Eaglemere Foundation Inc.

Eaglemere Foundation Inc. is a small, family-run private foundation based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, established in 1998 and controlled entirely by the Sarles, Dias, and Garvey families — President Marilyn D. Sarles MD, Treasurer/Executive Director Daniel Sarles, Clerk H. Jay Sarles, and directors Daniel Dias, Elizabeth Dias, Patrick Garvey, and Kathryn Garvey. With zero paid program staff and an executive director compensated only $30,000-$36,000 a year, Eaglemere operates as a relationship-driven, invite-only funder rather than a competitive-application shop. Multiple grant-seeker resources (Inside Philanthropy, Grantable) independently confirm the foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals — this is not a portal or LOI-cycle funder, and organizations that submit cold applications should expect no response. The realistic path to funding is a warm introduction or a brief, low-pressure email to Dan Sarles (dgsarles@eaglemere.org) that opens a relationship well before any funding ask. Eaglemere strongly favors organizations already known to its trustees or to peer conservation funders — its top grantees (World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund, Earthjustice, The Nature Conservancy) are large, established, science-based organizations that receive repeat, multi-year general operating support (most appear with 4 consecutive years of identical or near-identical gifts in the grantee data, indicating renewal relationships rather than one-off project grants). First-time applicants should not expect a first ask to land; instead, they should aim to get on Eaglemere's radar through shared board members, co-funders, or conservation-sector convenings, and let a relationship mature over 1-2 years before any direct request. Smaller, geographically specific organizations (state watershed associations, regional land trusts) do break through, but nearly always in the foundation's core geographies of New England, the Rocky Mountains/Greater Yellowstone, and Alaska.

Eaglemere's IRS-reported typical grant size (28 grants analyzed) runs from a minimum of $750 to a maximum of $120,968, with a median of $17,546 and an average of $32,370 — the gap between median and average reflects a small number of large, recurring six-figure gifts to flagship environmental organizations pulling the average up. Across the fuller 111-grant dataset spanning recent filings, total grantmaking reaches $3,726,277 at an average of $33,570 per grant. The largest recipients by cumulative dollars are World Wildlife Fund ($431,044 across 4 grants), Environmental Defense Fund and Earthjustice (tied at $400,000 across 4 grants each), The Nature Conservancy (a combined $440,968 across two recipient-name variants and 4 grants), Greater Yellowstone Coalition ($240,230), Doctors Without Borders ($240,000), Mystic River Watershed Association and Oxfam America ($160,000 each), and Charles River Watershed Association ($150,000). Geographically, Massachusetts dominates with 40 of the tracked grants (reflecting the foundation's home-state watershed and land-trust giving), followed by Alaska, Colorado, DC, and Montana at 8-9 grants each — consistent with the Rocky Mountain/Greater Yellowstone and Alaska conservation corridors the foundation names as priorities. On the financial side, total assets have grown from $7.7 million in FY2011 to $13.48 million by FY2023-24, while annual grants paid have more than doubled over the same period, from $431,250 (FY2011) to $983,973 (FY2023) and roughly $967,000 in FY2024. FY2023 total giving was $1,103,936 against total revenue of $889,102 (funded partly by drawing down assets), while FY2024 revenue jumped 57.7% to $1,401,941 on stronger contributions and investment gains — suggesting modestly higher grantmaking capacity heading into 2025-2026, though the foundation's giving pattern has historically been slow and incremental rather than programmatic-expansion-driven. A secondary, much smaller giving lane goes to New England prep schools and colleges (Noble and Greenough School $54,000, Amherst College $1,500, Princeton $1,900, Moses Brown School $1,250) and appears to reflect personal/alumni ties of the trustee families rather than an open program area.

Eaglemere sits among a cluster of similarly small, family-controlled private foundations in the $13.4-13.5 million asset range nationally, though most peers in this asset band operate with far less public information about their giving focus since they lack Eaglemere's decade-plus track record of concentrated environmental grants.

Unlike its asset-matched peers — which the underlying data classifies generically as "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" with no disclosed program focus or application process — Eaglemere has a well-documented, decade-long programmatic identity in environmental conservation, publicly confirmed application policy, and a named, reachable executive director. For grant seekers, that transparency is itself the differentiator: Eaglemere is a known quantity with a discoverable relationship-building path, whereas most of its peer-sized foundations offer no public entry point at all.

The most recent public filing data (Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2024, filed May 13, 2025) shows Eaglemere's total revenue rose 57.7% year-over-year to $1,401,941, driven by contributions of roughly $497,000 plus investment income and net asset gains, while total expenses were $1,136,699 and total assets held steady at $13,479,173. The foundation made 29 grants in FY2024, with disclosed recipients including Natural Areas Conservancy ($105,203), Environmental Defense Fund ($100,000), and Greater Yellowstone Coalition ($65,520) — all consistent with the foundation's long-standing freshwater-ecosystem and intact-landscape priorities. No foundation-specific press releases, leadership changes, or new program announcements for 2025-2026 turned up in web search; Eaglemere does not appear to issue public statements or news beyond its IRS filings and its Squarespace website. The one recurring public-facing presence is Executive Director Dan Sarles, whom World Wildlife Fund has featured on its website as a leader/partner voice on collaborative conservation funding — reinforcing WWF's status as one of Eaglemere's largest and longest-running grantees (four separate grants totaling $431,044 in the tracked dataset). Absent new announcements, the most useful signal of Eaglemere's current-cycle priorities remains its FY2024 grant list: continued large gifts to national environmental organizations paired with a growing allocation to more specialized regional conservation groups like Natural Areas Conservancy.

Eaglemere does not run a competitive grant cycle, so conventional grant-writing advice (deadlines, LOI templates, portal navigation) does not apply here — none of that infrastructure exists. Grant-seeker databases (Inside Philanthropy, Grantable) are unanimous that the foundation does not accept unsolicited applications, and the foundation's own record (application_instructions marked "none", no application_form_url, no stated deadline) confirms it. The single actionable move is relationship-building: send a short, specific email to Executive Director Dan Sarles (dgsarles@eaglemere.org) or the general inbox (inquiry@eaglemere.org) that opens a conversation rather than requesting money outright — reference Eaglemere's specific programmatic priorities (freshwater ecosystem restoration, deforestation prevention, intact-landscape protection) and, if applicable, its geographic focus areas (New England, Rocky Mountains/Greater Yellowstone, Alaska, Latin America) to signal genuine alignment rather than a mass-mailed pitch. Because trustees are the entire decision-making body (Marilyn Sarles, Jay Sarles, Daniel Sarles, plus the Dias and Garvey family directors), a warm introduction through a shared board seat, co-funder, or peer organization (WWF, The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, Earthjustice — all repeat grantees) is dramatically more likely to succeed than a direct cold approach. The most common mistake grant seekers will make is treating this like a normal foundation with a portal and deadline; a second common mistake is pitching outside Eaglemere's demonstrated focus areas — the grantee list shows almost no funding for causes outside environmental conservation, global health (Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam), or the trustees' personal alumni ties, so proposals for unrelated causes are unlikely to gain traction regardless of quality. Given the small median grant size ($17,546) and modest average ($32,370), first-time grantees should calibrate their ask conservatively — a $10,000-$25,000 general-support request pitched after a relationship exists is more realistic than seeking a six-figure gift out of the gate, which historically has gone only to long-tenured, national-scale partners.