Fat Tire Foundation

The Fat Tire Foundation is a Silicon Valley family foundation operating with maximum discretion and minimum public footprint. Founded in 2006 by Jeff Jordan — general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former president of OpenTable, VP at eBay, and Disney executive — and his wife Karen Shishino Jordan, the giving is deeply personal. Their daughter's Type 1 diabetes diagnosis directly shaped the foundation's primary funding priority, and Karen's active role chairing JDRF's research committee reflects lived commitment rather than abstract positioning.

The foundation's website remains under construction with no application portal, grant guidelines, or published program descriptions. This is deliberate: Fat Tire does not accept unsolicited applications. There is no LOI process, no online form, and no published RFP cycle. The single pathway to funding is direct email contact at fattirefoundation@gmail.com.

First-time applicants should understand this foundation operates like a private family office. The Jordans select grantees proactively through personal relationships, board connections, and deep program alignment. With 93 tracked grants — 66 of them to California organizations — the giving reflects the founders' own networks: Stanford alumni ties, Bay Area civic relationships, and the T1D research community.

The most effective strategy is a soft introduction: a brief, personal email of no more than two paragraphs demonstrating genuine alignment with one of the four stated pillars (T1D cure, Bay Area inequality, education, or environmental conservation). Organizations with JDRF connections, Bay Area food security and housing work, or innovation-oriented environmental conservation have the clearest entry points based on historical giving patterns.

With assets now at $86.6M (FY2024) — up from $53.4M just one year prior — the foundation likely has significantly expanded grantmaking capacity for 2025-2026. This may be the most receptive window in years. Patience is essential: there is no standard review timeline, and warm relationship-building over multiple touchpoints is far more valuable than any single outreach attempt. Do not expect a rapid response; follow up respectfully after 6-8 weeks if no reply is received.

The Fat Tire Foundation's grantmaking has grown 14-fold over a decade. Total giving rose from $215,839 in FY2012 to $548,306 in FY2015, $1,629,180 in FY2020, $2,572,689 in FY2023, and an estimated $3.16M in FY2024 — the largest giving year on record. This trajectory reflects parallel asset growth from $8.8M (FY2012) to $86.6M (FY2024), with the foundation receiving $31M in contributions in FY2024 alone.

Across 93 tracked grants totaling $4,496,329, the average grant is $48,348. However, the distribution is highly bimodal. The foundation's own reported median of $1,000 reflects a substantial tail of small recurring gifts ($1,000-$6,500) to local institutions like Portola Valley Schools Foundation, KQED, and Pacific Institute. The real giving power concentrates in a smaller number of flagship grants.

Largest grants on record: Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation received $1,237,173 across two grants — the single largest concentration. UCSF Foundation received $483,333 (2 grants); combined Stanford University entities received approximately $751,000 (3 entities, multiple grants). PeacePlayers International received $350,000 (3 grants). JDRF T1D Fund LLC received $250,000 as a single grant. The upper end of the range reaches $584,333 per individual award.

By focus area: T1D and medical research commands the largest dollar concentration — roughly 35-40% of total historical giving. Education (Stanford, UCSF educational programs, UCLA, BUILD) represents approximately 25-30%. Bay Area community development — food security (Second Harvest $200,000 combined), housing (Hamilton Families, Raphael House at $30,000 each), and gun violence prevention (Everytown, Brady Center, Giffords Law Center at $30,000 each) — accounts for 20-25%. Environmental giving — Indian Land Tenure Foundation and Hawai'i Land Trust at $83,333 each, Adventure Scientists at $200,000 — represents the remaining 10-15%.

Geography: California-dominant (66 of 93 grants). New York (8 grants), DC (5 grants), Massachusetts (4 grants), and Hawaii (2 grants) round out the portfolio. International giving is minimal.

The following table compares Fat Tire Foundation to its four closest asset-comparable peers, all private foundations in the Philanthropy & Grantmaking category:

Fat Tire Foundation is distinguished among its asset peers by its unusual degree of thematic specificity — four named pillars rather than broad charitable giving — and by the personal backstory driving its T1D focus. Most comparable foundations at this asset level are equally opaque about grantmaking criteria, but the Jordans' Silicon Valley identity, JDRF board connections, and California geography make Fat Tire more geographically concentrated than typical $86M foundations operating nationally. The Dunham Foundation (Illinois) is the only peer with a public website and visible application information, offering a useful counterexample of how similar-sized family foundations can operate more openly. Fat Tire's dramatically growing asset base — from $24M in FY2019 to $86.6M in FY2024 — places it on a trajectory to exceed several peer foundations within two to three years if contributions continue at recent pace.

The most significant recent development is Fat Tire Foundation's asset surge: from $24.3M in FY2019 to $86.6M in FY2024, driven by major contribution infusions of $31.4M in FY2021 and $31M in FY2024. These capital injections suggest that Jeff Jordan, now a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz with substantial investment returns, is accelerating the foundation's endowment ahead of a more active grantmaking phase.

FY2024 grantmaking reached approximately $3.16M in charitable disbursements — the foundation's largest year — with notable new grants of $200,000 each to Abortion Care Network, Adventure Scientists, and Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula. The Abortion Care Network grant is a notable departure from prior giving patterns and signals expanded interest in reproductive health access as a dimension of 'eliminating Bay Area inequality.'

Karen Jordan's continued leadership as both CEO and JDRF research committee chair keeps the foundation embedded in national T1D research networks. No public announcements, press releases, or new program launches were found in web research as of April 2026 — consistent with the foundation's historically low public profile.

The foundation's board has evolved into a full family operation: Jeff Jordan and Karen Shishino Jordan serve as Directors, with Alison Jordan as Secretary and Connor Jordan as Treasurer — the second generation now formally embedded in governance. The foundation's website continues to list itself as 'in progress,' and no changes to the application process or public communications strategy were identified.

The single most important fact: Fat Tire Foundation accepts no unsolicited proposals. Cold grant applications will be ignored or declined. Every successful relationship with this foundation begins with a brief, personal email to fattirefoundation@gmail.com.

Craft your initial outreach carefully. Keep it to two paragraphs maximum. Open with a one-sentence connection to one of the four pillars — T1D cure, Bay Area inequality, education, or environmental conservation — and demonstrate you understand this is the Jordans' personal philanthropy, not a corporate foundation. Name a specific connection point: a shared JDRF relationship, a Stanford program overlap, or a Bay Area geography that aligns with their community focus.

T1D organizations have the clearest path. The Jordans' daughter has Type 1 diabetes; Karen chairs the JDRF research committee. If your organization has a relationship with JDRF leadership or works on T1D research, therapeutics, or patient support, invoke that connection explicitly. JDRF ($1.24M) and UCSF ($816K combined) are the top two cumulative grantees — showing how your work complements or extends theirs is more persuasive than a standalone pitch.

Bay Area inequality is the second strongest entry point. Food security, housing stability, youth workforce development, and gun violence prevention have all received $30,000-$200,000 grants. Emphasize measurable community outcomes, not abstract systemic change language.

Frame environmental work around direct action. The 2024 Adventure Scientists grant ($200,000) and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and Hawai'i Land Trust grants ($83,333 each) show preference for organizations doing fieldwork, land protection, and community-rooted conservation — not advocacy or litigation.

Timing is unstructured. There are no published deadlines or review cycles. Sending initial outreach in late summer or fall aligns with typical private foundation fiscal review periods, but no formal window has been identified. Follow up if no response arrives within 6-8 weeks.

Common mistake to avoid: Submitting a full proposal, budget, or program documentation in the first contact. This signals you have not done basic research on the foundation's invitation-only process and will likely end the conversation.