Austelle Foundation

Austelle Foundation is a small, tightly-controlled family foundation that explicitly checks the IRS box confirming it 'only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds' (Form 990-PF, FY2024, Part XIV). This is the single most important fact for any grant seeker: cold LOIs and open applications are not the entry point here. Giving flows through relationships cultivated by its five-person governance team — founder Sarah S. Alfadl, chairperson/trustee Noura E. Alfadl-Andreasson, trustees Kevin M. Leigh and Michael Breslow (an estates/trusts attorney), and Executive Director/Secretary Margaret H. Hunting (a former PA Deputy Attorney General, paid $50,000 in FY2024, up from $20,000 as recently as FY2021). Day-to-day administration runs through Pembroke Philanthropy Advisors, an outsourced philanthropic-services firm in Radnor, PA, where Daphne Rowe (Executive Director) and Rachel Costello (Grants Manager) field inquiries. With only $7.9M in assets (FY2024) and $327,500 distributed across 15 grants that year, Austelle behaves like a mid-sized family checkbook rather than an institutional grantmaker — it favors organizations with a direct Philadelphia-region and Main Line connection, small enough that a $10,000-$50,000 check is meaningful, and often already known to a trustee or to Pembroke's advisory network. Since 2019, 72 of 87 tracked grants (83%) went to Pennsylvania-based organizations; the rest crossed state lines only to DC, NJ, NY, MD, and IA, typically for national policy or advocacy affiliates. First-time applicants should not expect a portal, an LOI cycle, or published deadlines — none exist; Form 990-PF lists 'N/A' for application address, format, and deadlines. The realistic path is a warm introduction: through Pembroke Philanthropy Advisors, through a board member's existing network, or through visibility in one of the foundation's historical priority lanes — environmental/land conservation, veterans' services, refugee/immigrant resettlement, and Islamic charitable/educational causes. Multi-year, repeat funding is common (Council for Relationships, HIAS Pennsylvania, and the conservation groups have each received support across several consecutive filings), so relationship persistence matters more than proposal polish.

FY2024 (most recent Form 990-PF, filed 9/4/25): $327,500 distributed across 15 grants, ranging from $2,000 (Academy of Natural Sciences, museum/research) to $50,000 (Nationalities Service Center, immigrant & refugee services). Median grant size was $25,000; average $21,833 — both notably higher than the $10,000 median / $13,350 average the foundation reported as its typical grant size in 2019-2023, suggesting Austelle is consolidating into fewer, larger checks rather than many small ones. By program area in FY2024: environmental/land conservation absorbed $132,500 (40%) across seven grants — Lower Merion Conservancy, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Wildlands Conservancy, and PA Association of Sustainable Agriculture each received $35,000, plus smaller grants to Green Amendment for the Generations ($10,000), Urban Tree Connection ($5,000), and Project Always Receiving ($2,500). Refugee/immigrant services took $100,000 (31%) — Nationalities Service Center ($50,000), HIAS Pennsylvania ($40,000), and Bethany Christian Services of the Delaware Valley ($10,000). Veterans' services took $40,000 (12%) — Council for Relationships' Operation Home & Healing ($15,000, a repeat grant also documented in a June 2023 press release) and Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service & Education Center ($25,000). The remaining $55,000 (17%) went to The Decency Foundation ($25,000 operating support), WHYY public radio ($3,000), and Academy of Natural Sciences ($2,000). Notably, Karamah — a Muslim women's legal/education organization that was the single largest cumulative grantee in the 2019-2023 window ($360,000 across five grants, roughly 22% of all giving in that period) — received no FY2024 grant, nor did prior recipients like the ACLU of PA, Haven House, or Bucks County Playhouse. This points to either a multi-year rotation cycle or a real pullback from the 'Islamic charities' pillar of the mission statement toward environmental and refugee-services giving. Total giving grew steadily from $64,691 (FY2011) to a peak of $430,378 (FY2022), before pulling back to $427,234 (FY2023) and $327,500 (FY2024) — a 24% year-over-year decline even as total assets jumped from $5.7M to $7.9M, likely reflecting a large one-time contribution ($1,027,358 received in FY2024, nearly triple FY2023's $353,363) rather than a change in payout policy. Geographic focus: 100% Pennsylvania in FY2024's grant list; 83% Pennsylvania historically.

All five peers sit within about $8,000 of Austelle's $9.34M IRS-reported asset base and share the same 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, but none publish giving figures or a grant list as specific as Austelle's actual FY2024 disbursements — most appear to be minimally staffed pass-through or family-administered trusts with little public footprint (only Ressa Foundation maintains a live website among the five). Austelle stands out in this cohort for actually operating a public-facing website with a named board, mission statement, and downloadable Form 990-PFs — a transparency level most $9M-asset family foundations of this size don't match — even though its own grant process remains fully closed to unsolicited inquiries, same as its peers appear to be by default.

Public news coverage of Austelle is thin. The only substantive press mention located is a June 26, 2023 announcement from Council for Relationships confirming a $15,000 grant to its Operation Home & Healing veterans' counseling program; that relationship continued into the FY2024 Form 990-PF, where CFR again received $15,000, confirming it as a stable, multi-year grantee rather than a one-off. No 2025 or 2026 news releases, press mentions, or grant announcements from Austelle itself were found in web search — the foundation does not appear to issue its own press releases or announce awards publicly beyond what grantees choose to publicize on their own sites. The most recent verifiable activity is the FY2024 Form 990-PF (covering calendar year 2024, filed September 4, 2025 by Cypress Tax Advisors LLC), which shows two notable administrative changes: first, a registered-address change to 1201 E. Hector Street, Conshohocken, PA (Box G 'address change' checked), even as day-to-day books remain kept in care of Daphne Rowe at Pembroke Philanthropy Advisors' Radnor office; second, a jump in Executive Director/Secretary Margaret H. Hunting's compensation to $50,000, up from $40,000 in FY2023 and $20,000 as recently as FY2021 — a 150% increase over three years even as total qualifying distributions to charity fell from $427,234 to $327,500 over the same period. Total assets grew sharply to $7.9M from $5.7M, driven by $1,027,358 in new contributions received during the year (versus $353,363 in FY2023), suggesting a substantial new gift or bequest to the corpus rather than investment performance alone.

Lead with the hard truth: Austelle checks the IRS box stating it does not accept unsolicited applications and lists 'N/A' for every application field — no address for submissions, no required form, no submission deadlines, no stated restrictions (Form 990-PF Part XIV, FY2024). Do not send a cold LOI or generic proposal; there is no formal review process on paper to receive it. The realistic path in is relationship-based. Contact Pembroke Philanthropy Advisors directly and professionally — Daphne Rowe (Executive Director) and Rachel Costello (Grants Manager) at 610-896-3868 / drowe@pembrokephilanthropy.net administer the foundation's grantmaking day-to-day. A concise, respectful introductory email describing your organization's PA/Philadelphia-region footprint and fit with one of the four historical priority lanes (environment/conservation, veterans' services, refugee/immigrant resettlement, Islamic charitable/educational causes) is more likely to get a response than a full proposal. Emphasize Pennsylvania and Philadelphia-region ties: 72 of the last 87 tracked grants (83%) went to PA organizations, and FY2024's entire 15-grant list was effectively 100% Pennsylvania-based (with one New Jersey exception, The Decency Foundation). Target the right dollar ask — FY2024 grants ranged $2,000-$50,000 with a $25,000 median, so organizations positioning for a first-time $2,000-$10,000 'trial' grant (as with Academy of Natural Sciences, WHYY, and Urban Tree Connection) may have an easier entry point than requesting the $35,000-$50,000 tier reserved for established, multi-year grantees like HIAS Pennsylvania and the conservation groups. Expect multi-year continuity, not one-time grants: Council for Relationships, HIAS Pennsylvania, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and Wildlands Conservancy all show repeat funding across consecutive filings — once in, organizations tend to stay in rotation. A common mistake would be treating this like a typical open-RFP foundation and submitting through a generic grant portal — Austelle has none, and its website (austellefoundation.org) carries no grants portal, LOI form, or deadline calendar, only a Mission/Board/Recipients/Contact structure. Use mission-aligned language grounded in the foundation's own wording — 'strengthen communities through support of environmental initiatives, veterans' services organizations, and Islamic charities' — rather than generic nonprofit boilerplate.