Damar Foundation Inc.

Damar Foundation Inc. is a small, closely held family private foundation based in Kew Gardens, Queens, NY, recognized by the IRS in April 2019 (EIN 82-3626851). It is NOT affiliated with Damar Services, Inc. of Indianapolis, IN (EIN 46-4444224) despite the near-identical name — our own record's website field (damar.org) actually belongs to that unrelated Indianapolis disability-services nonprofit, and grant seekers should disregard its content entirely when approaching this funder.

With total assets of $3.39M (FY2024) and annual giving ranging from $73,176 (2019) to a peak of $318,213 (2022), this is a modest, non-operating grantmaking vehicle run entirely by uncompensated family directors — Michelle Arbesfeld Salig and David Arbesfeld, with Pnina Arbesfeld appearing in earlier filings. There is no professional program staff, no publicly posted RFP, and no formal multi-stage review process (LOI, full proposal, site visit) of the kind found at larger foundations.

Grantmaking is overwhelmingly relationship- and community-driven: of 212 tracked grants, 185 (87%) went to New York organizations and 21 to New Jersey, with only a handful to DC and PA, and nearly every recipient is an Orthodox Jewish religious, educational, or social-service organization (yeshivos, shuls, bikur cholim/chesed societies, Israel-based charities). The Form 990-PF lists "General Purpose of Charity" as the sole purpose category across virtually every award, signaling the foundation doesn't require or track detailed program narratives — it funds trusted organizations, not competing project proposals.

First-time applicants should understand this operates more like a personal family tzedakah fund than an institutional grantmaker. Third-party listings describe it as "open for unsolicited proposals," but the realistic path in is a warm introduction or a brief, direct written appeal to the Arbesfeld family rather than a competitive application process. Grantees skew toward organizations serving the Five Towns/Queens/greater-NY Orthodox Jewish community, and many appear as repeat recipients across multiple years — median second-year gifts (~$4,000) run roughly four times median first-year gifts (~$1,000) per aggregator data — suggesting loyalty to established relationships outweighs funding new organizations.

Damar Foundation Inc.'s giving is small-dollar and high-volume relative to its asset base. In FY2023, the most recent year with complete grants data, it paid out $208,053 in grants ($212,497 total giving) against $3.34M in assets — a payout rate of roughly 6.2%, above the 5% federal minimum distribution requirement. FY2022 saw a spike to $318,213 in giving (grants paid $287,549), likely fueled by outsized net investment income of $812,696 booked in FY2021 flowing through to distributable funds the following year. By contrast, FY2019 and FY2020 giving was much smaller — $73,176 and $95,610 respectively — reflecting the foundation's smaller asset base (~$2.79M-$2.88M) shortly after its 2019 IRS recognition.

Grant size is consistently modest: across 212 tracked awards totaling $817,736, the average grant is $3,857, and the foundation's own typical-grant-size profile (38 sampled grants) shows a median of $2,150, a mean of $3,869, and a full range of $100 to $25,000. Third-party data corroborates this at the annual level: in the 2024 filing year, the median first-time grant was approximately $1,000 and the median repeat/second-year grant approximately $4,000 — evidence that new grantees start small and see amounts grow only after an established relationship.

The single largest cumulative recipient is Yeshiva University Women's Organization at $75,000 across 3 grants, followed by Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst ($50,650/4 grants), Migdal Ohr ($45,000/4 grants), and roughly a dozen other Orthodox Jewish institutions in the $20,000-$36,000 cumulative range (Renewal, MDS Foundation, Chasdei Yisroel, Samchainu, Aish Kodesh, Manhattan Jewish Experience). Below that tier, the list tapers quickly into $2,000-$15,000 cumulative gifts spread across dozens of smaller yeshivos, shuls, chesed organizations, and Israel-based charities.

Geographically, funding is almost entirely New York-concentrated: 185 of 212 grants (87%) to NY organizations, 21 (10%) to NJ, and just 4 combined to DC and PA — consistent with the foundation's stated NY/NJ geographic focus. There is no evidence of programmatic diversification by sector; effectively 100% of tracked grant purposes are coded "General Purpose of Charity," and the recipient roster is almost exclusively Jewish religious, educational, and human-service organizations rather than split across health, arts, or secular causes.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (all cluster within roughly $800 of each other at ~$3.39M) and a shared NTEE "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" classification — not on giving focus, geography, or application posture, and none carry a public website in our records, so there is no comparable data on their giving levels or program focus beyond the IRS classification. That actually makes Damar Foundation Inc. more transparent than its asset-matched peer set by default: it has an identifiable, named board (the Arbesfeld family), a documented multi-year grants history with 212 tracked awards, and third-party aggregator confirmation that it accepts unsolicited proposals, whereas trusts like J Donald Lewis Trust and Herbert B Boehl Charitable Trust give no public signal of process at all. Grant seekers should treat this peer group less as "similarly accessible funders" and more as "similarly small, single-family giving vehicles" — the more useful comparison set for strategy purposes is other small Orthodox Jewish community foundations in the greater NY/NJ area, not this asset-matched cohort.

Public information about Damar Foundation Inc. is sparse — this is a low-profile family foundation with no press office, no social media presence, and no news coverage identified in a 2025-2026 search. The most recent concrete data point is the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed November 7, 2025, reporting total assets of $3,392,235, revenue of $261,917, and charitable disbursements of roughly $206,700-$211,000 across an estimated 57 grantees — a giving level essentially flat versus FY2023's $208,053 in grants paid, following the FY2022 spike to $287,549 tied to strong FY2021 investment returns ($812,696 in net investment income that year).

No leadership changes have surfaced: Michelle Arbesfeld Salig and David Arbesfeld continue to serve as the foundation's uncompensated directors, the same roles they and the late Pnina Arbesfeld held in prior filings. No new program announcements, RFPs, or public statements of shifted funding priorities were found in any 2025-2026 source.

Given the consistency of the recipient list year over year — largely the same roster of NY/NJ Orthodox Jewish institutions, with Yeshiva University Women's Organization, Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, and Migdal Ohr among the largest cumulative recipients — the safest assumption for prospective applicants is continuity rather than change: this remains a steady, relationship-based family giving vehicle rather than one actively expanding its applicant pool or public profile. Grant seekers should not expect a website relaunch, a staff hire, or a formal grants portal in the near term; engagement will most likely continue to run through direct, personal outreach to the Arbesfeld family.

Since Damar Foundation Inc. publishes no formal grants portal, deadline, or application form (both application_form_url and application_deadline are blank across IRS and aggregator records), the effective playbook looks very different from a program-officer-staffed foundation:

• Lead with a warm introduction. This is a two-person family board (Michelle Arbesfeld Salig and David Arbesfeld) with no program staff, so a cold, generic proposal is unlikely to be read the way it would at an institutional funder. Seek an introduction through a shared shul, yeshiva, or community organization already on the grantee list — Yeshiva University Women's Organization, Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, Migdal Ohr, Chasdei Yisroel, and Aish Kodesh are all established relationships worth using as reference points or conversation starters if you have any connection to them.
• Keep the ask concrete and modest for a first approach. Median first-time grants run about $1,000, versus roughly $4,000 for organizations in their second year of support — so a realistic opening ask is in the hundreds to low thousands of dollars, not a five- or six-figure program grant. Escalation appears to happen only after a track record is established.
• Write to "General Purpose of Charity," not a specific program. Every tracked grant purpose in the 990-PF is coded identically — this foundation is funding organizational operations and community trust, not competing project proposals, so a simple, honest letter describing your organization's mission and current need will likely outperform an elaborate logic-model proposal.
• Align with the Orthodox Jewish community focus. 185 of 212 tracked grants (87%) went to New York organizations, almost all Orthodox Jewish religious, educational, or chesed/social-service institutions, with a secondary cluster in New Jersey (21 grants). Organizations outside this community and geography, or working in unrelated causes, are a weak fit regardless of program quality.
• Ignore damar.org. That domain, listed in some aggregator and internal records, actually belongs to an unrelated Indianapolis, IN disability-services nonprofit (Damar Services, Inc., EIN 46-4444224) — do not use its "How to Apply" content, contact forms, or program language when approaching this foundation; doing so will misdirect your outreach entirely.
• Time outreach for after calendar year-end, once the board has visibility into that year's distributable income, and avoid the September-November window immediately preceding the 990-PF filing deadline, when the family's attention is on tax-filing rather than new requests.