Elmar Family Foundation

Elmar Family Foundation is a small, all-volunteer family vehicle established in 2016 by Marlys and Elliott Badzin of Eagan, Minnesota, governed by five unpaid family/board members (Marlys Badzin as CEO/President, Elliott Badzin as CFO/Treasurer, and directors Marshall Lehman, Farley Kaufmann, and Richard Kelber). Historically, its own IRS filings marked it as accepting contributions only to preselected organizations — a closed, relationship-driven model typical of founder-run foundations at this asset scale ($3.76M). That posture appears to have shifted: the foundation's live website now runs a public, six-step online application portal, with no staged LOI-to-full-proposal process disclosed — applicants complete one form covering eligibility, budget, board composition, and funder history in a single pass. For first-time applicants, the grantee history is the clearest signal of fit. The pattern is a 'barbell': a large number of modest, recurring gifts ($180-$3,600) to Twin Cities and national Jewish communal institutions (Minneapolis Jewish Federation, JCRC, Heilicher Jewish Day School, Sager Solomon Schecter Day School, Chabad of Coronado) alongside a small number of large anchor grants to major institutions — $500,000 combined to Mayo Clinic Foundation, $100,000 to American Friends of Libi, $90,000 to Northside Achievement Zone (Minneapolis education/achievement-gap nonprofit), and $50,000 to the University of Minnesota Foundation. Organizations without a Minnesota, New York/Massachusetts Jewish-community, or major-medical-research profile should not expect to compete for the largest checks; the realistic entry point for an unaffiliated nonprofit is likely in the low four-to-five-figure range, consistent with the foundation's own reported typical grant size (median $2,500, average $9,435, range $180-$60,000). Because there is no program staff, warm introductions through existing grantees (e.g., Herzl Camp, the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, or Mayo Clinic-adjacent networks) likely still carry weight even with a public portal now in place.

Elmar's giving has grown sharply and unevenly. Total giving by fiscal year: $1,407,492 (2012, one-off), $24,300-$49,680 (2013-2015), $1,737,806 (2019 spike), a COVID-era trough of $33,292 (2020), then a steady climb — $107,309 (2021), $450,788 (2022), $956,674 (2023), and an estimated $1,088,612 across roughly 15 grants (2024, per third-party 990 aggregators; the platform's own database shows FY2024 total_giving as not yet populated). Total assets sit at $3,757,971 (FY2024), down from $4,724,920 (FY2023) even as giving rose, reflecting active spend-down alongside consistent family contributions of $1.5M-$2.3M/year since 2021. Across 34 tracked grants in the platform's grantee database, total disbursed is $824,680 at an average of $24,255 per grantee relationship — but the distribution is heavily skewed: most individual checks cluster at $180-$3,600 (median $2,500 per the foundation's typical_grant_size profile), while a handful of anchor gifts dominate total dollars — Mayo Clinic Foundation ($500,000 across 2 grants), American Friends of Libi ($100,000), Northside Achievement Zone ($90,000), and University of Minnesota Foundation ($50,000) alone account for roughly 90% of tracked grant dollars despite being only 4 of 17 unique recipients. Geographically, Minnesota dominates (16 of 34 grants), followed by New York (6), Massachusetts and Illinois (4 each), and California and Texas (2 each) — a footprint that maps directly onto the Badzin family's Twin Cities base plus a national and Israel-linked Jewish philanthropic network routed through U.S.-based 'American Friends of' intermediaries (Libi, Shalva Israel, Arava Institute). By program area, giving splits roughly into three buckets matching the foundation's own stated priorities: large anchor gifts to medical/scientific research and education institutions (Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, Northside Achievement Zone, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research), and a long tail of smaller, recurring gifts to Jewish religious and cultural organizations (day schools, federations, synagogue-adjacent and Israel-support nonprofits).

All five peer foundations cluster within roughly $1,000 of Elmar's $3,757,971 in assets and share the same 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, forming a natural comparison set of similarly resourced, privately controlled family vehicles. Only Elmar and F Felix Foundation maintain a public website among this group; the other four peers have no disclosed web presence in available data, consistent with small family foundations that keep a low public profile and give primarily to known relationships. Elmar stands out within this peer set for combining that same low-profile, family-controlled structure with a genuinely public, documented application process — a distinguishing and actionable trait for grant seekers evaluating this size class of funder.

No independent press coverage or news announcements about Elmar Family Foundation were found for 2025-2026, which is typical for a small, unstaffed family foundation with no communications function. The most concrete recent developments come from IRS filings and the foundation's own website. Its FY2024 Form 990-PF was posted February 17, 2026, showing total assets of $3,757,971 (down from $4,724,920 in FY2023) alongside continued growth in annual giving to an estimated $1,088,612 across roughly 15 grants — the highest disbursement level since a one-time $1,737,806 payout in 2019, and part of a steady climb from a 2021 trough of $107,309. The clearest documented grant outcome is a testimonial from Tommy Hoffman of Herzl Camp, a Minnesota Jewish summer camp, describing Elmar funding that rebuilt the camp's waterfront facility and helped increase enrollment. The single most consequential development for prospective applicants is structural rather than newsworthy: the foundation has stood up a public, six-step online application system at elmarfamilyfoundation.org/apply/, a departure from the closed, invitation-only posture reflected in its historical IRS filings. Because this change is not yet reflected in third-party grant databases (which still describe Elmar as accepting only preselected organizations), it represents a genuine information edge for grant seekers who check the primary source directly rather than relying on aggregator listings.

Treat elmarfamilyfoundation.org/apply/ as the primary and, based on current evidence, the intended access point — third-party databases still describe this foundation as invitation-only, so the live public portal is a meaningful and possibly under-recognized opening. Structure the proposal around one of the foundation's three explicitly stated priorities: Education & Human Services (workforce development, early childhood care, closing achievement gaps — the Northside Achievement Zone $90,000 grant is the model to emulate); Religious & Cultural (Jewish heritage and community — the largest number of individual grants, typically $1,000-$20,000, to day schools, federations, and Israel-support nonprofits); or Medical & Scientific (cardiology, neuroscience, and healthy aging — spanning the $500,000 Mayo Clinic Foundation anchor gift down to a $360 gift to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, showing this bucket funds both flagship institutions and small research nonprofits). Before starting the six-step form, assemble: your 501(c)(3) determination letter and ability to issue tax receipts; a tight 150-word-maximum program description (the field is capped, so draft and trim offline); your current-year organizational budget and most recent Form 990 as uploads; a board of directors list including each member's employer; and your top three funders with amounts given, since funder concentration is an explicit required field. The most common mistake for an unaffiliated applicant would be a generic ask with no Minnesota/Twin Cities, Jewish-community, or clinical/scientific-research tie-in — the large majority of tracked grants went to Minnesota, New York, or Massachusetts recipients, and most grantees are explicitly Jewish-affiliated. Organizations without that alignment should lean into the Medical & Scientific bucket instead, where the giving history shows willingness to fund pure research and health missions on their own merits. No deadline, notification date, or review-cycle length is published; email info@elmarfamilyfoundation.org with process questions before investing the time to complete the full form, and use the site's 'Save and Continue Later' feature since the required 990, budget, and board documents typically take time to compile. Given the unpaid, all-family board and no program staff, expect a slower and less formal review cycle than at a staffed foundation, and treat any warm introduction through a current grantee (Herzl Camp, Minneapolis Jewish Federation, or Mayo Clinic-adjacent circles) as a real asset even with the new self-serve portal.