Chesed Inc.

Chesed Inc is a small, closely held family foundation administered directly out of the Marcus Family Office LLC in Atlanta (1266 West Paces Ferry Rd Ste 615). Governance is thin by design: President Frederick R. Marcus and Director Nancy Dubois Marcus are the only compensated officers ($9,000 each, $18,000 total annually, unchanged across every filing year in the record), Treasurer Douglas Dinapoli runs day-to-day operations, and Directors Efraim Davidson, Frederick Slagle, and Sara Ognibene Loft serve without pay. There is no program staff, no grants portal, and the foundation's own database record confirms it: `application_instructions` is blank and `preselected_only` is flagged true — the same pattern documented at peer foundations sharing the 'Chesed' name (Chesed Foundation of America, run by the Karfunkel family, and Atlanta's own Zalik Foundation), both of which fund only within an existing relationship network and do not review unsolicited proposals.

The grantee history bears this out. Of the 104 recorded grants, a meaningful share (roughly a third of the top 50 recipients) went to organizations funded two or three separate times — Chabad Intown, Congregation Ateres Shoime, Aid L'Shalom, Beth Medrash Govoha, Indiana University Foundation, Ralston College, American Friends of the Israel Democracy Institute, and Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta all appear as repeat recipients. This is a loyalty-driven funder that re-ups on trusted relationships rather than rotating through new applicants each cycle.

The clearest documented entry point: Fred and Nancy Marcus personally served as named matching donors in Chabad Intown's community capital campaign, meaning the family's giving is directly tied to Atlanta's Chabad and Jewish day-school/campus-life ecosystem (Emory Jewish Student Center, Chabad at Emory, Chabad of Greater Greenville, Chabad at UCF, Tulane, University of Miami, and University of Alabama all appear in the grantee list). Organizations with a warm introduction through Chabad Intown, Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, or a sitting board member have a realistic shot; cold outreach from organizations outside Jewish education, Atlanta civic life, or family-connected causes (Marcus Autism Center/CHOA, Atlanta Autism Consortium, VA Highland Security Patrol, Galloway School) should be treated as a long shot.

Across the 104 grants in the available history, Chesed Inc has distributed $7,087,985 at an average of $68,154 per grant — but that average masks extreme concentration. The Chabad Intown ecosystem alone (a $2,125,000 capital-campaign gift plus $1,826,526 across three additional grants, plus a further $380,014 recorded under a variant name) totals roughly $4.33M, and Emory Jewish Student Center adds another $997,515 (a $872,515 gift plus $125,000 across two grants). Together these two relationships absorb close to 70% of every dollar tracked. Everything below that tier drops off sharply: Congregation Ateres Shoime ($175,000/3 grants), Children's Healthcare of Atlanta ($114,250), Chabad of Greater Greenville ($187,500 combined), and Atlanta Autism Consortium ($128,625 combined) round out the next band, with most remaining grantees receiving $5,000-$40,000.

The foundation's own typical-grant-size record (most recent dated cohort, n=20) shows a median of $17,500 against an average of $128,064 — confirming a barbell pattern of many small-to-mid grants alongside occasional seven-figure capital gifts. Range runs from $250 to $2,125,000.

Geographically, Georgia dominates with 51 of 104 grants (49%), followed by New York (12), Florida (8), and single-digit counts spread across DC, Connecticut, Indiana, South Carolina, New Jersey, California, and Washington — reflecting both the Atlanta home base and the family's Chabad/campus-network ties nationally.

Financially, the foundation is in mild contraction: total assets fell from $17.8M (FY2019) to $12.8M (FY2024), a 28% decline, while net investment income swung from $2.8M (2019) to just $461K (2022) before recovering to $3.3M-$4.0M in 2023-2024. Annual giving has been correspondingly volatile — $2.28M (2019), $2.16M (2020), $2.66M (2021), a sharp dip to $795K (2022), $2.61M (2023), and $1.86M (2024) — tracking large discretionary and capital-campaign gifts more than a fixed payout formula. Incoming contributions to the foundation are negligible most years ($0-$5,900), indicating Chesed Inc runs off its own endowment rather than ongoing donor replenishment.

Chesed Inc sits at the small end of this peer set — its $12.8M asset base is a fraction of the Marcus Foundation's $366.8M (an unrelated, much larger Atlanta funder founded by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus that happens to share the surname) and well below Zalik's $35.7M. What it shares with every peer here, regardless of size, is a closed application model: none of these four foundations solicit or review unsolicited proposals, and all route grantmaking through existing family and community relationships. Chesed Inc's niche within that landscape is narrower still — its giving is concentrated almost entirely in Atlanta Chabad/Jewish campus life plus a handful of family-connected civic and educational causes, rather than the broad, professionally staffed grantmaking these larger peers run.

The most recent filed year in the data (FY2024) shows total giving of $1,859,329 against total assets of $12,765,638, with officer compensation flat at $18,000 (unchanged since at least 2012). The clearest recent activity signal comes from outside the foundation's own filings: Fred and Nancy Marcus were named matching donors in Chabad Intown's 2025 community capital campaign (reported by the Atlanta Jewish Times and hosted on CauseMatch), a $300,000-goal campaign with three dollar-for-dollar matching donor groups funding operations and expansion into Chabad of Decatur and Chabad Midtown. This tracks directly with Chesed Inc's largest-ever recorded grant, a $2,125,000 Chabad Intown Capital Campaign gift, and three further grants to Chabad Intown totaling $1,826,526 — suggesting the Marcus family's Chabad Intown relationship has been an active, multi-year priority through at least 2025.

No leadership changes were identified: the people records show Frederick R. Marcus (President) and Nancy Dubois Marcus (Director) holding identical titles and compensation across every available filing year, with Douglas Dinapoli, Efraim Davidson, Frederick Slagle, and Sara Ognibene Loft as the consistent supporting board. No dedicated news coverage, annual report, or press release naming Chesed Inc or the Marcus Family Office LLC directly was found for 2025-2026 — typical for a foundation of this size and structure, whose visibility runs entirely through grantee-side announcements rather than its own communications.

Chesed Inc does not run an open application process — the foundation's own record leaves `application_instructions` blank and flags grants as preselected, consistent with every comparable Chesed-named or Marcus-family foundation reviewed. Unsolicited cold proposals mailed to the Marcus Family Office (1266 West Paces Ferry Rd Ste 615, Atlanta, GA 30327-2306 / 404-240-7700) are unlikely to be reviewed absent a prior relationship.

The realistic path in is through the network the grants already trace: Atlanta Chabad institutions (Chabad Intown, Chabad at Emory, and their satellite campaigns), Jewish campus life at Emory (Emory Jewish Student Center has received $997,515 across recorded grants), and national Chabad campus chapters (Tulane, University of Miami, UCF, University of Alabama) all appear repeatedly. Organizations in that ecosystem — or able to secure an introduction through Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, a three-time grantee — have by far the best odds.

A second, smaller lane exists for causes with a direct personal tie to a board member: Gonzaga University and Indiana University Foundation (likely alma mater connections for Slagle, Dinapoli, or Loft), Marcus Autism Center/Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Atlanta Autism Consortium (repeat, escalating small grants), and Atlanta neighborhood civic groups like VA Highland Security Patrol. If your organization doesn't fit either lane, a formal proposal is a poor use of time.

Where a relationship does exist, model the ask on the size tier that fits: most grants land at $5,000-$40,000 (median $17,500), so a first-time or annual-renewal ask in that range is far more realistic than requesting a capital-campaign-scale gift, which the foundation has shown it reserves for its closest, longest-standing relationship (Chabad Intown). Capital campaigns with a structured matching-gift component — as Chabad Intown ran in 2025 — appear to be an effective way past the informal 'preselected' barrier, since they give the family a defined, time-bound leadership-gift role rather than an open-ended commitment. Time any approach to the calendar year: the foundation's payout and grant decisions track its fiscal year (Dec year-end, per its 990-PF filings), so outreach in Q4 aligned with year-end giving decisions is more likely to land during active budget-setting.