Acts Of Generosity

Acts of Generosity is a small, family-governed private foundation (EIN 20-3143098) based in West Chester, PA, founded in 2005 by Henry R. Rudolph and now chaired by Richard N. Nassau, with Leah Nassau serving as its first paid Executive Director ($50,000/yr starting FY2022, rising to $52,000 in FY2023 — after roughly a decade run entirely by volunteers). With $4.3 million in assets (FY2024) and about $230,000 in annual giving, this is a modest, relationship-driven funder, not a program-officer bureaucracy. Its own website states plainly: "All of our grants begin with a conversation." There is no portal, no published LOI template, and no formal RFP — the prescribed pathway in is a short introductory email directly to Leah Nassau at LNassau@ActsofGenerosity.org.

The foundation favors small, community-rooted nonprofits it can build "trust-based partnerships" with, explicitly serving Pennsylvania's Berks, Chester, and Lancaster Counties, with a secondary New York presence (roughly 15% of dollars per outside trackers). Its grant history splits into two distinct eras: an earlier, faith- and arts-oriented pattern (two separate gifts each to Jewish Theological Seminary and Kesher Israel Congregation, totaling $38,000 each, plus modest counseling/arts gifts to Yocum Institute for Arts Education and Daemion Counseling Center) and a markedly broader post-2022 pattern once Leah Nassau came on as ED: FY2023 and FY2024 each saw 11 grants (up from a steady 3/year for a decade), spanning maternal/child health, LGBTQ+ services, and pass-through gifts to county community foundations.

For first-time applicants, this means: don't lead with a generic RFP-style proposal. Lead with a short, personal email establishing local roots (a Berks/Chester/Lancaster County program, or a credible PA/NY connection), a specific ask in the $15,000-$35,000 band, and a stated openness to an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time transaction. Because the board is essentially the Nassau family and two other unpaid officers (Cheryl Wentz, Harriet Singer, Amanda Hornberger), expect a slower, informal, conversation-first cadence rather than committee review cycles — patience and a warm introduction (through the Berks or Chester County Community Foundation network, which the foundation itself grants through) will outperform a cold, formal application packet.

Acts of Generosity's giving is small but has roughly doubled to quadrupled in grant count since 2022. FY2024 (per outside 990 trackers Instrumentl and Grantable): 11 grants totaling $231,891-$232,000, an average of roughly $21,000 per grant. FY2023 (per the foundation's own Form 990 data in this profile): grants_paid of $229,000 against total_giving of $348,044 — the gap likely reflects qualifying distributions beyond direct grants (e.g., program and administrative costs counted toward the 5% minimum payout). By contrast, FY2022 paid out just $57,000 and FY2021 only $35,000. This step-change lines up with a large one-time $3.74 million contribution received in FY2021 (plus $1.1 million in net investment income that year), which pushed assets to a peak of $5.66 million; assets have since declined to $4.3 million (FY2024) as the foundation draws the corpus down through a higher, sustained payout rate.

Typical grant size across outside trackers runs $3,500-$45,500, though this profile's own database sample shows a narrower median of $17,000 (average $11,667, based on a 3-grant sample). The fuller FY2024 recipient list shows the real working range: Maternal and Child Health Consortium ($32,316), Camp Dreamcatcher ($30,000), Eastern Pennsylvania Trans Equity Project ($30,000), LGBTQ Giving Circle ($20,000), Berks County Community Foundation ($20,000), and Chester County Community Foundation ($20,000) — with the remaining roughly five grants averaging near $16,000 to reach the ~$232,000 total.

Geographically, per outside trackers roughly 85% of cumulative dollars (about $497K) have gone to Pennsylvania and 15% (about $91K) to New York, concentrated in Berks, Chester, and Lancaster Counties, consistent with the foundation's own stated three-county mandate. By program focus, the mix has shifted from the foundation's earlier faith-community giving (Jewish Theological Seminary and Kesher Israel Congregation, $38,000 each across two gifts) toward health and human-services grantmaking: maternal/child health, LGBTQ+ services, and pass-through gifts to county community foundations, which functionally let Acts of Generosity outsource local regranting decisions to trusted intermediaries. Officer compensation appeared for the first time in FY2022 ($50,000) and rose to $52,000 in FY2023, marking the point the foundation added paid staff capacity — a meaningful signal that grantmaking volume and outreach responsiveness are likely to keep increasing rather than revert to the old 3-grants-a-year pattern.

All six foundations sit within a remarkably tight $4.31-4.32 million asset band and share the same NTEE "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" classification (T31) — a category that often signals a foundation functions primarily as a family giving vehicle or pass-through rather than a public program funder. None of the five peers in this comparison set maintains a public grants page, published application process, or disclosed annual giving figure in the data available for this report, which makes Acts of Generosity notably more transparent by comparison: it publishes a mission statement, a named point of contact (Executive Director Leah Nassau), a defined three-county PA service area, and a stated (if informal) path to inquire. For grant seekers, this means Acts of Generosity is the more approachable entry point among this near-identical peer set — most similarly sized "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" foundations of this asset size offer no visible way in at all, whereas this foundation at least invites a direct email.

Per outside 990 trackers (Instrumentl, Grantable), Acts of Generosity's most recently reported fiscal year (FY2024) giving totaled roughly $232,000 across 11 grants — the second consecutive year at that elevated level after nearly a decade of just 3 grants per year totaling $30,000-$37,000 annually. Confirmed FY2024 recipients include Maternal and Child Health Consortium ($32,316), Camp Dreamcatcher ($30,000), Eastern Pennsylvania Trans Equity Project ($30,000), LGBTQ Giving Circle ($20,000), Berks County Community Foundation ($20,000), and Chester County Community Foundation ($20,000).

No dedicated press coverage, blog posts, or news announcements were found for the foundation itself in 2025-2026 — it does not appear to issue press releases or maintain a news section on its website, consistent with a small, low-profile family foundation. The most significant organizational change on record is Leah Nassau's appointment as the foundation's first-ever paid Executive Director: officer compensation begins appearing in the FY2022 filing ($50,000), rising to $52,000 in FY2023, marking a shift from an all-volunteer board (Richard N. Nassau, Cheryl Wentz, Harriet Singer, Amanda Hornberger) to having dedicated staff capacity for outreach and grant review. This professionalization plausibly explains the near-quadrupling of annual grant count starting in FY2023. No new program announcements, RFPs, or funding-cycle changes were identified in web research; the "email the Executive Director" conversation-first model appears unchanged on the current website.

Since Acts of Generosity runs no portal, no LOI form, and no published deadline — this profile's own data confirms application_instructions and application_form_url are both blank — the single highest-leverage step is the email introduction the foundation itself prescribes: a concise note to Executive Director Leah Nassau (LNassau@ActsofGenerosity.org) that states, in the first two sentences, (1) that your organization operates in Berks, Chester, or Lancaster County, PA (or a comparable New York community), and (2) what the "conversation" would be about — a specific program need, not a general operating-support pitch.

Because the board is essentially the Nassau family plus two other unpaid officers (Cheryl Wentz, Harriet Singer, Amanda Hornberger), there is no committee cycle to time around — but there is also no formal decision deadline, so build in patience and treat the first email as the opening of a relationship, not a proposal submission. Echo the foundation's own language back to them: it describes wanting "trust-based partnerships," so lead with what a multi-year relationship (not a one-time grant) would look like, and note your organization's own equity and inclusion commitments, since the foundation states explicitly it wants grantees whose work "respects distinct life experiences and heritages and ensures all voices are heard."

On amount, anchor asks in the $15,000-$32,000 band that dominates its actual FY2024 grants (its broader tracked range is $3,500-$45,500); asking for $75,000 or more from a foundation with roughly $232,000 in total annual giving signals a lack of research and will likely end the conversation early. If your organization is itself a community foundation or intermediary, note that Acts of Generosity is comfortable regranting through trusted local partners — Berks County Community Foundation and Chester County Community Foundation each received $20,000 in FY2024 — so a warm introduction through one of those two funds, or through a shared board connection, is likely to outperform a cold email.

Common mistakes to avoid: sending an unsolicited, multi-page formal grant proposal (there is no intake address for one); requesting funding for programs outside the three-county PA / New York footprint; and following up aggressively — this is a low-volume, high-personal-touch funder where one well-targeted, well-researched email outperforms a full application packet.