De Beaumont Foundation Inc.

The De Beaumont Foundation operates as a strategic operating foundation — a distinction that changes everything about how to engage with this funder. It does not accept unsolicited grant proposals. Rather than issuing open RFPs, the foundation identifies systemic failures in the governmental public health ecosystem, designs solutions, and then recruits partner organizations to implement them. This is not a door you can knock on; it is a door you must be invited through.

With $163.5M in assets and $11.2M in total giving in FY2023, the foundation directs most of its charitable expenditure through internally-operated programs and fiscal agent relationships. In FY2023, only $1.7M of the $11.2M total giving flowed as direct grants to external organizations — roughly 15%. The remainder funds initiatives like PH WINS, CityHealth, and Health Action Alliance, which have dedicated foundation staff.

The foundation strongly favors national-scope organizations with demonstrated reach into state and local governmental public health departments. Top grantees — Drexel University (13 grants, $1.6M), American Public Health Association (7 grants, $1.6M), Changelab Solutions (7 grants, $814K), Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (7 grants, $533K) — have each maintained relationships spanning five or more years. These are implementation arms for foundation-initiated programs, not independently-conceived project grantees.

Geographic concentration in DC (40 grantees), Massachusetts (30), Pennsylvania (21), and Virginia (15) reflects an emphasis on national policy and research infrastructure, not community-level direct service providers — with the BUILD Health Challenge awards as the principal exception.

Relationship-building is not optional — it is the mechanism. New partners typically enter through: co-presenting at the APHA Annual Meeting, participating in Grantmakers in Health forums, or being recruited as subject-matter experts into foundation-initiated research. CEO Brian Castrucci, DrPH, maintains an active public profile accessible through academic publishing and national conference circuits.

Organizations should position themselves as technical assistance providers, evaluators, or subject-matter experts aligned with three strategic pillars: advancing public health practice, building cross-sector partnerships, and strengthening the voice of public health. A credible first ask is a $15,000-$40,000 conference sponsorship or small research contribution — not a program implementation grant.

The De Beaumont Foundation's grantmaking concentrates resources among a compact set of trusted partners, producing a bifurcated distribution: a $25,000 median grant and a $79,698 average, with the gap explained by several large multi-year commitments anchoring the portfolio.

Across 68 grants in the foundation's 990 data, amounts range from $1,000 to $1,443,600. The upper end is dominated by the Vose River Charitable Fund — a fiscal agent relationship channeling $4.4M across 4 transactions for BUILD Health Challenge and CityHealth. These are better understood as internal program accounting than competitive external grants.

For direct partner organizations, the operative grant range runs $15,000-$500,000, with the majority of awards falling in the $20,000-$125,000 band. BUILD Health Challenge community site awards cluster at $100,000-$124,900 per site, with COVID rapid-response supplements adding $4,000-$24,600. The largest single independent grant visible in the data is $500,000 to the National Foundation for the CDC for the Health Action Alliance.

Total giving has ranged from $11.2M (FY2023) to $14.2M (FY2021, pandemic-era peak), with a consistent multi-year average near $12-13M: - FY2021: $14.2M (COVID surge) - FY2022: $12.4M - FY2023: $11.2M - FY2020: $11.4M - FY2019: $13.5M

Direct grants paid to external organizations were substantially lower: $1.7M (FY2023), $2.9M (FY2022), $5.4M (FY2021), $3.1M (FY2020), and $6.0M (FY2019). The gap between total giving and grants paid reflects substantial investment in foundation-staffed programs.

By program area, public health workforce development commands the largest share — PH WINS, ASTHO partnerships, and workforce ratio studies account for an estimated 35-40% of grant dollars. Community health partnerships through BUILD Challenge sites account for roughly 30-35%. Health communications (Public Good Projects, APHA sponsorships, CommunicateHealth) contribute 15-20%. General operating support to national public health associations (NACCHO, Trust for America's Health, Council on Foundations) makes up the remaining 10-15%.

Geography skews decisively toward national policy hubs. BUILD Challenge rounds have distributed awards across NC, TX, WI, CA, NV, and other states — making BUILD the primary mechanism through which community organizations in non-hub states have received funding.

The table below compares De Beaumont to peers by asset size (from IRS data) and selected health-focused funders for programmatic context.

De Beaumont stands out among similarly-capitalized foundations as one of the few with a tightly-defined national public health mission paired with a strict non-solicitation model. While Ruderman (disability rights) and the Blue Cross Mississippi Foundation (regional health) represent health-adjacent comparison points, neither operates the kind of deep federal workforce policy engagement that characterizes De Beaumont's programs.

For programmatic fit, De Beaumont's true peers — the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (~$12B assets, ~$400M annual giving) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (~$9B assets) — are an order of magnitude larger. De Beaumont occupies a distinctive middle position: large enough to sustain multi-year national initiatives but focused enough to concentrate in a single strategic domain. This specificity is both its strength and its principal barrier to entry.

The foundation has been notably active through late 2025 and into early 2026, with multiple announcements reflecting a sharpening focus on public health communications and workforce equity.

In October 2025, the foundation announced a grant to Science to People, a Boston-based nonprofit, for VeriSci — an AI-powered platform providing public health communicators access to over 10 million peer-reviewed sources. CEO Brian Castrucci, DrPH, cited the 'politicized and fragmented media environment' in the announcement, signaling that countering health misinformation is becoming a formal, sustained program priority rather than an ad hoc initiative.

In February 2025, the foundation launched its Workforce Advisory Council — a formal governance structure for stakeholder input on workforce development strategy, an escalation from the data-only role of PH WINS.

December 2025 produced two releases: the fourth class of 40 Under 40 in Public Health honorees and the 'Communicating About Public Health with Policymakers' toolkit, co-developed with CommunicateHealth from research with former state and local elected officials.

A January 2026 report documented persistent gender pay and leadership gaps in governmental public health — extending PH WINS into explicit workforce equity analysis for the first time as a headline finding.

No major leadership transitions have been announced. Brian Castrucci has served as President & CEO continuously, with compensation growing from $361,047 to $395,175 across four 990 reporting periods. Ariel Moyer continues as COO ($287,783 most recent compensation). Board Chair James B. Sprague, MD, has maintained his role throughout. The foundation's compensation to directors ($25,000 per board member annually) is consistent year over year, suggesting stable governance.

Because the De Beaumont Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, conventional grant writing advice is largely irrelevant. What follows is specific to the De Beaumont engagement model.

Engage through their ecosystem, not their inbox. The foundation's grantee network is its relationship map. Grantmakers in Health is the highest-leverage entry point: De Beaumont has paid $70,500 in GIH membership and conference sponsorships visible in 990 data, and their staff are consistently present at the spring GIH Annual Conference. Membership ($1,000-$5,000/year) places your organization in direct proximity.

Anchor every communication to PH WINS. The Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey is the foundation's flagship data asset, offering state-by-state workforce trend data publicly available at debeaumont.org. Citing specific PH WINS findings — and articulating exactly how your work addresses quantified gaps — signals analytical sophistication and mission alignment.

Frame around governmental public health, not the sector broadly. The foundation's operational focus is on state and local governmental health departments — not hospitals, community health centers, or academic research centers working in isolation. Any pitch must demonstrate a direct pathway to improving the capacity of governmental agencies.

Demonstrate national or multi-state replicability. Single-city programs are rarely fundable unless they serve as proof-of-concept models for larger rollout. De Beaumont thinks in national systems, not local interventions.

Lead with cross-sector partnership structure. Their theory of change explicitly centers on connecting health systems, community organizations, and governmental agencies. Programs operating within one sector are a weak fit. Emphasize multi-stakeholder governance, co-investment from health systems or businesses, and documented collaboration.

Use the right contact channels. The foundation's publicly listed contact is info@debeaumont.org or (301) 961-5800. Nalini Padmanabhan is identified as a media/program contact (301-802-6783). Cold outreach to individual program officers is ineffective — warm introductions from ASTHO, Drexel, Changelab Solutions, or other sustained grantees carry significantly more weight.

Set realistic timelines. No open RFP cycles exist. Relationship cultivation realistically runs 12-24 months before a partnership engagement would be formalized. Treat this as a long-game priority, not a near-term funding source.