Bazarsky Family Foundation

The Bazarsky Family Foundation is a small, trustee-run private foundation based in Middletown, RI, controlled entirely by David G. Bazarsky and Carol R. Bazarsky (both uncompensated trustees on every filing sampled). It is not built to process unsolicited applications: the foundation's IRS record flags it as "preselected only," its own website (bazarskyfamilyfoundation.org) is currently a bare placeholder reading "site under development," and there is no grants page, LOI form, application portal, or public deadline anywhere in its footprint. Third-party funder databases (Instrumentl, Cause IQ, GrantExec) independently confirm the foundation does not accept unsolicited requests for funds.

What this means practically: this is a relationship-driven, not a competitive-RFP, funder. Of the 122 grants captured in its recent giving history, 101 (83%) went to Rhode Island organizations, almost entirely clustered in Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth — the trustees' home community. A striking pattern in the top-grantee list is that most marquee recipients (Martin Luther King Center, Salve Regina University, Newport Hospital, Jewish Alliance of Rhode Island, St. Michael's Country Day School, Bike Newport, Preservation Society of Newport County, FabNewport, Newport Festivals Foundation, Island Moving Company, RISD Museum Associates, Congregation Jeshuat Israel, Worcester Academy) each show exactly 3 recorded grants — strong evidence of standing multi-year commitments rather than one-off competitive awards.

First-time applicants without an existing tie to the family should not expect a cold proposal to work. The realistic path in is community visibility: board or donor overlap with an existing grantee, a mutual contact in the Newport nonprofit or synagogue community (several grantees — Jewish Alliance of RI, Congregation Jeshuat Israel, Temple Shalom, The Newport Havurah — point to an active Jewish-community affiliation), or direct, personal outreach by phone or mail rather than email (no public contact email is listed). Organizations should lead with a modest, specific first ask matched to the foundation's typical single-grant size ($5,000 median, $12,043 average per the most recent 990-PF sample) rather than a large capital request, and let a track record of delivery earn a place in the apparent 3-year renewal cycle that its flagship partners enjoy.

Across the years captured in its Form 990-PF filings, the Bazarsky Family Foundation's assets grew from $8,908,885 (FY2019) to $11,449,485 (FY2024), a 28.5% increase. Annual giving nearly doubled over the same window: grants paid were $467,407 (2019), $481,701 (2020), $617,324 (2021), and peaked at $1,049,049 (2022, total giving $1,109,421) before easing to $855,783 (2023, total giving $905,344) and an estimated $928,369 across 42 awards in 2024 per third-party 990 aggregation. The foundation's own reported typical-grant-size statistics (n=40, most recent sample) show a median of $5,000, an average of $12,043, and a range of $100 to $71,000 for individual grant lines.

A broader cumulative snapshot of 122 recorded grants totaling $2,522,156 (average $20,673) shows the size distribution is heavily skewed by a small number of flagship, multi-year relationships: Martin Luther King Center ($398,668 across 3 grants, avg. $132,889/grant), Salve Regina University ($276,000/3, avg. $92,000 — a college scholarship fund), Boys & Girls Clubs of Newport County ($216,400/2, avg. $108,200), Newport Hospital ($210,500/3, avg. $70,167), and Jewish Alliance of Rhode Island ($156,327/3). Below that flagship tier, the bulk of grants cluster at $3,000-$30,000, and a distinct group of civic recipients (Middletown, Newport, and Portsmouth public libraries) each receive an identical, apparently standing $6,000.

Geographically, giving is overwhelmingly local: 101 of 122 grants (83%) went to Rhode Island organizations, with Massachusetts a distant second (10 grants) and single scattered gifts to Alaska (3), Georgia, California, Connecticut (2), Florida, Maryland, New York, and Arizona — likely reflecting personal or family connections rather than programmatic expansion. By program area, education and youth services account for roughly a third of dollars (MLK Center's food/nutrition program, Salve Regina, Boys & Girls Clubs, Boys Town of New England, St. Michael's, FabNewport, Worcester Academy, scholarship funds); health draws about 13% (Newport Hospital, JDRF New England, Newport Mental Health); arts, culture, and historic preservation another 13% (Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport Festivals Foundation, Island Moving Company, RISD Museum, Newport Classical); and Jewish community/religious life roughly 7% (Jewish Alliance of RI, Congregation Jeshuat Israel, Temple Shalom, The Newport Havurah).

All five peers sit within roughly $11.4M-$11.5M in assets — an unusually tight asset band that suggests these are algorithmically matched by size rather than by mission, and none currently lists a public website in the data available. This is itself informative: none of these similarly sized family-type foundations, including Bazarsky, operate a visible public grants program, reinforcing that quiet, invitation-only giving is the norm at this asset tier rather than an idiosyncrasy of this particular funder. Grant seekers should not expect any foundation in this peer set to run a competitive open RFP process.

No 2025 or 2026 news coverage, press releases, or grant announcements for the Bazarsky Family Foundation surfaced in web search — the only independently reported news item found was a May 2017 article noting the foundation funded a Little Kids Rock music-education program for Newport Public Schools. There is no evidence of a leadership change: David G. Bazarsky and Carol R. Bazarsky are listed as the sole trustees (both uncompensated) across every filing year sampled in the underlying data.

The most concrete recent signal is financial rather than editorial: FY2024 IRS data show total assets rising to $11,449,485 and total revenue of $2,161,721, with third-party aggregators reporting roughly $928,369 distributed across 42 awards for the year — consistent with the plateaued-but-steady giving level the foundation has held since 2023, following its 2022 peak of just over $1.1M in total giving.

One notable operational fact for outreach purposes: as of this report, bazarskyfamilyfoundation.org displays only a "site under development" placeholder, meaning the foundation currently has no live public-facing description of its mission, programs, or application process — grant seekers cannot rely on the foundation's own site for guidance and should instead work from its IRS Form 990-PF filing history and local relationship channels.

There is no formal application process to follow here — no LOI form, no online portal, no published deadline, and (as of this report) no functioning foundation website. The IRS record explicitly flags the foundation as "preselected only," and every third-party funder database that tracks it (Instrumentl, Cause IQ, GrantExec) independently confirms it does not accept unsolicited requests for funds. Treat any application-style outreach as a long shot unless it comes with a personal introduction.

Practical steps that improve the odds: focus only on organizations with genuine, verifiable presence in Newport County, RI (Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth) — 83% of the foundation's dollars stay there, and out-of-state gifts appear tied to personal family connections rather than open opportunity. Look for board, donor, or staff overlap with existing grantees such as Newport Hospital, Salve Regina University, the Preservation Society of Newport County, or Jewish Alliance of Rhode Island, since the same organizations recur as apparent 3-year pledge partners rather than one-time awardees. Given the active pattern of support for Jewish community institutions (Jewish Alliance of RI, Congregation Jeshuat Israel, Temple Shalom, The Newport Havurah), organizations with ties to that community may find a more natural entry point.

Because no public email address is listed, initial contact is more credible by phone — (401) 847-8442 — or by mail addressed care of David G. Bazarsky at 678 Aquidneck Avenue, Middletown, RI 02842-5795 — than by a mass-distributed email LOI, which the foundation is not set up to process. Pitch a modest, specific first ask: the median recorded single grant is $5,000 and the average is $12,043, so a $5,000-$15,000 request tied to a named program (e.g., a food-assistance initiative, a youth program, a historic-preservation project, a library acquisition fund) will read as more credible than a large capital ask, which the foundation appears to reserve for organizations with years of established trust. A common mistake would be leading with general-operating-support language; every recorded grant purpose in the data is tied to a specific, named program or use, so mirror that specificity. Because private foundations must pay out roughly 5% of assets annually and year-end board decisions typically shape the following year's giving, outreach in spring or summer (Q2-Q3) is more likely to land ahead of budget-setting than a Q4 approach.