Drew Foundation

The Drew Foundation is a small, family-run private foundation (EIN 77-0552387) based in Menlo Park, CA, established around 2002 by Ellen Todd Drew (President) and John L. Drew (Secretary/Treasurer), who both serve without compensation. Its IRS filing explicitly flags the foundation as "preselected only" with no published application form or instructions — this is not an open, competitive grantmaker. Across the sampled grant history (52 grants totaling $15.75M since roughly 2010, averaging $302,885 per recipient relationship), the giving pattern is dominated by recurring, multi-year commitments to a stable roster: Rework Project ($2.72M/5 grants), Prostate Cancer Foundation ($2.5M/3 grants), Salem Academy and College ($2.29M/3 grants, tied to Ellen Drew's alma mater and trustee role), Sentinels of Freedom ($2.25M/3 grants), and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley ($1.3M/3 grants, where Ellen Drew sits on the board). This is the clearest signal in the data: the Drews fund organizations where they have a personal, governance, or alumni connection, then sustain that relationship for years rather than making one-off grants to unfamiliar applicants. First-time applicants without an existing tie to Ellen or John Drew, Salem College, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, or the veterans/military-family space (Sentinels of Freedom, West Point Association of Graduates, PenFed Foundation, Norwich University) should treat a cold approach as low-probability. The realistic path in is indirect: build a relationship with a board member or program officer at one of the recurring grantees, seek an introduction through Second Harvest's Silicon Valley network (where Ellen Drew is an active trustee), or align a proposal tightly with one of the foundation's five demonstrated verticals — higher education, cancer/health research, veterans and military families, human services/food security, and the arts. Organizations should not expect a site visit or formal LOI-to-proposal pipeline; this looks like a trustee-directed foundation that renews relationships annually based on personal knowledge of grantee performance rather than a formal review committee.

Financial filings show a foundation that has contracted significantly: total assets peaked at $25.49M in FY2019 (boosted by a $21.66M contribution/investment gain that year) and have since fallen to $5.36M as of the most recent record — an over 75% decline, consistent with a large asset transfer out or a deliberate spend-down rather than steady perpetual endowment growth. Despite the shrinking asset base, grants_paid stayed high through FY2021-2022 ($6.53M and $5.79M respectively), well above the $2.7M-$3.8M range seen FY2018-2020, meaning the foundation was distributing a large share of remaining assets rather than scaling giving down proportionally. Officer compensation is $0 across every filed year — both Drews work unpaid, so overhead does not compete with grant dollars. Among the top 22 recipient relationships tracked (52 individual grants, $15.75M total, averaging $302,885 per recipient over the multi-year window), the distribution is sharply top-heavy: the five largest recipients (Rework Project, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Salem Academy & College, Sentinels of Freedom, Second Harvest Silicon Valley) account for $11.06M of the $15.75M tracked — about 70% of total giving — while the smallest documented gifts run as low as $10,000 (El Camino YMCA, single grant) and $20,000 (YMCA of Silicon Valley, 2 grants). Geographically, California dominates with 26 of the tracked relationships, reflecting the foundation's Menlo Park base and Silicon Valley civic ties (Second Harvest, YMCA of Silicon Valley, California College of the Arts), followed by Illinois (9), New York (5), Florida (4), North Carolina (3, largely Salem College/Academy), and Vermont (3, Norwich University). Every grant purpose in the dataset is coded simply "GENERAL CHARITABLE PURPOSE" with no program-restricted language, indicating the foundation writes flexible, general-operating checks to trusted partners rather than funding discrete project budgets.

The five peer foundations below were matched by comparable current asset size (~$5.36M) and shared NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking, T20/T category). None publish detailed public giving data in this dataset, underscoring that this tier of small family foundation generally operates with minimal public transparency beyond required IRS filings.

Drew Foundation is distinguishable within this peer set mainly by its unusually large recent grants_paid relative to its shrinking asset base — it paid out more than its entire current asset value in a single year (FY2022: $5.79M paid against $12.8M assets that year, now down to $5.36M), suggesting it is winding down faster than a typical perpetual family foundation of this size. Three of the five peers (Elizabeth Pang Fullerton, Quint Family, Ciocca) are also California-based, placing Drew in a dense cluster of small Bay Area/California family philanthropies competing for similar regional nonprofit attention, though none of these peers have published websites or application processes in this dataset to compare against.

No news coverage, press releases, or announcements dated 2025 or 2026 could be located for the Drew Foundation in web searches — the foundation does not appear to maintain a public communications presence, consistent with its "preselected only" grantmaking posture. The most recent structured financial data available runs through fiscal year 2022 (grants_paid $5.79M, total assets $12.8M that year), with the foundation's own record last verified/updated 2026-08-23 showing current assets of $5.36M. The clearest available signal of ongoing activity is Ellen Todd Drew's continued, current board membership at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, indicating she remains actively engaged in the philanthropic causes the foundation funds. Aggregator sites (Instrumentl) reference a 2024 filing showing 16 grants totaling roughly $5.5M, suggesting the foundation continued active, sizable distributions into at least 2024, though Granted's own records do not yet reflect a filing more recent than FY2022. No leadership changes have surfaced — Ellen Todd Drew (President) and John L. Drew (Secretary/Treasurer) appear to remain the sole officers, unchanged since the foundation's founding around 2002. Given the sharp asset decline since 2019 and elevated payout rates in 2021-2022, grantseekers should treat the foundation's future capacity to make new or larger commitments as uncertain, and should not assume 2021-2022 giving levels ($5.8M-$6.5M/year) will continue given the asset base is now roughly one-third of its FY2021 level.

There is no open application process to optimize timing for: the foundation's IRS filing lists application_instructions as none and marks grantmaking as preselected only, meaning unsolicited proposals are unlikely to be reviewed at all. The single most important strategic move for a grantseeker is establishing a personal connection rather than submitting paperwork — every large, multi-year grantee in the record (Salem Academy & College, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Sentinels of Freedom, PenFed Foundation, West Point Association of Graduates, Norwich University) maps to either Ellen Drew's personal history (Salem College alumna, Second Harvest board seat) or a thematic cluster (veterans/military, cancer research, food security) the family has supported for over a decade. Organizations in these same verticals — especially Bay Area food security/human services, veterans' services, cancer/health research, and small private liberal-arts colleges — have the best fit odds, but fit alone will not open the door without an introduction. The most common mistake a grantseeker could make here is treating this like a competitive foundation with a portal or grant cycle; there is no evidence of either, so cold LOIs, mass mailings, or generic proposal templates will almost certainly go unanswered. Instead, the realistic approach is: (1) identify whether any board member, alum network, or major donor at your organization has a pre-existing relationship with Ellen or John Drew or with one of their known grantee organizations; (2) if pursuing Second Harvest of Silicon Valley's network, look for a warm introduction through Ellen Drew's board role rather than a direct foundation appeal; (3) frame any outreach as general operating support rather than a restricted program budget, since every recorded grant purpose is "general charitable purpose" with no program-specific language; (4) keep expectations calibrated to a foundation whose asset base has fallen from $25.5M (2019) to $5.36M — funding capacity for a brand-new relationship may be limited regardless of introduction quality. Given the closed nature of this funder, most Bay Area nonprofits without an existing tie will get a better return on effort applying to open, competitive funders instead.