The club files with both the IRS and the State of California every year, and publishes those filings here. For the 2025 tax year SBRFC filed IRS Form 990-N, the e-Postcard for tax-exempt organizations whose gross receipts are normally under $50,000, which the IRS accepted on 17 February 2026. The club also filed California Form 199N with the Franchise Tax Board for the same year.
- 2025 federal filing
- Form 990-N for tax year 2025 (PDF), accepted by the IRS 17 February 2026
- Public record
- SBRFC on ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer
- IRS verification
- Search EIN 93-4659131 in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search
- Anything else
- Email the treasurer at treasurer@sbrfc.com