Florescue Family Foundation Inc.

Florescue Family Foundation Inc. is a closely held family foundation established in 1993 by Barry William Florescue and now led by his widow, Sharon Gustafson (President), alongside family members Gretchen, Renate, and Bryan Florescue and four longtime professional advisors — Seth E. Ellis, Esq., Charles Weissman, Logan Delaney Jr., and Dana Scheer (VP). Five of the eight directors each drew $50,000 in compensation in FY2025 ($250,000 total), a notably high governance cost relative to $890,348 in that year's charitable disbursements, and the mailing address routes through Certuity, a family-office administrator — signaling a professionally managed, low-overhead giving vehicle rather than a staffed program office.

The Foundation's charter narrowly scopes eligibility to three buckets: organizations addressing heart disease, diabetes, or eye disease/cancer; educational institutions; and programs supporting or educating children under 21. Virtually all 92 recorded grants are coded "GENERAL OPERATIONS," meaning the board writes unrestricted checks to organizations it already trusts rather than funding discrete projects or issuing an RFP. Critically, the grant history shows a strong multi-year renewal pattern — most top grantees (Flaum Eye Institute, Project Lift, Diabetes Research Institute, St. Jude, Experience Camps, and others) show a grant_count of 3, implying informal three-year pledges rather than annual open competitions.

There is no formal application portal: the DB record's application_instructions field reads simply "various types of communications relating to qualified charities," and application_restrictions notes "all reasonable applications will be reviewed in concert with the foundation's philosophy." florescue.com is a dead, parked domain, confirming there is no self-serve online process. First-time applicants should expect this to be a relationship- and referral-driven funder: the strongest entry points are a credible personal or institutional connection to the family (University of Rochester, Binghamton University, and Colorado/Vail organizations all recur, tracking the founder's known affiliations) or a small, tightly scoped ask that sits squarely within one of the three charter causes. Typical awards run $3,500 to $63,500, with a $12,500 median — this is not a funder for large capital asks.

Giving has been cyclical and closely tied to asset levels. Total giving by fiscal year: $295,590 (2012), $806,533 (2013), $1,173,955 (2014), $1,278,633 (2015), $586,223 (2019), $605,115 (2020), $646,783 (2021), $672,373 (2022), and a recent peak of $1,251,055 (2023, with $866,431 actually paid out as grants). A one-time $9,570,687 contribution in FY2022 swelled total revenue that year to $9.6M and lifted the following year's giving, but net assets have since declined from $15.97M (2022) to $13.88M (2023) to roughly $11.3M (2025) — the Foundation is drawing down rather than growing, and FY2025 shows expenses ($1,200,628) outpacing revenue ($463,703) for a third straight year.

Across the 92 grants captured in the top-50 grantee list (cumulative, $1,745,106 total, average $18,969), spending splits close to evenly across the three charter buckets: health/medical causes (Flaum Eye Institute, Diabetes Research Institute, St. Jude, Children's Diabetes Foundation, JDRF, Royal Dames of Cancer Research, and others) total roughly $634,200 (36%); education (Project Lift, Columbia University's Salvatori Center, Palm Beach State College Foundation, Rotary Club of Boca Raton scholarships, Denver Public Schools Foundation, Binghamton University, Horatio Alger Association) total roughly $652,400 (37%); and youth/human-services causes (Junior Achievement of South Florida, Experience Camps, Florence Crittenton Services, Covenant House, Abbott House, Hibiscus Children's Center) total roughly $458,500 (26%).

Geographically, Florida dominates with 38 of 92 grants (41%), followed by New York with 22 (24%) and Colorado with 16 (17%); Tennessee, Arizona, Connecticut, Washington, and Virginia each account for 2-5 grants. The most recent 30-grant snapshot shows a median award of $12,500, average $18,117, and a range of $3,500 to $63,500 — consistent with a funder that makes many modest, recurring gifts rather than a few large ones. The single largest cumulative grantee, Flaum Eye Institute (University of Rochester), received $135,958 across three grants, directly reflecting the eye-disease clause in the Foundation's charter and founder Barry Florescue's Rochester ties.

Florescue sits at the small end of the South Florida health/education funder landscape, even against its closest geographic peer.

Florescue's asset base and giving are roughly a tenth of Lost Tree's closest scale and a fraction of Quantum's or Batchelor's, positioning it as a modest, family-run supplementary funder rather than a lead grantmaker. Unlike Quantum, which runs a publicized open application cycle for Palm Beach County nonprofits, Florescue — like Lost Tree — operates as a closed, relationship-driven funder, meaning warm introductions and existing board ties matter far more here than a polished cold submission.

No major leadership changes, new program launches, or public announcements from the Foundation surfaced in 2025-2026 web coverage. The most recent Form 990-PF, covering fiscal year 2025, was filed November 13, 2025, and shows the Foundation continuing a multi-year pattern of spending more than it earns: $1,200,628 in expenses against just $463,703 in revenue, with $890,348 (74%) going to charitable disbursements and $250,000 (21%) to officer compensation for five directors at $50,000 each. Net assets have fallen from a recent high of $15,967,560 (2022) to $13,880,406 (2023) to roughly $11,339,214 (2025) — a 29% decline over three years — following a one-time $9,570,687 contribution that temporarily boosted the corpus in 2022.

The Foundation's most visible recent public activity is continued sponsorship of Junior Achievement of South Florida's signature fundraisers: it was listed as a sponsor of JA World Uncorked in January 2024 and January 2022, and of the Rosé Soirée in September 2023, which raised $110,000 for JA's youth financial-literacy programs. It was also identified as a sponsor of a 2024 TEDx event at Saint Andrew's School in Boca Raton, consistent with its history of grants to that school.

The Foundation has no working website — florescue.com now resolves to a parked Hostinger domain-for-sale page — and no evidence of a new grants portal, staff hire, or strategic pivot was found. Grant seekers should treat this as a stable, low-visibility funder whose activity is best tracked through IRS Form 990-PF filings and grantee-side announcements rather than its own communications.

Because Florescue Family Foundation has no live website, no online application portal, and no published deadline or application_form_url in either public databases or its own (defunct) domain, treat this as an invitation- and relationship-driven funder rather than a competitive-RFP one. Concrete guidance:

• Lead with fit to the charter, not general mission alignment. The Foundation's governing charter limits funding to three areas: heart disease, diabetes, or eye disease/cancer; educational institutions; and programs serving children under 21. A proposal that falls outside all three is a near-certain pass regardless of quality.
• Ask small and expect a multi-year relationship, not a one-time grant. The typical award is $3,500-$63,500 (median $12,500), and most funded organizations receive the same amount for three consecutive years. Frame the ask as the start of an ongoing partnership rather than a single transaction.
• Use warm introductions tied to the family's known affiliations. Grant history shows recurring ties to the University of Rochester (Flaum Eye Institute, Simon School legacy of founder Barry Florescue), Binghamton University, Boca Raton/Palm Beach County institutions (Palm Beach State College, Rotary Club of Boca Raton, Saint Andrew's School, Junior Achievement of South Florida), and Vail, Colorado nonprofits (Vail Health Foundation-Shaw Cancer Center, Chabad of Vail, Pink Vail). A board or family connection to any of these institutions or communities is a stronger door-opener than a cold LOI.
• Contact by mail or phone, not a web form. Use the Foundation's address (c/o Certuity, 1295 US Highway 1 #300, North Palm Beach, FL 33408) or phone ((954) 784-3031); do not rely on florescue.com, which is a parked domain with no functioning content.
• Keep proposals unrestricted-operations-friendly. Nearly all historical grants are coded "general operations" rather than program-specific — the Foundation appears to prefer trusting grantees with flexible funding over funding discrete projects, so a general-operating-support ask is more consistent with its pattern than a narrowly restricted project budget.
• Common mistake to avoid: treating this like a large institutional funder with a formal cycle. With only ~30 grants a year and a board of 8 (several unpaid family members), decision-making is informal and likely happens on the directors' own timeline rather than a published RFP calendar — persistent, low-key relationship-building over a cold, one-time application packet is more likely to succeed.