The Parker Foundation was founded on October 5, 1971 for charitable purposes leading to the betterment of life for all people of San Diego County. With a net endowment of over $40 million, the Foundation has granted over $31 million since inception.

An independent, private foundation and California non-profit corporation, the Parker Foundation is limited by its governing instruments to funding charitable organizations operating in San Diego County. Grants are not made to individuals and generally the Foundation does not support conferences or symposia. While occasional grant support is given to religious organizations, those grants are only made for direct support to nonsectarian educational or service projects. Loans are sometimes considered under special circumstances.

It is not the Foundation's policy to provide support for any project to the extent that it becomes dependent on the Foundation for continued existence. In some cases, the Foundation favorably considers matching grant proposals or "challenge grants," or conditions the grant upon the achievement of certain objectives under terms satisfactory to the grantee.