Andy Wang Family Foundation

The Andy Wang Family Foundation is a small, closely held private family foundation in Walnut, CA (San Gabriel Valley, LA County), run entirely by Andy H. Wang (President) and Maggie Peyjiuan Wang (Secretary) — both uncompensated, with no program staff. This is not a foundation with a formal RFP process; IRS filings list its application instructions field as blank ("none"), and no grants portal, LOI form, or published guidelines could be found on the open web. Grantmaking instead reads as network- and relationship-driven: of the nine grants totaling $141,720 in the foundation's giving history, roughly 82% ($115,720) went to Buddhist religious and community organizations — Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation ($70,000 across 3 grants), DDMBA LA Foundation ($35,000), Buddhist Ortho-Creed Association Dharma Temple ($10,000), and International Buddhist Progress Society ($720). The remainder went to hyperlocal Diamond Bar/Walnut-area causes: El Modena Wrestling Booster Club ($5,000), Diamond Bar Chinese-American Association ($1,000), and CHOC Foundation, benefiting Children's Hospital of Orange County ($20,000). This pattern strongly suggests the Wangs give to organizations within their own faith community and immediate geographic footprint rather than responding to unsolicited applications. First-time applicants without an existing tie to the Buddhist Tzu Chi/DDMBA network or the Diamond Bar–Walnut civic community should expect long odds through a cold approach. The more realistic path in is a warm introduction — through a grantee already funded (Tzu Chi, DDMBA LA, CHOC Foundation), a shared temple or community association, or a University student-support angle, which the IRS filing explicitly lists as an eligible purpose alongside disaster relief and local community development. Given the foundation's youth (501(c)(3) ruling January 2023) and rapidly growing asset base, it is still forming its giving patterns, so a well-timed, personally introduced proposal aligned with one of its three stated restriction categories has a real chance, even though it operates far more like a personal giving vehicle than an institutional grantmaker.

Median grant size in the foundation's tracked giving history is $10,000, with an average of $15,747 across 9 grants totaling $141,720; individual awards range from $720 (International Buddhist Progress Society) to $70,000 in cumulative giving to Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation ($20,000–$35,000 per gift across 3 payments), with $35,000 as the single largest one-time grant (DDMBA LA Foundation). By purpose, roughly 82% of tracked dollars ($115,720) supported Buddhist religious and community-service organizations, 14% ($20,000) supported children's healthcare (CHOC Foundation), and the remainder (~4%, $6,000) supported hyperlocal youth sports and ethnic-community groups in Diamond Bar/Walnut, CA. All 9 tracked grantees are California-based. IRS filings show giving accelerating sharply: $31,000 across 1 grant in FY2022, $79,720 across 7 grants in FY2023, and $206,920 across 5 grants in FY2024 — total giving nearly tripled year-over-year while average grant size roughly doubled (from ~$11,400 to ~$41,400), indicating a shift toward fewer, larger gifts as the foundation matures. This growth in giving has tracked a rapid buildup in assets: from $1.9M (2022) to $4.1M (2023) to $5.1M (2024), funded almost entirely by family contributions ($1.9M in 2022, $2.1M in 2023) rather than investment income (net investment income was just $17,654–$67,129 in those years). Notably, FY2023 total giving of $92,457 (including administrative costs) against average assets of roughly $3M implies a payout ratio near 3%, below the IRS-mandated 5% minimum distribution for private foundations — a strong signal that grantmaking will likely need to keep expanding in FY2025–2026 to stay compliant, which is good news for prospective applicants watching this funder.

All five peers sit within roughly $1,300 of Andy Wang Family Foundation's $5.1M asset base and share its "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification, but none have public grant portals or disclosed giving levels — this is typical of small, closely held family foundations and trusts under $5–6M in assets, which rarely operate like institutional funders. Sun Hill Renewal Fund is the only peer with a live public website and is worth a direct look for applicants comparing similarly sized funders. Practically, Andy Wang Family Foundation is more transparent than most of this peer set only because its actual grant history is visible via 990 filings; its real behavior — concentrated, relationship-driven giving to a faith community and hometown causes — is consistent with how small family foundations in this asset tier typically operate.

No press coverage, news announcements, or public statements from the foundation were found in web search — consistent with its profile as a two-person, uncompensated family foundation with no communications function. The most concrete recent signal is its FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed February 17, 2026, which shows $206,920 in grants paid across 5 grants, up from $79,720 across 7 grants in FY2023 (filed February 7, 2025) and $31,000 across 1 grant in FY2022 — a consistent annual February filing cadence and a near-tripling of giving year-over-year. Leadership has been stable since the foundation's IRS 501(c)(3) ruling in January 2023: Andy H. Wang (President) and Maggie Peyjiuan Wang (Secretary) have held their roles throughout, with no compensation and no reported staff additions. One important caveat for applicants: the website on file in IRS/foundation-database records, andywang.org, does not actually belong to this foundation — it currently resolves to an unrelated SEO consultant's personal site with no mention of grantmaking. Applicants should not rely on that URL and should instead pursue direct outreach or a warm introduction through the foundation's known grantee network (Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, DDMBA LA Foundation, CHOC Foundation) rather than expecting an online presence.

There is no published application form, LOI process, or grants portal for this foundation — its IRS filing lists application instructions as blank, and the website on file (andywang.org) is unrelated to the foundation, so applicants cannot rely on any online intake mechanism. The IRS record does specify a December 31st application deadline and restricts eligible purposes to three categories: disaster relief for victims worldwide, local community development, and university student support — align any outreach explicitly with one of these three phrases, since they appear to be drawn directly from the foundation's own governing language. Given that roughly 82% of tracked giving has gone to Buddhist religious and community organizations (Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, DDMBA LA Foundation, Buddhist Ortho-Creed Association Dharma Temple, International Buddhist Progress Society) and the remainder to hyperlocal Diamond Bar/Walnut, CA causes, the single highest-leverage move for an unfamiliar organization is securing an introduction through this network — a shared temple, a Buddhist community-service affiliation, or a Diamond Bar/Walnut civic tie — rather than submitting a cold proposal. Because the foundation is run personally by Andy H. and Maggie Peyjiuan Wang with no program staff, expect any engagement to be a direct, personal conversation rather than a formal review committee process; a short, specific letter describing the request, the population served, and the dollar amount needed (grants have run $720–$70,000 cumulative, with most single gifts $1,000–$35,000) is more appropriate than a lengthy formal proposal. Do not target this funder for large asks — its largest single grant on record is $35,000, and average FY2024 grant size was roughly $41,400. The most common mistake would be treating this like an institutional funder with published guidelines; instead, prospective applicants should research the Wang family's known community affiliations before reaching out, and time any approach to land well ahead of the December 31st deadline given the personal, low-volume nature of the review.