Coby Foundation Ltd

The Coby Foundation, Ltd. operates as one of the very few U.S. foundations exclusively dedicated to textiles, fashion, and needle arts — a hyper-specialized position it has held since its founding in 1994 by Irene Zambelli Silverman in honor of her mother Irene Meladakis Zambelli, described as "the finest needlewoman in New York." After beginning formal grantmaking in 2002, the foundation has now distributed over $10 million to more than 200 projects, with Executive Director Margi Hofer (contact: margi@cobyfoundation.org) stewarding a six-member board chaired by Dr. Leslie Shanken.

The foundation strongly favors established 501(c)(3) museums and cultural institutions over emerging nonprofits, individual artists, or academic departments. Grantee patterns in the database make this clear: the Metropolitan Museum of Art has received $200,000 across two grants, Cooper-Hewitt $130,000 across two, and Bard Graduate Center $120,000 across three grants. The Guggenheim, Smithsonian, RISD Museum, and MASS MoCA appear repeatedly. New entrants typically receive $12,000–$30,000 on first award, building toward larger commitments over multiple cycles.

The standard relationship arc: complete the eligibility quiz at cobyfoundation.org/inquiry/, then email a 1–2-page LOI to Margi Hofer. Expect a two-week turnaround. If invited, submit a full proposal using the Philanthropy New York Common Application format — one printed copy (binder clip, 12-point type) and one PDF, including ten color visuals with captions. The foundation reviews proposals three times annually in January, May, and September.

First-time applicants should note the absolute restrictions: no salary support, no overhead, no capital projects, no fellowships or courses at degree-granting institutions. Only direct project costs qualify. Eligible cost types include exhibition production, conservation materials, consultant fees, documentation, publications, digital projects, and direct public programming.

The foundation's informal tone is worth matching: there is no cold RFP portal, no letter-of-intent form. A concise, mission-aligned email to Margi Hofer is the entry point. Warm outreach — even a brief call to (646) 504-5450 before submitting — can clarify whether your project fits the current cycle's priorities and flag any alignment gaps before you invest in a full LOI.

The Coby Foundation's grantmaking has scaled from $347,400 (2012) to a record $850,000 (2025), a 145% increase over thirteen years. Assets have grown in parallel — from approximately $7.3 million in 2012 to $16.8 million in the most recent filing — driven entirely by net investment income. The foundation receives zero contributions from outside donors; it is a pure endowment-based funder, which means its giving capacity tracks equity markets closely. Net investment income reached $2.44 million in 2021 and $2.04 million in 2022, enabling the post-2020 grant surge.

Annual grants paid: $356,525 (2011), $347,400 (2012), $369,500 (2013), $392,000 (2014), $475,000 (2015), $596,000 (2020), $634,500 (2021), $500,000 (2022), $753,500 (2023), $789,000 (2024), $850,000 (2025).

Across 75 tracked grants in the database, the average award is $29,740. The foundation's stated typical range is $25,000–$75,000, but actual awards span $10,000 (Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Mattatuck Museum) to $200,000 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, across two grants). Multi-year commitments have pushed single-organization totals higher: Greater Hudson Heritage Network received $80,000 in 2024 and $155,000 over three years in 2025.

Geographic distribution is sharply skewed: New York State receives 53% of all tracked grants (40 of 75). Massachusetts follows at 16% (12 grants), then Connecticut at 8% (6), Pennsylvania at 7% (5), and Washington DC at 5% (4). New Jersey (3), Maryland (2), Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island (1 each) account for the remainder. Institutions anchored in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New York City dominate the repeat-recipient list.

By category, exhibitions account for approximately 85–90% of all grants by count, though conservation and digitization projects have grown as a share since 2022. The 2025 cycle also introduced a commissioned live performance (Performa, $25,000) and community textile-making projects, suggesting the foundation is cautiously broadening its definition of eligible activities beyond traditional museum exhibitions.

Coby stands apart from its asset-comparable peers in a critical and practical way: it is the only foundation in this tier with a public-facing website, a transparent application process, an active contact person, and disclosed annual giving figures. None of the four peer foundations listed above operate accessible public grant portals or publish annual grantee lists.

Within the narrower landscape of textile-and-craft funders, Coby's closest functional analogues are the Windgate Charitable Foundation (craft education, national scope, invitation-only) and the James Renwick Alliance (decorative arts, smaller scale). Neither restricts to textiles, and Windgate operates invitation-only — making Coby the most accessible specialized textiles funder in the Mid-Atlantic and New England, and arguably in the country. For regional museum and cultural institutions working in this space, Coby has no true peer and should be treated as a category-defining target.

The headline development for 2025 is the Coby Foundation's record-breaking grant cycle: $850,000 distributed to 26 organizations, an 8% increase over 2024's $789,000 and the largest single-year commitment in the foundation's 24-year grantmaking history. The announcement was covered by artdaily.com and described a majority focus on contemporary living artists working in fiber.

Major 2025 awards: Metropolitan Museum of Art ($80,000, Raphael tapestries); Japan Society ($50,000, Chiharu Shiota WWII anniversary installation); Museum at FIT ($50,000, Fashion and Psychoanalysis exhibition); ArtsWestchester/City Lore/Pioneer Works ($50,000, House Ballroom fashion); Smithsonian Asian American Pacific Museum ($50,000, Filipino American stories); Peabody Essex Museum ($40,000, Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World); College of the Holy Cross ($44,000, Vietnamese áo dài and nationalism); and Greater Hudson Heritage Network ($155,000 over three years, textile conservation).

Also in 2025, the foundation pre-committed grants for exhibitions opening in 2026 and 2027, including the Guggenheim Museum's Do Ho Suh retrospective — demonstrating a willingness to award funds one to two years in advance of exhibition opening dates. The three-year conservation grant to Greater Hudson Heritage Network marks the first multi-year commitment observed in public records, potentially signaling a new program track. Margi Hofer serves as the primary grant contact; IRS filings list Ward L.E. Mintz as Executive Director through at least FY2023.

Lead with textiles as the primary lens, not a secondary theme. The foundation has declined projects where fashion or fiber arts are adjacent to a larger narrative. Every recent funded project — from Raphael's tapestry cartoons to House Ballroom runway culture to Mohawk weaving traditions — makes textiles the interpretive center. If your exhibition uses a garment as one artifact among many, reframe the proposal around what the garment reveals about material culture.

Emphasize underrepresented artists, communities, or collections. The foundation's stated priority language — "innovative scholarship, underrepresented artists and cultures, or textile collections that have been inadequately studied" — is not boilerplate. In 2024–2025, this produced grants for Filipino American stories, Vietnamese fashion, Indigenous Mohawk arts, African American fiber arts, and House Ballroom fashion. Projects advancing well-known canonical narratives compete harder; projects that open new territory in textiles scholarship are distinctive.

Time your LOI to the review calendar. The foundation reviews recommended proposals in January, May, and September. LOIs submitted in September–November align to January review. January–February aligns to May. April–May aligns to September. There are no hard LOI deadlines, but submitting three to four months before a review cycle gives adequate lead time for the two-week response and full proposal preparation.

Write a budget that isolates direct costs only. Staff salaries, overhead, indirect costs, and institutional administrative fees are explicitly ineligible. Build your project budget line-by-line around direct costs: conservation materials, catalogue design and printing, consultant and scholar fees, travel for research, exhibition fabrication, digitization costs, and direct programming expenses. A budget that includes a "15% overhead" line will not advance.

Conservation and collection-access projects have a dedicated lane. Two of the highest 2025 awards went to collection access and conservation work — Greater Hudson Heritage Network ($155,000 over three years) and Historic Richmondtown ($30,000 for shoe collection digitization). If your institution holds underdocumented or at-risk textile collections, this is a distinct funding pathway independent of mounting a new exhibition.

Study the repeat grantees. Metropolitan Museum of Art (3+ awards), Bard Graduate Center (3 awards), Museum at FIT (2+ awards), Cooper-Hewitt (2 awards), and Katonah Museum of Art (2 awards) set the benchmark for what strong Coby proposals look like. Review their funded exhibition catalogues and public programming materials to understand the scholarly depth and interpretive clarity the foundation expects.