A C Israel Foundation Inc.

A.C. Israel Foundation is a classic family private foundation, founded in June 1967 and centered on the personal philanthropic vision of the Israel family, led today by Thomas C. Israel (President and Director), who also serves as Chairman and CEO of Ingleside Investors, a private family holding company specializing in private investments. The foundation operates with zero paid staff, entirely volunteer leadership (all four board members receive $0 compensation), and no public application process — it does not maintain a functional public-facing website, does not publish an annual report, and explicitly does not accept unsolicited proposals.

The giving philosophy is personal, relational, and long-term. Grantee data reveals the foundation has made repeat grants to the same organizations over many years: Birches School (18 grants), Citizens Committee for New York City (15 grants), Mount Sinai Hospital Adolescent Health Center (11 grants), Yale University (7+ grants), and Paws Crossed Animal Rescue (9 grants). This pattern of decade-long loyalty to proven partners is the clearest strategic signal available: this funder does not welcome new entrants without extraordinary relationship capital.

Grants cluster around five identifiable pillars: (1) elite private education — Phillips Academy, Riverdale Country School, Collegiate School, Rumsey Hall, Spence School, Birches School, Greens Farms Academy, Yale, Columbia, UCLA, UC San Diego, Villanova, University of Virginia; (2) major hospital and medical research institutions — Eisenhower Medical Center, Yale School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, Greenwich Hospital, Massachusetts General, Hospital for Special Surgery, NY-Presbyterian, White Plains Hospital, Montefiore; (3) Jewish religious and community infrastructure — Congregation Emanu-El, Foundation for Conservative Masorti-Judaism in Israel; (4) civic organizations and environmental/cultural preservation — Citizens Committee for New York City, Untermyer Gardens Conservancy, Martha's Vineyard Museum; and (5) animal welfare and human services in California — The People Concern, Paws Crossed Animal Rescue, K9 Youth Alliance, Gentle Barn Foundation, Casa of Los Angeles.

Named endowments (the Greg Warner Endowed Engineering Scholarship at UC San Diego; the Greg Warner Endowed Scholarship at Villanova) confirm that individual trustees drive specific giving decisions. For first-time aspirants, the only realistic pathway is a warm introduction through a current grantee or through professional networks connected to Ingleside Investors or the Israel, Gray, Goldstein, or Warner families. Cold outreach has no documented track record of success with this foundation.

A.C. Israel Foundation has distributed between $1.29M and $2.04M annually over the decade examined, with a recorded total of $5.11M across 611 individual grants in the grantee dataset. The average grant size is $8,363, but the distribution is deeply skewed: the median grant is only $2,000, meaning the majority of grants are small honoraria, event sponsorships, or nominal annual-fund contributions, while a handful of major multi-year commitments drive total volume.

The top 10 recipients alone account for $2.81M of the $5.11M total — 55% of all recorded giving concentrated in just 10 organizations. The largest cumulative recipient is Eisenhower Medical Center (Palm Desert, CA) at $800,000 across 3 grants of general support; followed by Phillips Academy (Andover, MA) at $490,000 across 8 grants; Citizens Committee for New York City at $243,000 across 15 grants; and Yale University School of Medicine at $220,000 across 4 grants.

Single-grant maximum amounts have reached $230,000–$285,000 in FY2024 (Yale Golf Course; Congregation Emanu-El), with the DB indicating a typical maximum of $350,000. At the low end, grants can be as small as $100.

Geographic distribution (611 grants): New York State 238 grants (39%), California 102 (17%), Connecticut 86 (14%), Massachusetts 77 (13%), Washington D.C. 21 (3%), Virginia 13 (2%), New Jersey 7 (1%), Pennsylvania 6 (1%), Minnesota 5 (1%). The New England concentration reflects the Israel family's ties to Fairfield County, CT prep schools and Boston-area hospitals.

Sector allocation (estimated from top-50 grantee analysis): Healthcare/Medical ~38% of recorded dollars; Education (K-12 and university) ~34%; Jewish/Religious ~8%; Civic/Environmental ~7%; Animal welfare and California human services ~13%.

Annual giving trend: $1.52M (FY2012) → $1.29M (FY2013) → $1.51M (FY2015) → $1.63M (FY2019) → $2.02M (FY2020) → $2.00M (FY2021) → $2.04M (FY2022) → $1.85M (FY2023). FY2024 grantmaking is estimated at approximately $1.98M–$2.09M based on reported expenses and prior patterns; full grant-level detail from the FY2024 990-PF was not yet available in the analyzed dataset.

Note: The foundation's database record contained no peer foundation entries. The following comparison is constructed from publicly available IRS Form 990-PF data and philanthropy research databases for comparable private New York family foundations with similar asset scales and broad general philanthropy mandates.

A.C. Israel Foundation sits in the lower-middle tier of this peer group by both assets and annual giving, but its invitation-only posture and extreme grantee loyalty make it effectively more closed than even peer foundations that formally restrict applications. Its broad multi-sector portfolio spanning education, health, civic, animal welfare, and Jewish causes is notably less focused than single-mission peers like Fan Fox & Samuels or Heckscher, which means the foundation is harder to fit into a standard prospect-research category. Critically, unlike Norman Foundation or Heckscher — which offer at least limited open application windows — A.C. Israel provides no open pathway whatsoever. Organizations that qualify programmatically should prioritize relationship-building over proposal quality.

The most significant recent development is the FY2024 financial recapitalization: the foundation recorded $19,995,910 in net gains from asset sales, boosting total revenue to $21,039,252 (versus a normal annual range of $1.0M–$1.9M) and growing net assets from $17,934,168 (FY2023) to $36,460,772 (FY2024). This near-doubling of the asset base — the largest single-year movement in at least a decade — likely represents liquidation of a significant private investment position held through Ingleside Investors. The FY2024 Form 990-PF was filed November 17, 2025, with financial data last updated March 9, 2026 per public databases.

In FY2024, the foundation distributed approximately $2.09M across 78+ grants, with notable individual awards including: Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York ($285,000 — a major escalation from prior-year typical tranches), Yale University Golf Course Restoration Project ($230,000), and White Plains Hospital ($100,000 general support).

No public press releases, leadership changes, or formal program announcements have been identified for 2025 or 2026. The foundation maintains no active public-facing communications infrastructure — no functional grantmaker website, no annual report, no social media presence. Thomas C. Israel, Barry W. Gray, Virginia J. Goldstein, and Gregory H. Warner have remained consistent as the four uncompensated board members with no reported turnover across multiple 990-PF filings. Gregory H. Warner established named scholarship endowments at UC San Diego and Villanova University in recent grant cycles, reflecting legacy philanthropy activity. The asset recapitalization event may position the foundation for elevated grantmaking in the 2025–2027 window.

The single most important fact about A.C. Israel Foundation is that it does not accept unsolicited proposals under any circumstances. There is no grant portal, no application form, no RFP calendar, and no published deadlines. The foundation's phone number — (212) 634-3367 — is publicly listed, but cold calls without a personal introduction are unlikely to advance an inquiry and may harm future positioning.

Pathway 1 — Map relationships to current grantees. Organizations with 10+ grant cycles — Birches School (18 grants, Lincoln, MA), Citizens Committee for New York City (15 grants), Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center (11 grants), Paws Crossed Animal Rescue (9 grants, Elmsford, NY) — carry the deepest relationship equity with the foundation. Contact their Vice Presidents of Development or Executive Directors to request a personal introduction. Frame your organization as complementary, not competitive, to their work.

Pathway 2 — Pursue professional network connections to Ingleside Investors. Thomas C. Israel's role as Chairman/CEO of a private family investment firm means that family office forums, New York private equity networks, and Westchester County civic organizations (especially those connected to Yale alumni circles) are productive introduction venues. Similarly, Gregory H. Warner's connections to UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering and Villanova's College of Liberal Arts represent additional entry points for California and Pennsylvania organizations.

Pathway 3 — Lead with institutional credibility, not project specifics. Virtually all grants in the database are recorded as "general support." The foundation responds to organizational track records, not single-program pitches. Emphasize your institution's history, budget scale, leadership tenure, and geographic presence in NY, CT, MA, or CA.

Avoid common mistakes: Do not submit a formal grant proposal to the general address without an introduction. Do not pitch programmatic innovation — this funder values institutional stability. Do not request a first meeting in December, when year-end commitments are already finalized.

Optimal outreach timing: Spring (March–May) or fall (September–October), when development officers at peer nonprofits are actively managing foundation relationships. The four-person volunteer board moves on personal schedules, not institutional deadlines.