Adonai Foundation Inc.

Adonai Foundation Inc. is a small, uncompensated, family-run private foundation based in Mountain View, CA, controlled by the Chu family — Yuet-Ming Chu (President), Miriam Chu (Secretary/Treasurer), and directors Charissa Chu and Yolanda Scheffold (both seated November 2020, succeeding Terry Parker). There is no program staff, no compensated officers across any filing year reviewed (2011–2023), and — critically — no functioning public application process. Third-party grant databases (Grantable, Impala) independently confirm the foundation "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations" and does not accept unsolicited proposals; this matches the grantee pattern in the data, which is dominated by long-running, repeat "OPERATING SUPPORT" gifts rather than competitively awarded project grants. Chinese Church In Christ received $150,000 across 4 grants and Dare 2 Share Ministries received $103,000 across 3 grants — together 55% of the $462,981 given across 117 recorded grants — indicating the board is anchored to a small set of long-term relationships, likely tied to the family's own church community, rather than an open grantmaking pipeline. The remaining ~48 grantees form a long tail of small, recurring gifts ($100–$7,000, median $500) to well-known Christian ministries (Bible League International, Navigators, Wycliffe Associates, Back To The Bible) and international relief/human-services organizations (World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Mercy Corps, Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity). First-time, cold applicants should treat this foundation as effectively closed. The only realistic entry points are: (1) an existing relationship with the family or their church/ministry network, evidenced by the heavy concentration in Chinese-American evangelical Christian organizations; (2) being one of the large, nationally recognized faith-based or relief organizations that already appear as small recurring line items, since the family may respond to general appeals from groups it already knows; or (3) a Bay Area human-services nonprofit that overlaps with the family's local community. Note also that the website field on file (adonai-foundation.org) actually belongs to an unrelated Arizona mental-health nonprofit — do not rely on it for outreach.

Total historical giving in the grantee dataset is $462,981 across 117 grants (average $3,957, but this average is skewed heavily by two outsized relationship grants). Excluding those anchor gifts, the foundation's own reported "typical grant size" metric shows a median of $500, an average of $1,167, and a range of $100–$7,000 across 18 sampled grants — this is the realistic band for any new or peripheral grantee, not the $150,000 and $103,000 gifts to the top two recipients. Annual total giving has been volatile: $292,388 (FY2023, including $277,881 in grants paid) is nearly 4x FY2022's $79,088 and 13x FY2021's $25,639 trough; FY2020 was $47,369 and FY2019 was $118,307. Looking back further, giving ran steadily higher in FY2011–FY2015 ($170K–$290K per year) before the 2019–2021 dip, meaning FY2023's rebound looks more like a return to historical norms than new growth. Total assets have grown slowly and steadily from $2.54M (2011) to $4.97M (2023), funded mainly by net investment income ($204K–$236K per year in recent filings) plus periodic contributions from the family ($40K–$300K per year, irregular). By geography, the top states by grant count are CA (29), IL (9), AZ (7), CO (7), FL (7), OK (7), NY (6), OR (6), PA (6), and MA (5) — a wide, thin national spread consistent with mailing gifts to national ministry headquarters rather than funding local programs. By program area, effectively 100% of grants in the dataset are coded "OPERATING SUPPORT" — the foundation does not appear to fund discrete projects, capital campaigns, or capacity-building initiatives, only general operating gifts to organizations it already trusts.

Adonai Foundation Inc. sits among a cluster of similarly sized private foundations (roughly $5.0M–$5.1M in assets) classified under the same "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE category, none of which disclose a public grants program either:

All five peers are asset-matched to within $2,400 of Adonai's $5.07M and share its classification, and none of them list a website in this dataset — a strong signal that this entire peer set is made up of small, unstaffed family giving vehicles rather than institutional grantmakers with competitive programs. Adonai is distinguished mainly by being unusually well-documented (117 individually itemized grants) and by its clear faith-based concentration, whereas the peers' actual funding priorities cannot be assessed without pulling their own 990-PF grant schedules directly.

No news coverage, press releases, or public announcements were found for Adonai Foundation Inc. in 2025 or 2026 — the foundation has no visible media presence, no social media, and its listed website (adonai-foundation.org) does not actually belong to it. The most recent financial data available (FY2023, filed and last verified in this dataset as of 2026-08-29) shows total giving of $292,388, a sharp rebound from the $79,088 given in FY2022 and the $25,639 low point in FY2021. This roughly 13x swing from trough to most-recent-year likely reflects the board resuming a more typical giving cadence after several lean years (FY2019–FY2022 combined giving of $270K is less than the single-year FY2023 total), rather than a new strategic initiative or leadership change — no board turnover has occurred since Charissa Chu and Yolanda Scheffold joined as directors in November 2020, replacing Terry Parker. Historical filings show comparable giving levels of $170K–$290K annually back in FY2011–FY2015, so FY2023 appears to mark a return to the foundation's longer-run baseline. Given the entirely family-directed, invitation-only structure, grant seekers should not expect a public announcement of new funding rounds, RFPs, or strategic pivots — any change in this foundation's activity will only be visible in the next IRS Form 990-PF filing, not in press coverage.

There is no open application process at Adonai Foundation Inc. — this is confirmed both by the grantee pattern (117 grants overwhelmingly repeat "OPERATING SUPPORT" gifts to the same recurring organizations year over year) and by independent grant-database summaries stating the foundation "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations" and does not accept unsolicited proposals. Practically, this means: (1) Do not spend time drafting a cold LOI or full proposal — there is no channel through which it would be reviewed, and no program staff to receive it (all four family board members serve uncompensated). (2) Do not rely on adonai-foundation.org — the website tied to this foundation's record actually describes an unrelated Arizona psychiatric-services nonprofit; using its contact form will not reach the Chu family. (3) The only credible path in is relationship-based: if your organization is a Chinese-American Christian church or evangelical parachurch ministry (the pattern strongly resembles Chinese Church In Christ, at $150,000 across 4 grants, and Dare 2 Share Ministries, at $103,000), or a nationally recognized faith-based/international-relief organization already in the long tail of small recurring gifts (World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Mercy Corps, Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity, Bible League International), pursue a warm introduction through shared church or ministry networks rather than an application. (4) If your organization does secure a relationship, expect general operating support rather than project or capital funding — every grant in the dataset is coded operating support, and grant sizes for anything outside the top two relationships have run $100–$7,000 (median $500), so set expectations modest unless you become one of the anchor grantees. (5) Common mistake to avoid: treating this as a typical mid-size private foundation with a discoverable RFP cycle — the data and every third-party source agree this is a closed, relationship-only giving vehicle, and pursuing it through conventional grant-seeking channels will not succeed.