Gray Foundation

The Gray Foundation operates under an explicitly invitation-only model — this is the single most important fact any prospective grantee must internalize before investing time in pursuit. Both its BRCA research and NYC youth funding streams share the same structural requirement: organizations and researchers do not apply; they are selected. For BRCA science, the Foundation periodically issues requests for proposals (RFPs) distributed to the cancer research community, and unsolicited proposals are not reviewed. For NYC youth initiatives, organizations must be invited to submit a proposal, after which Foundation staff schedule a meeting and/or site visit.

This architecture reflects the founders' giving philosophy. Mindy and Jon Gray — she a University of Pennsylvania graduate whose sister Faith Basser died at age 44 from BRCA-related ovarian cancer, he the President and COO of Blackstone and Chair of Hilton Worldwide — built a foundation that identifies promising initiatives and supports exceptional leaders rather than fielding open competitions. The result is a portfolio of deep, multi-year institutional partnerships rather than transactional one-time grants: Penn has received 45 grants totaling $50.6 million; Harvard 24 grants totaling $9.2 million; Dana-Farber 16 grants totaling $8.7 million.

For BRCA researchers, the path to funding runs through established academic and scientific networks. The Foundation's research partners are concentrated at Penn, Harvard/HMS/MGH, Dana-Farber, Yale, NYU, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, and UT Health San Antonio. Chief Science Advisor Chi Van Dang — former CEO of Ludwig Cancer Research and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor — signals the caliber of scientific leadership the Foundation expects. Being affiliated with or publishing in active collaboration with these anchor institutions substantially increases visibility when RFPs are released.

For NYC youth organizations, the entry point is relational. CEO Dana Zucker (Harvard MBA, former Teach For America, Bain, Lazard) and President Charissa Fernandez (30+ years in NYC youth education, former Executive Director of Teach For America NYC) reveal what the Foundation values: organizations that pair academic ambition with operational rigor. Current grantee patterns favor both large-scale intermediaries (UNCF, CUNY, Montefiore, Robin Hood) and smaller community anchors with proven track records (Harlem RBI, East Harlem Tutorial Program, Village Academies). First-time prospective partners should study the Foundation's existing portfolio carefully, identify natural adjacencies, and seek warm introductions through current grantees or academic institutional networks.

The Gray Foundation's financial growth from 2015 to 2023 is among the most dramatic in U.S. private philanthropy: grants paid rose from $3.5 million in fiscal year 2015 to $44.96 million in FY2023 — a 13x increase in eight years, compounding at approximately 16.9% annually. Total assets stood at $81.5 million in FY2023, up from $62.2 million in FY2021 and $39.9 million in FY2019. Asset figures significantly understate the Foundation's grantmaking capacity: in FY2023 alone, contributions received ($41.2 million) and net investment income ($22.8 million) jointly funded $45 million in grants. Since inception, the Foundation has distributed over $550 million in total, including the $125 million Tel Aviv University gift in 2025.

Across 901 recorded grants totaling $248.3 million, the average grant is $275,596 — but this figure is heavily skewed by anchor relationships. The top five grantees alone — University of Pennsylvania ($50.6M over 45 grants), NYC Kids Rise Inc ($25.0M over 11 grants), New York University ($10.3M over 9 grants), Harvard ($9.2M over 24 grants), and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute ($8.7M over 16 grants) — account for $103.8 million, or 41.8% of all recorded giving. By contrast, the 50th-largest grantee relationship (Modern Classrooms Project) reflects approximately $450,000 in cumulative grants, and the Foundation's community-level NYC grantees typically receive $100,000–$550,000 over a multi-grant relationship.

Geographically, New York State dominates with 618 of 901 grants (68.6%), reflecting the NYC youth mandate. Massachusetts (85 grants, 9.4%), Pennsylvania (45, 5.0%), and Washington DC (32, 3.6%) constitute the second tier, driven primarily by BRCA research institutions. The Foundation's own reporting allocates $200 million-plus to BRCA initiatives and $150 million-plus to NYC youth — roughly a 57%/43% programmatic split as of early 2025. Officer compensation grew alongside giving from $250,000 (FY2015) to $957,000 (FY2023), reflecting the full professionalization of staff under Zucker and Fernandez. The Foundation's 55% payout ratio in FY2023 ($45M giving on $81.5M assets) is extraordinary, far exceeding the legal 5% minimum, and signals that grantmaking capacity is primarily a function of founder intent rather than endowment size.

The database peers below are matched by asset size (~$83 million) within the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category. This structural match is useful for benchmarking operational scale but does not reflect thematic similarity: Gray Foundation's true philanthropic peers in BRCA research include the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF, $100M+ annual giving), Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, and Stand Up To Cancer; in NYC youth philanthropy, comparators include Robin Hood Foundation ($175M+ annual giving) and Tiger Foundation. Peer annual giving estimates below are derived from reported assets at the 5% minimum payout rate where actual data are not available.

Gray Foundation's payout ratio of 55% (FY2023) dwarfs all asset-matched peers, which typically distribute 5–8% of assets annually. This outlier profile reflects active annual contributions from Jon and Mindy Gray rather than a fixed endowment model. Among BRCA-focused funders, the Foundation is now widely recognized as the leading private funder in its space, having committed over $200 million to BRCA science since 2015 — a concentration unmatched by any peer of similar asset size.

The Foundation's highest-profile recent action was a $125 million gift to Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, announced May 6, 2025 and reported by the New York Times as the largest donation in that institution's history. Structured through the American Friends of Tel Aviv University, the gift funds expanded enrollment (25% increase), scholarships for underrepresented students (including doubling Arab Israeli Medical School enrollment), faculty recruitment, facilities modernization, student housing, and BRCA research infrastructure. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (Kevin Roe and Anne Power, Exempt Organizations practice) represented the Foundation in the transaction — the first major international gift of this scale in the Foundation's history.

On the NYC youth side, July 2025 brought a $1 million grant to Stony Brook University for 10 gap-closing scholarships for NYC public school students in SUNY's Top 10% Promise program. By February 2026, NYC Kids RISE surpassed $57 million invested with 342,000 students enrolled — a milestone reported by Harlem World and Inside Philanthropy. The initiative's January 2026 feature in Inside Philanthropy underscores growing national recognition of the college savings model.

Two programmatic developments are notable for prospective NYC youth partners: the 2024 launch of Wave Makers (free swimming instruction for ~2,000 second graders in pool deserts, in partnership with Asphalt Green) and the ongoing Today Show BRCA awareness coverage (October 2024 with Jill Martin). No leadership changes have been publicly reported; Dana Zucker and Charissa Fernandez remain in CEO and President roles respectively.

Because neither BRCA research nor NYC youth grants accept unsolicited applications, the effective "application strategy" is about positioning for a future invitation — not filling out a form.

For BRCA researchers:

• Monitor grayfoundation.org/press and grayfoundation.org/brca-initiatives consistently. The Foundation's two major RFP cycles launched in 2019 and 2023 (both funding 7 multi-institutional research teams), suggesting a roughly four-year cadence; the next cycle may open around 2027.
• Frame all research within prevention, early detection, and cancer interception — not treatment of established disease. The Gray BRCA Pre-Cancer Atlas and Basser Cancer Interception Center define the current scientific center of gravity. Proposals about identifying pre-cancerous cellular changes in BRCA carriers, implementing cascade genetic screening, or developing interception strategies will be most competitive.
• Assemble multi-institutional collaboratives. The Foundation explicitly favors multi-institutional, multidisciplinary teams. A credible proposal will span at least two of the anchor institutions (Penn, Harvard/HMS, Dana-Farber, MGH, Yale, NYU, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Cleveland Clinic) and include both basic science and clinical translation components.
• Build visibility through publication, conference presence, and co-authorship with existing Gray Foundation grantees — particularly PIs at Penn and Dana-Farber, who have the deepest institutional relationships.

For NYC youth organizations:

• Seek warm introductions through current grantees: UNCF, Robin Hood Foundation, Teach For America NYC, Montefiore Medical Center, John Jay College Foundation, and Asphalt Green all have direct institutional relationships with Foundation leadership.
• Name your program. Every funded initiative in the portfolio is a discrete named program — CUSP, Gray Fellowship, Teens Take the Met, Career Lattice, Wave Makers. Avoid pitching general operating support or broad capacity building.
• Demonstrate measurable outcomes for a defined low-income NYC youth population. The Foundation tracks graduation rates, debt reduction, on-campus living rates, and health metrics. Programs without a measurement framework will not align with staff expectations.
• Align with the Scholars model: wraparound support (success coaches, enrichment funds, emergency assistance, career connections) is valued over direct tuition grants alone.
• The Wave Makers initiative signals openness to preventive health and safety programming — water safety, health education — alongside traditional education and scholarship work.