Foundation For A Better World Inc.

Foundation For A Better World was established in 2013 by Tom and Beatriz Illescas Claugus — a pairing whose complementary backgrounds define every aspect of the foundation's grantmaking. Tom Claugus, a Harvard Business School Baker Scholar and founder of one of the hedge fund industry's top performers, brings a quantitative, return-on-investment orientation to philanthropy. Beatriz Illescas Claugus, former Consul General of Guatemala in Atlanta and a career educator, built the foundation's Latin American education and community development programming from the ground up. The result is an unusual hybrid: rigorous, evidence-driven medical research funding paired with deeply personal international development commitments.

The foundation operates as a by-invitation-only family private foundation. All seven board seats are held by Claugus family members (Thomas, Michael, Melissa, Gregory, Thomas II) plus current President Adam Hoffman. There is no public RFP process, no application portal, and no stated deadline cycle. Grantees are identified and cultivated directly by program staff and the board — and the database confirms `preselected_only` status. For grant seekers, this means relationship capital is everything.

With assets that grew from roughly $76,000 in 2015 to $246.8 million by fiscal year 2024 — a 3,200-fold increase driven by Claugus family contributions from hedge fund returns — FFBW has become a significant mid-tier private funder in neuroscience research and global education. Net investment income has ranged from $8M to $64M in recent years, providing substantial future grantmaking capacity even without additional contributions.

Relationship depth defines FFBW's style. The top grantee, the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, has received 10 separate grants totaling $5.86 million. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society received 5 grants ($1.69M total). Cooperative For Education in Guatemala received 5 grants ($725K). Of the top 20 grantees by cumulative dollars, 17 received three or more grants — repeat, multi-year relationships are the norm, not one-time gifts. Organizations that earn a place in this portfolio tend to stay for years.

The four stated pillars — neurodegenerative disease research, education, community and economic development, and health and nutrition — function more as a hierarchy than equal priorities. Medical research now captures an estimated 60-65% of annual giving. Education (particularly in Guatemala and now East Africa) accounts for roughly 13-15%. Health/nutrition and community development fill the remainder. First-time grant seekers with the strongest prospects are those working in early-stage neurological disease research, Central American education access, or East African literacy — organizations that can demonstrate scientific or outcomes rigor comparable to existing FFBW grantees.

Foundation For A Better World has distributed $15.26 million across 121 tracked grants, for an average of $126,107 per grant. However, the median grant stands at just $25,000, revealing a severely skewed distribution: a small number of large, sustained medical research partnerships dominate total giving, while dozens of smaller grants ($5,000–$50,000) support education and community development organizations.

Grant size parameters (from 990 filings): - Maximum single grant: $2,000,000 - Minimum: $1,000 - Median: $25,000 - Mean: $200,488

Annual giving trend: - 2013: $584,464 - 2014: $675,097 - 2015: $714,231 - 2019: $7,126,747 (major asset infusion from Claugus family) - 2020: $4,650,506 - 2021: $7,767,239 (all-time high) - 2022: $2,714,813 (sharp pullback) - 2023: ~$3,169,000 (partial recovery, per public records) - 2024: Total assets $246.8M; grants paid not yet reported

The top three grantees — Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation ($5.86M), National Multiple Sclerosis Society ($1.69M), and Gladstone Institutes ($1.5M) — account for approximately 59% of all tracked giving. These are all neurodegenerative disease research institutions.

Estimated giving by program area: - Neurodegenerative disease and cancer research: ~$9.9M (65%) - Education (Guatemala, East Africa, U.S.): ~$2.0M (13%) - Community and economic development (Latin America, Africa): ~$1.5M (10%) - Health and nutrition, local community: ~$1.1M (7%) - Policy and other: ~$0.8M (5%)

Geographic distribution of grantees: - New York: 17 grants (major research institutions headquartered there) - Georgia: 14 grants (Atlanta-area orgs including Latin American Association, KIPP Metro Atlanta) - Ohio: 11 grants (Tom Claugus hometown connection — Barnesville Hospital Foundation received $208K across 4 grants) - Washington DC: 10 grants (Bipartisan Policy Center, national nonprofits) - California: 10 grants (Gladstone Institutes SF, UC San Diego)

Medical research grantees receive $250,000–$2,000,000+ per multi-year engagement. Guatemala and Latin American education grantees typically receive $25,000–$150,000 per year. Local/community grants range from $5,000 to $50,000. An outlier: Barnesville Hospital Foundation (Tom's Ohio hometown) received $208,000 over four grants — a signal that personal connection can open doors even for smaller community health organizations.

The following table compares Foundation For A Better World to its four closest asset-class peers, all categorized in the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE sector with assets between $244M and $249M:

Foundation For A Better World is unusual among its asset-class peers in several ways. The Sean N Parker Foundation shares FFBW's life-sciences orientation — particularly cancer immunotherapy and allergy research — but Parker's foundation typically funds headline-grabbing, eight-figure commitments to top-tier research universities (Stanford, UCSF), whereas FFBW builds sustained multi-year relationships with specialist organizations like ADDF and the MS Society at more targeted grant levels. The 1440 Foundation shares FFBW's neuroscience and human flourishing interests but emphasizes mindfulness, compassion training, and media over clinical research — a philosophical rather than scientific orientation.

Point Reyes Foundation's conservation focus stands in complete contrast to FFBW's human-centered programs. Krejci Family Foundation, like FFBW, is family-controlled with no open applications, but with a regional Nebraska community focus — an entirely different geographic and thematic footprint.

What distinguishes FFBW is its combination of a sophisticated, increasingly venture-adjacent biomedical research portfolio with a genuine personal-mission-driven international development program in Guatemala and East Africa — unusual in foundations of this asset size, where single-domain specialization is more common.

Foundation For A Better World has been notably active in 2024-2026, with a clear intensification of its biomedical investment strategy alongside incremental education program expansion.

In February 2026, the foundation announced that its funded research had identified a promising treatment approach for pancreatic cancer, a program area that has received $750,000+ cumulatively through Lustgarten Foundation and Pancreatic Cancer Action Network grants — both multi-year FFBW relationships.

Throughout 2025, Therini Bio — a neurodegenerative disease biotech supported by FFBW — reported two milestone achievements: a successful Phase 1a trial for THN391 (April 2025) and an additional $39 million Series A capital raise (May 2025). These announcements suggest FFBW may be engaged as a co-investor with equity exposure, not merely a grant-making bystander.

In August 2024, President Adam Hoffman was appointed to the ADDF Board of Governors, cementing an institutional partnership dating to the foundation's earliest years. That same month, FFBW took a board observer seat in NeuroTherapia's Series B round — a further signal of deliberate movement toward venture philanthropy in neuroscience.

On the education front, a Kenya literacy partnership with Worldreader was announced in April 2024, extending FFBW's international programming beyond its historical Central America concentration. Guatemala grantees — Iniciativa Guatemala, Cooperative For Education, Asopuente International, and Fundacion MAG — continue receiving recurring annual support.

The 2022 ADDF Connoisseur's Dinner — where Tom and Beatriz Illescas Claugus received the Chairman's Award and the event raised over $1.8 million for Alzheimer's research — remains the foundation's most prominent public moment. Since the 2023 leadership transition, Adam Hoffman has taken the public-facing role as President.

The most critical fact for any organization approaching Foundation For A Better World: this foundation does not accept unsolicited applications. Its records explicitly flag it as preselected-only with no application instructions, and the website's contact page offers only a generic contact form with no grant guidelines. This is not a foundation you apply to — it is a foundation you get invited into. Strategy must begin with relationship-building, not proposal-writing.

For neurodegenerative disease and cancer researchers: The most direct pathway is through the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. FFBW President Adam Hoffman sits on ADDF's Board of Governors as of 2024, creating a direct pipeline from ADDF's scientific portfolio into FFBW's field of view. Organizations that receive ADDF funding, present at ADDF scientific reviews, or participate in ADDF events will earn Hoffman's attention. National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Gladstone Institutes — both multi-year FFBW grantees — can also serve as credibility bridges. When making contact, lead with peer-reviewed publications, clinical trial phase, regulatory pathway, and specific biomarker outcomes — not impact narratives.

For Latin American education and community development organizations: The founding president Beatriz Illescas Claugus, a former Consul General of Guatemala, established this portfolio personally. Organizations operating in Guatemala, especially in K-12 education, maternal-child health, or rural economic development, should seek introductions through FFBW's active Guatemala grantees (Cooperative For Education, Iniciativa Guatemala, Asopuente International, Fundacion MAG). East Africa education organizations should monitor Worldreader's Kenya partnership for collaboration opportunities that might yield FFBW co-funding.

For all prospective grantees: - Use FFBW's exact language in any outreach: 'neurodegenerative disease research,' 'quality education,' 'community and economic development,' 'health and nutrition.' - Show measurable outcomes: Tom Claugus's engineering and finance background means the board evaluates grants like investments — clinical milestones, cost-per-beneficiary, enrollment data, or revenue-to-beneficiary ratios are valued over anecdotal narratives. - Plan for multi-year relationships: Single grants are rare in this portfolio; come with a 3-5 year vision and phased milestone structure. - Contact the right people: Kevin Chrisco (Grants Manager) and Isa Cadena (Program Officer) are the operational gatekeepers. A focused 2-paragraph inquiry via the website contact form, referencing program area alignment and existing organizational track record, is the appropriate first move. - No public grant cycle: Grants appear to be made on a rolling basis throughout the year. There is no disclosed deadline.