Claws Foundation

Claws Foundation is a closely held family vehicle for Susquehanna International Group co-founders Arthur Dantchik and Jeff Yass, administered day-to-day by Sterling Foundation Management LLC out of Reston, VA, with all three directors (Dantchik, Yass, and attorney Alan P. Dye) listed at $0 compensation. There is no program staff, no published RFP, and application_instructions in IRS filings literally read 'NONE PRESCRIBED' — this is a relationship-driven, invitation-leaning funder rather than a competitive-application shop, even though it will accept an unsolicited inquiry at grants@clawsfoundation.org. First-time applicants should not expect a portal, a scored rubric, or a program officer relationship; expect either silence or a direct, informal exchange with the trustees or Sterling staff.

The grantee list reveals three durable affinity clusters: (1) marquee Philadelphia and New York health/medical-research institutions (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Wistar Institute, Thomas Jefferson University — reflecting Susquehanna's Bala Cynwyd, PA roots), (2) Jewish communal and educational organizations (Shalom Hartman Institute, PEF Israel Endowment, American Friends of Hebrew University, Meor), and (3) libertarian/free-market policy organizations (Institute for Justice, Cato Institute, Reason Foundation, Mercatus Center, FIRE, Ayn Rand Institute) consistent with Yass's well-documented political and ideological giving. Roughly 40% of the $187 million in grants captured in this database, however, flows to Silver Valley Research Foundation and Fidelity Charitable — pass-through/DAF vehicles, not operating charities — so the 'real' addressable pool of direct-to-nonprofit funding is smaller than the topline total suggests.

The relationship progression here is not LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit in the conventional sense; it is closer to 'get inside the network, then get invited.' Grant counts to top recipients (4-5 grants each to CHOP, Wistar, Women In Need, RefugePoint, Save the Children, Franklin Institute) show the foundation strongly favors renewing multi-year relationships over one-off gifts. A first ask should be modest, specific, and explicitly tied to one of the three affinity clusters — cold, generic requests outside health, Jewish causes, Philadelphia/NY civic life, or free-market policy are unlikely to land regardless of proposal quality.

Across the 126 grants tracked in this database (total $187,055,396, average $1,484,567), giving is heavily concentrated: the top two recipients — Silver Valley Research Foundation ($43.1M/4 grants) and Fidelity Charitable ($31.1M/5 grants) — together absorb roughly 40% of all tracked dollars, and both function as pass-through or donor-advised vehicles rather than direct-service charities. Strip those out and the largest true operating-charity relationships are Children's Hospital of Philadelphia ($23.05M/5 grants), Wistar Institute ($16.05M/5 grants), Shalom Hartman Institute ($13M/4 grants), Women In Need ($10.54M/5 grants), and RefugePoint ($10.5M/5 grants).

The foundation's own typical_grant_size data (n=38) puts the median grant at $100,000, average $955,550, and a wide range from $2,500 to $10.3 million — a barbell distribution of many small ($10K-$100K) relationship grants alongside a handful of multi-million-dollar anchor gifts. The libertarian policy cluster illustrates the small end: Institute for Justice $1M (1 grant), Cato Institute $800K (1 grant), Reason Foundation $500K, Students for Liberty $375K, Mercatus Center $300K, Atlas Network/Competitive Enterprise Institute/FIRE $100K each, down to Ayn Rand Institute ($30K) and American Enterprise Institute ($25K).

Geographically, funding is dominated by New York (42 grants) and Pennsylvania (36 grants — Philadelphia institutions), with Washington DC (13) and Virginia (7, the foundation's Reston base) as secondary hubs; Connecticut, Kentucky, and New Jersey each see 5 grants.

Year-over-year giving is volatile and tied to the founders' liquidity events rather than a steady payout policy: grants paid ran $45.4M (2021), $37.6M (2022), $36.3M (2020), and $30.15M (2023), while contributions received swung from $111M (2020) to $0 (2021) to $142K (2022) to $27.9M (2023). Total assets fell from $80.9M (FY2020) to $6.2M (FY2024), and FY2024 revenue was just $376,718 — consistent with outside reporting that 2024 distributions dropped to an estimated $18.5 million across only 22 grants, the leanest cycle in this dataset.

The five matched peers share Claws Foundation's exact NTEE bucket (Philanthropy & Grantmaking, T20) and near-identical asset levels (~$6.17M-6.18M), but none have public websites, grant histories, or program data in this database — they appear to be small, professionally administered family foundations similar in structure to Claws (which is itself run by a third-party administrator, Sterling Foundation Management LLC) rather than direct programmatic peers. This makes Claws an outlier in its own peer set: it is the only one with a documented $187M+ cumulative grants history, a named donor network (Yass/Dantchik), and active, if informal, inquiry channel. Applicants should not expect the peer foundations to offer a comparable or easier path — Claws is materially more active and more identifiable as a funding target than any foundation in its immediate asset-band cohort.

The most recent primary Form 990-PF was filed November 13, 2025, with the foundation's public profile last updated January 16, 2026 — indicating routine, ongoing compliance activity but no major public announcement, leadership change, or new program launch identified in this research window. Reported FY2024 activity shows total assets of $6.2 million, revenue of just $376,718, and (per third-party aggregation) roughly $18.5 million distributed across 22 grants, the smallest annual grant count in the dataset's recent history.

Disclosed FY2024 awards include $5 million to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, $3 million to Thomas Jefferson University, and $1.5 million to the Alliance for Decision Education — all consistent with the foundation's long-running health/medical-research and Philadelphia-area education focus. No new grantees or focus-area pivots were identified in 2025-2026 reporting; coverage instead centers on the founders' broader political and philanthropic footprint (the April 2024 CNBC investigation into Jeff Yass's network's role in school-choice and judicial funding remains the most substantive recent press, though it treats Claws as one vehicle among several rather than the primary subject).

Leadership has been stable throughout: Arthur Dantchik, Jeff Yass, and Alan P. Dye have served as the foundation's only directors since its 2004 founding, all uncompensated, with Sterling Foundation Management LLC providing administrative infrastructure. Given the sharp asset decline from $80.9 million (2020) to $6.2 million (2024), applicants should watch for either a new large contribution (as occurred in 2020 and 2023) that would re-fund the payout capacity, or a continued wind-down toward smaller, more selective annual grantmaking.

Claws Foundation has no formal application form, no published deadline, and application_instructions in its own IRS filing read 'NONE PRESCRIBED' — treat every interaction as informal correspondence with a small family office, not a grants department. Send a concise (1-2 page) inquiry to grants@clawsfoundation.org rather than a fully developed proposal; multiple third-party sources describing this funder specifically warn against leading with a long, unsolicited proposal package. Include: a one-paragraph project summary, the specific dollar amount requested, expected outcomes, and your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter — the foundation's stated restriction is '501(c)(3) charitable organizations only,' with no exceptions noted.

Alignment matters more than polish. The grant history shows three clear affinity lanes — (1) health/medical research, especially Philadelphia institutions (CHOP, Wistar, Thomas Jefferson University) and children's health; (2) Jewish communal, educational, and Israel-focused organizations (Shalom Hartman Institute, PEF Israel Endowment, Hebrew University); and (3) libertarian/free-market policy organizations (Cato, Institute for Justice, Reason, Mercatus, FIRE). An inquiry that doesn't map cleanly onto one of these three lanes, or onto the secondary Philadelphia/New York arts-and-culture footprint (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dia Art Foundation, The Public Theater), is unlikely to get traction regardless of writing quality.

Because 4-5 grants each went to top recipients like CHOP, Wistar, Women In Need, RefugePoint, and Save the Children, this funder strongly favors renewing existing relationships over new one-off gifts — budget for a multi-year cultivation process rather than a single-ask campaign. A warm introduction through an existing grantee, a Susquehanna International Group-adjacent contact, or a Philadelphia/DC nonprofit network carries real weight given the foundation's informal, network-driven review process.

Common mistakes to avoid: submitting a generic proposal outside the three affinity lanes; requesting funding for political campaigns or lobbying (the foundation's IRS classification restricts it to charitable 501(c)(3) purposes only); and expecting a formal rejection or feedback — several sources note responses are not guaranteed. Timing-wise, distributions have shrunk from $45.4M (2021) to an estimated $18.5M (2024) as assets fell to $6.2M, so overall capacity is currently constrained; a large new contribution from Dantchik or Yass (as occurred in 2020 and 2023) would be the signal that renewed capacity is available.