Henry Morgenthau Preserve Inc.

Henry Morgenthau Preserve Inc. is not, in practice, a conventional third-party grantmaker — it is an operating foundation that owns and runs a 36-acre nature preserve on Blue Heron Lake in Pound Ridge, NY, and directs the large majority of its resources toward its own property management and environmental-education programming rather than outbound grants to other nonprofits. Its Form 990 grantee record confirms this: across the five most recent fiscal years in our data (2019-2023), the foundation reported outbound grants in only two of five years — $3,510 in 2019 and $28,250 in 2021 — with $0 recorded in 2020, 2022, and most of 2023's activity landing at $3,515. Only one external grantee appears in the record at all: Mianus River Gorge Inc. (Bedford, NY), which received $3,515 for general 501(c)(3) activities. That single data point is telling — Mianus River Gorge is a fellow land-conservation organization and a listed TIP-PR (The Invasives Project-Pound Ridge) partner, meaning the Preserve's rare outbound giving goes to organizations already inside its working conservation network, not to applicants it discovered through a public process. The foundation is run by a four-person, all-volunteer, uncompensated board (President Marilyn Shapiro-Lowell, VP Vince Manna, VP/Treasurer Christopher W. London, Secretary Sandra Paget) — there is no program officer, no grants staff, and no published RFP. First-time applicants should treat this as a relationship-first, hyperlocal funder: the realistic path in is not a written LOI but a warm introduction through one of its named partners — Pound Ridge Land Conservancy, Pound Ridge Library, The Pound Ridge Partnership, Westchester Land Trust, or the NY/NJ Trail Conference — or direct, personal outreach to Marilyn Shapiro-Lowell explaining specific alignment with invasive-species management, native-plant education, or Pound Ridge-area environmental programming. Organizations outside Westchester County, NY, or outside the conservation/environmental-education space, should not expect a response; this is a hyperlocal funder with a total asset base of roughly $6.85 million supporting a single town's preserve.

The foundation's own dollar figures make clear that grantmaking to outside organizations is a minor, irregular activity layered on top of its core mission of running the Preserve itself. Total assets sit at $6,854,454 (FY2023), essentially flat over five years ($7,070,207 in 2019 → $6,879,629 in 2020 → $6,890,454 in 2021 → $6,911,683 in 2022 → $6,854,454 in 2023), funded almost entirely by investment income rather than incoming contributions (net investment income ranged $19,882-$75,116 per year; direct contributions received were $0-$528 in four of five years). "Total giving" as reported in our financials (which appears to blend program/operating spend with any outbound grants) ran $117,413-$139,825 annually from 2019-2023, but the DB's specific "grants_paid" line — the portion that actually left the organization as third-party grants — was far smaller and erratic: $3,510 (2019), $0 (2020), $28,250 (2021), $3,515 (2022), $0 (2023). ProPublica's independent 990 read shows a similar volatile pattern using its own "charitable disbursement" methodology: $64,673 (2018), $53,113 (2022), $24,595 (2023), $63,344 (2024) — figures that likely capture program-service spending (preserve upkeep, education programs) alongside any grants, which is why they run higher than the DB's grants-paid line. The foundation's own typical_grant_size record: median $2,250, average $9,417, range $1,000-$25,000, across just 3 recorded disbursements — a dataset too thin to support a reliable statistical pattern but directionally consistent with small, one-off, sub-$30,000 awards. Geographically, 100% of confirmed outbound grant dollars stayed in New York State (the sole grantee, Mianus River Gorge Inc., is Westchester-adjacent). There is no evidence of a program-area breakdown beyond environmental/conservation causes — no health, education-outside-environment, or arts giving appears in the grantee record despite the foundation's NTEE classification as "Arts & Culture" (code A80), which appears to be a database categorization artifact rather than a reflection of actual giving focus.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (all cluster within $6.80M-$6.86M) and shared NTEE "Arts & Culture" classification, not on operating model — none has a public website with disclosed grantee lists except Bosse Toy Train Museum. The pattern across this entire peer set is consistent with Henry Morgenthau Preserve: these are small, closely-held family or single-site operating foundations, not open-application grantmakers, and grant seekers should expect the same preselected, relationship-driven access model across most of them rather than a formal RFP.

No 2025-2026 press coverage, grant announcements, or leadership changes turned up in web search — this is a low-visibility, all-volunteer operating foundation that does not issue press releases. The most recent verifiable financial signal is the FY2024 Form 990 data reflected on ProPublica, showing charitable disbursements of $63,344 (38.4% of total expenses), roughly 2.6x the FY2023 figure of $24,595 — a meaningful year-over-year increase, though it is not possible to confirm from public sources how much of that increase, if any, reflects new outbound grants to third-party organizations versus expanded on-site programming and preserve maintenance. The foundation's active on-the-ground work continues to center on The Invasives Project-Pound Ridge (TIP-PR), a partnership with the Pound Ridge Conservation Board that deploys certified Master Gardeners and volunteer citizen scientists for invasive-species work parties, panel discussions, workshops, and home property consultations (contact: tipconsults@gmail.com); the Storywalk installation at Pound Ridge Town Park; and ongoing trail hikes and speaker events. Its listed conservation partners — Mianus River Gorge Preserve, the NY/NJ Trail Conference, Pound Ridge Land Conservancy, Pound Ridge Library, The Pound Ridge Partnership, and Westchester Land Trust — appear to be five-year-standing relationships rather than newly announced ones. Board leadership (Marilyn Shapiro-Lowell as President since at least the data window covered here) shows no reported turnover.

There is no formal application process to describe — the foundation's own database record lists application_instructions as none, and independent foundation-database summaries describe it as funding only preselected charitable organizations and not accepting unsolicited requests. Practically, that means: (1) Do not submit a cold LOI or proposal through a generic portal — none exists, and a mailed or emailed unsolicited request is unlikely to be reviewed by the four-person volunteer board. (2) The single documented path to funding is relationship-based: organizations already active in Westchester County land conservation, invasive-species management, or Pound Ridge community/environmental education are far more likely to be known to the board than any outside applicant. If your organization has any existing tie to Mianus River Gorge Inc., Pound Ridge Land Conservancy, Westchester Land Trust, the NY/NJ Trail Conference, or the Pound Ridge Conservation Board, lead with that connection explicitly. (3) Given the foundation's own grant history — three recorded disbursements ranging $1,000-$25,000 with a $2,250 median — calibrate any ask to a modest, project-specific amount (a few thousand dollars for a defined activity, not general operating support at scale) rather than a large multi-year request. (4) Frame any outreach around the Preserve's actual stated mission — managing and protecting the Preserve property and providing environmental education — rather than broader "Arts & Culture" language; despite its NTEE A80 classification in public databases, every piece of public-facing content and its one known grantee point to conservation/environmental education, not arts programming. (5) The most viable first contact is a direct, personal note to President Marilyn Shapiro-Lowell (listed contact: Ms. Marilyn A. Shapiro-Lowell, 82 Pound Ridge Rd, Pound Ridge, NY 10576, (914) 764-5105) explaining a specific, local, conservation-aligned need — not a mass-distributed proposal. (6) Organizations outside the Pound Ridge/Westchester County geography, or outside environmental conservation and education, should treat this as a very low-probability target and prioritize other funders in this report's peer set or broader search results instead.