Ephraim Family Foundation

The Ephraim Family Foundation is a small, entirely family-run, closed-door funder — not a foundation to prospect cold. Its three officers, Daniel Ephraim (President), Elisabeth Ephraim (Secretary/Treasurer), and Susan Ephraim (Vice President), take zero compensation and there is no paid staff, no program officer, and no public grants portal. It is funded by the Daniel R. Ephraim Revocable Trust, and CauseIQ states directly that it "does not accept unsolicited requests for funds"; Granted AI's own foundation record flags it as `preselected_only` with no application instructions on file. Every grant we can identify traces to a direct personal or institutional tie to the Ephraim family. Daniel Ephraim is a three-generation Illinois Institute of Technology alumnus (MBA '76), a sitting IIT Board of Trustees member, and president/owner of Chicago-based Modern Process Equipment Corporation; IIT is the foundation's single largest grantee at $405,000 across four historical grants plus another $115,000 in FY2024. Daniel and Susan Ephraim are also named supporters of The People's Music School in Chicago, which has received $96,500 across two grants. World Bicycle Relief, a Chicago-headquartered global mobility nonprofit, is the second-largest recipient at $225,000 across three historical grants plus $100,000 more in FY2024 — a pattern that reads as sustained, relationship-anchored giving rather than one-off responsive grantmaking. Smaller gifts to Free Wheelchair Mission, Believe Together, WBEZ (Chicago public radio), and Mission El Faro round out the portfolio and suggest personal causes the family has chosen to support directly. For a first-time applicant with no existing connection to the Ephraim family, IIT's trustee/donor network, or Modern Process Equipment, the honest assessment is that a written proposal is unlikely to be read, let alone funded. The only credible entry point is an introduction through one of those existing networks — IIT advancement staff, a mutual board connection, or an existing relationship with one of the funded organizations — followed by a low-pressure, relationship-first conversation rather than a formal ask.

Total documented giving in Granted AI's grantee dataset is $758,500 across 14 grants to six organizations (average $54,179 per grant), spanning roughly 2019-2023; adding the FY2024 filing (CauseIQ/ProPublica) brings recent-year disbursements to $271,125, of which $225,000 is itemized. Recipient concentration is extreme: Illinois Institute of Technology alone accounts for $405,000 of the $758,500 rollup (53%) plus a further $115,000 in FY2024, and World Bicycle Relief adds $225,000 plus $100,000 more in FY2024 — together, two organizations account for the large majority of all giving identified. The remainder is smaller: The People's Music School ($96,500/2 grants, avg. $48,250), Free Wheelchair Mission ($16,000/2 grants, avg. $8,000), Believe Together ($15,000/2 grants, avg. $7,500), and a token $1,000 gift to WBEZ. A separate typical-grant-size figure in the foundation's own record (likely drawn from a single recent filing's line items) shows a median of $75,000 with a $16,400-$77,350 range on three grants — broadly consistent with the mid-size gifts to IIT and World Bicycle Relief once outlier totals are broken into individual-grant amounts. Annual total giving has climbed steadily: $135,625 (2019) → $169,078 (2020) → $206,575 (2021) → $201,557 (2022) → $188,326 (2023) → roughly $271,125 (2024), a near-doubling over five years. That growth tracks a similar rise in assets, from $988,392 (2019) to $4,340,709 (2024), driven primarily by large family contributions ($2,841,095 in 2020 and $1,000,000 in 2023) rather than investment performance. Geographically, the 14-grant sample skews heavily to Illinois (10 of 14 grants), with California (2) and Iowa (2) making up the rest; Granted AI's database lists the foundation's `geographic_focus` as Illinois and Texas, but the underlying grant-level data shows no Texas recipients, so grant seekers outside Illinois should not read that geographic tag as a strong signal.

All five peers cluster within a few thousand dollars of Ephraim's $4.34M in assets — Granted AI matched them by size within the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category, not by giving style or openness. On that basis Ephraim actually runs one of the larger identifiable annual grants budgets in the group (Parks Foundation caps individual awards at roughly $10,000), but it is also the most closed: Parks Foundation is the only peer confirmed to run a transparent, dated application cycle, while the rest — Ephraim included — show no public process at all. Nonprofits weighing where to spend limited grant-seeking effort should treat Parks Foundation-style peers with a real published cycle as the better use of a cold application; Ephraim is realistically accessible only through a warm, relationship-based introduction.

The foundation's most recent Form 990-PF, covering fiscal year 2024, was filed September 8, 2025. It shows total revenue of $252,708 (down roughly 78% from FY2023's $1,128,340, since FY2023 included a $1,000,000 family contribution that did not repeat), total expenses of $280,171, and total charitable disbursements of $271,125 — meaning the foundation grew its actual grantmaking even as its investment/contribution income fell, drawing on accumulated assets to do so. Documented FY2024 grants were $115,000 to Illinois Institute of Technology, $100,000 to World Bicycle Relief, and $10,000 to Mission El Faro, together accounting for $225,000 of the $271,125 total disbursed, with the remaining roughly $46,000 going to smaller or undisclosed recipients. Total assets stood at $4,340,709 at fiscal year-end 2024, essentially flat versus 2023's $4,359,640. No leadership changes, press releases, or program announcements were found — consistent with an all-volunteer, three-person family board that does not conduct public relations. The most relevant adjacent news is on the IIT side: Trustee Dan Ephraim's seven-figure personal philanthropic commitment as part of Illinois Tech's $76 million academic-transformation campaign, which likely correlates with, but is legally separate from, the foundation's own IIT grants. One data-quality note for grant seekers: the website field on file for this foundation (ephraim.org) actually resolves to the unrelated Ephraim Historical Foundation, a historic-sites and museum organization in Door County, Wisconsin — not this Chicago family foundation. No independent public website for the Ephraim Family Foundation itself was found during this research.

There is no formal application process to optimize for here, and pretending otherwise wastes effort — CauseIQ states the foundation "does not accept unsolicited requests for funds," and Granted AI's own record shows no application form, portal, deadline, or written instructions on file. The one documented contact channel is info@ephraim.org, routed through "% Foundation Source," a third-party foundation administration service; a professional inquiry through that address is the only formal option, but expect no response absent a pre-existing connection, since the foundation's own pattern is entirely preselected, relationship-driven giving. The realistic path in runs through the family's institutional networks: Illinois Institute of Technology's advancement/trustee office (Daniel Ephraim is a sitting trustee and three-generation alumnus), Modern Process Equipment Corporation's Chicago business network (Daniel Ephraim is its president/owner), or an existing tie to The People's Music School, where Daniel and Susan Ephraim are already named supporters. Organizations whose mission overlaps the foundation's demonstrated pattern — Chicago higher education, global humanitarian mobility and access (World Bicycle Relief, Free Wheelchair Mission), music education, or Chicago public media (WBEZ) — have the best odds, but success will come from board-level cultivation (an invited site visit, an advisory-role conversation, a mutual introduction at an IIT or Chicago civic event) rather than a mailed or emailed proposal. The funding pattern also shows the foundation renews rather than one-and-done grants: IIT and World Bicycle Relief each received gifts across three to four separate years, so once a relationship exists, the right framing is an ongoing partnership conversation, not a single-grant request. The single most common and costly mistake a grant seeker could make with this funder is spending time drafting a formal LOI or full proposal as if this were an open competitive program; that same time is far better spent identifying who on staff, board, or leadership has a genuine personal connection to Daniel, Elisabeth, or Susan Ephraim, or to Modern Process Equipment / Illinois Institute of Technology.