Gifford Foundation

The Gifford Foundation is a small, closed-door family foundation, not a competitive open grants program. Its most recent Form 990 explicitly states it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations," and IRS filings show no public application, portal, published deadline, or funding cycle on record. President Rhodine R Gifford draws $0 compensation, and the foundation is administered from a residential-style address on Sand Hill Rd in Palo Alto — hallmarks of a hands-on family vehicle rather than a staffed grantmaking institution. Note: giffordfoundation.org, which surfaces prominently in web searches for "Gifford Foundation," belongs to an unrelated Syracuse, NY nonprofit with its own full public application process. Grant seekers should not confuse the two; this Palo Alto foundation, EIN 94-3303273, has no equivalent public-facing program.

Given this structure, the realistic path to funding is relationship, not application. Roughly two-thirds of documented giving (about $1.82M of $2.85M across 91 tracked grants, ~64%) flows to youth athletics — most heavily UC Berkeley baseball ($1.01M across 5 grants) and East Palo Alto Tennis Tutoring ($813K across 5 grants) — a pattern indicating sustained, personal, multi-year commitments to specific programs rather than a broad open call. A further ~27% (about $770K) funds scholarships spread across a wide, seemingly unrelated set of universities (University of San Francisco, Indiana University of PA, UNLV, University of Utah, Dominican College, West Chester, Bucks County CC, Cal Poly, Arizona State), a pattern consistent with named or legacy scholarship funds tied to specific students or alumni relationships rather than competitive scholarship RFPs.

First-time applicants should treat this as an invitation-only funder. Cold letters of inquiry are unlikely to be reviewed absent a warm introduction — ideally through a current grantee (UC Berkeley Athletics, East Palo Alto Tennis Tutoring, One Mind), a shared board or family connection, or a direct call to the listed contact, John F Gifford, at (650) 233-0147. Organizations running youth sports programs in the Bay Area, or administering named scholarship funds at mid-size universities, are the closest fit to the existing giving pattern and have the best odds of a productive conversation.

Financial trajectory: assets peaked at $11.34M in FY2020, boosted by $6.16M in net investment income that year, before falling to $8.81M by FY2022 as markets retreated (FY2022 total revenue was -$971,405). By the most recent available filing (FY2025, per ProPublica/CauseIQ), assets have partially recovered to $9,212,903, though revenue for that year was modest at $463,485 against $952,403 in expenses — a net asset decline of roughly $489K, offset by a payout of $878,124 in qualifying distributions, materially higher than the $556,897-$618,127 the foundation gave in FY2021-2022. This signals a foundation increasing its payout rate even as investment returns cool, plausibly to satisfy the 5% minimum-distribution requirement against a still-sizeable asset base — echoing the elevated payout years of FY2011-2012, when grants paid hit $1.15M-$1.52M.

At the individual-grant level, the foundation's own Form 990 grant schedule shows 17 disbursements ranging from $100 to $250,000, with a median of $10,265 and an average of $33,851 — a wide spread driven by a small number of large, recurring commitments alongside many token gifts under $2,000. Across the fuller 91-grant, $2,851,865 history captured in our database (average $31,339/grant), giving splits roughly: 64% (about $1.82M) to youth athletics, dominated by UC Berkeley baseball ($1.01M/5 grants) and East Palo Alto Tennis Tutoring ($813K/5 grants), with smaller amounts to volleyball, golf (First Tee Silicon Valley, Youth on Course), and other youth sports; 27% (about $770K) to university scholarships spread across more than a dozen institutions, none exceeding $151K cumulative; and the remaining ~9% split between mental health (One Mind, $83,333; a UCLA depression/anxiety digital-therapy platform, $50,000) and general community support (Old Spanish Trail, a Rittenhouse Square friends group, Village Hub). Geographically, California dominates with 42 of 91 grants, followed by Pennsylvania (19), Nevada, Colorado and Hawaii (6 each), and Utah (5) — a footprint tracking the Gifford family's apparent personal and alumni networks rather than a defined program area.

All five peers were surfaced because they sit within roughly $10K of Gifford's $9.2M asset base and share the generic "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification — a category that typically denotes small, single-family or single-trustee foundations rather than institutions with defined program areas or public grant portals. None of the five has a listed website in our records, reinforcing that this entire peer set operates below the visibility threshold where formal applications, staff, or published guidelines exist. Practically, grant seekers should not expect any foundation in this cohort — Gifford included — to resemble a mid-size community or corporate foundation with an open RFP cycle; relationship access, not proposal quality, is the determining factor across the whole peer group.

No foundation-specific press coverage exists for the Palo Alto Gifford Foundation (EIN 94-3303273) — web searches surface only its unrelated Syracuse, NY namesake, a distinct organization with its own board, "What If..." mini-grant program, and 2025-2026 POWER cohort announcements that have no connection to this filer. For this foundation, the clearest picture of recent activity comes from IRS filings rather than news coverage: the most recent available return (FY2025, per ProPublica and CauseIQ) shows total assets of $9,212,903, total revenue of $463,485, and charitable disbursements of $878,124 — up sharply from the $556,897-$618,127 range reported for FY2021-2022 in the historical financials on file. That jump in payout, against essentially flat asset growth, suggests either a deliberate step-up in giving or a response to minimum-distribution requirements following the FY2020 asset spike.

No leadership changes are documented: Rhodine R Gifford has held the President role with $0 compensation across every filing on record, and the last identified staff or manager compensation (Candice Flett, roughly $40,000) dates to FY2014-2015 filings, suggesting the foundation may now operate without paid administrative staff. Grant seekers should not expect a press-driven announcement of new funding priorities from this foundation — its activity surfaces only through annual Form 990 filings, which are typically released 12-18 months after the fiscal year closes.

Because the foundation has no public application, portal, published deadline, or stated funding priorities, the guidance below is inferred entirely from its giving history and IRS disclosures, not from any published foundation guidance:

• Recognize that an "accepting applications" flag in some databases is misleading — the foundation's own Form 990 states it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations." Treat any outreach as relationship-building, not proposal submission.
• Fit the existing pattern first. The two anchor relationships — UC Berkeley baseball and East Palo Alto Tennis Tutoring — have each received 5 consecutive grants and together account for 64% of tracked giving, indicating the foundation strongly favors renewing known, multi-year commitments over funding new organizations. An ask is more likely to land if it extends or complements an existing recipient's work, or serves a comparable Bay Area youth sports/education population, than if it arrives cold.
• Lead with a named point of contact. The IRS filing lists "John F Gifford" as the c/o contact at the foundation's Sand Hill Road, Palo Alto address, and phone (650) 233-0147. A direct, personal call or letter referencing a mutual connection is far more likely to get traction than a generic email, since no online form exists.
• If seeking a scholarship gift rather than a program grant, note that Gifford's university scholarship giving (27% of total, about $770K across a dozen-plus schools) looks like named or legacy funds tied to specific students or alumni relationships, not open competitive scholarship RFPs — approach through a university's development or financial aid office rather than directly.
• Keep any ask concrete and modest relative to typical size: the median individual grant is $10,265 and the average $33,851 (per the foundation's own 990 grant schedule), so framing a request in the $5,000-$50,000 range aligns with typical behavior, reserving larger asks for organizations that can demonstrate the kind of sustained, personal relationship UC Berkeley Athletics and East Palo Alto Tennis Tutoring have built.
• Avoid giffordfoundation.org and its Foundant/grantinterface.com portal entirely for this funder — that infrastructure belongs to the unrelated Syracuse, NY Gifford Foundation and using it will not reach this Palo Alto family foundation.