Here To Help Foundation

Here To Help Foundation is not a conventional grantmaker to nonprofits — it is a private operating foundation, founded in 2007 by attorney Bob Schwartz and his wife Robin in Royal Oak, MI, that pays vendors, landlords, and creditors directly on behalf of individuals in crisis. Its IRS filing describes 'contributions to residents of Wayne and Oakland County who are in crisis' (over 2,000 individual grants in 2022 alone), but the foundation's own website confirms that as of January 2023 it narrowed exclusively to its 'Returning Hope to Returning Citizens' program, serving people reentering society after incarceration. There is no organizational grant program here for nonprofits to apply to directly; the 'applicant' is an individual, and the practical grant-seeking path for a nonprofit is to become one of the foundation's roughly 800 'Qualified Advocates' — caseworkers, parole officers, or reentry-agency staff who refer and vouch for specific clients. First-time contacts should not expect an RFP, portal, or multi-stage LOI-to-full-proposal cycle; the entire relationship runs through a text line (248-330-7271) and email (heretohelpfoundation@icloud.com), reviewed personally by the all-volunteer leadership. All named officers — CEO Robert Schwartz, President Robin Schwartz, plus a rotating slate of unpaid trustees (Chanta Paul, Marquez Harris, Wanda Nixon, Leah Abrams, Aaron Salter, and others) — report $0 compensation across every fiscal year on file, underscoring that this remains a hands-on family and community operation rather than a staffed institution. Applicants (or their advocates) must document Michigan residency in Wayne or Oakland County with a current-address driver's license or state ID — 'no exceptions' per the foundation's FAQ — and must present a specific, quantifiable, one-time need (a car-repair bill, a security deposit, a shutoff notice) rather than an ongoing operating request. Because funds are disbursed straight to the service provider, never reimbursed to the individual, the strongest approach is to arrive already knowing the payee, the amount, and the underlying crisis, and to have a Qualified Advocate relationship in place before reaching out.

Here to Help's grantmaking is defined by high volume and small dollar amounts rather than large, discretionary awards. Across the grant-level data on file, the foundation issued 7,879 individual grants totaling $2,455,571 (average $312 per grant), and its own typical-grant-size metric — likely a single fiscal year's 990-PF grant list of 2,226 disbursements — shows a median of $209, an average of $413, and a range of just $40 to $4,000. Even its largest known repeat beneficiaries accumulate modest totals over time: the top recipient received 14 separate grants totaling $16,022 for car, car insurance/repair, funeral expenses, and furniture; the next several range from $12,480 down to $8,940 across 6-16 stacked grants apiece for combinations of car repair, clothing for work, furniture, rent, security deposit, and utilities, with Walmart gift cards appearing in the majority of multi-grant case files. On the balance-sheet side, total giving grew sharply after the Returning Hope program launched in August 2020 — from $250,807 given in FY2019 to $681,427 (FY2020), $965,945 (FY2021, the peak year, fueled by $1,263,121 in contributions received), then settling back to $863,830 (FY2022) and $809,977 in grants paid / $849,369 total giving (FY2023) as contributions cooled to $689,375. Total assets have held steady in the $3.6M-$4.1M range since 2021 (currently $3,904,632), after climbing from just $1.3M-$2.8M in the 2011-2020 era, when the foundation ran a broader (non-returning-citizen) crisis-assistance model at $350K-$490K in annual giving. Geographically, 100% of tracked grants (7,879 of 7,879) went to Michigan residents, consistent with the hard Wayne/Oakland County residency requirement — there is no multi-state or national giving to analyze.

All five peer foundations sit within roughly $700 of Here To Help's $3,904,632 in assets and share its generic 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, but none maintain a public website, published eligibility criteria, or a visible application channel in the data available — the typical profile of a closely held family foundation that gives quietly to a fixed circle of grantees. Here To Help is the outlier in this peer set: it operates a public-facing website with detailed eligibility rules, a documented six-program structure, press coverage, and an open (if informal) intake process via text and email. For a grant seeker, that transparency is itself a competitive signal — Here To Help is one of the few similarly sized foundations in this cohort actually reachable without an existing personal connection to the trustees.

The single most important recent development is programmatic, not a press release: as of January 2023, Here To Help Foundation stopped serving the general population of Wayne/Oakland County residents 'in crisis' (the model reflected in its 2022 IRS filing, which cites 'over 2,000 individual grants in 2022') and now serves exclusively returning citizens — people reentering society after incarceration — through its Returning Hope to Returning Citizens program. The foundation's own materials say that program has now assisted more than 7,500 formerly incarcerated individuals since its August 2020 launch, and more than 30,000 people in total since the foundation's 2007 founding. Press attention has followed that focus: two June 4, 2024 features (via the foundation's own 'In the News' archive) profiled successful reentry cases, including one individual rebuilding life after 37 years of incarceration. On the funding side, the Sunshine Lady Foundation — established by Doris Buffett, sister of Warren Buffett — awarded Here To Help $100,000 specifically earmarked for the Returning Hope program, a grant still featured in the foundation's news archive as of April 2023. Leadership has remained stable and unpaid throughout: co-founders Bob (CEO) and Robin (President) Schwartz continue to run the organization full-time without compensation, supported by an unpaid trustee board. No 2025 or 2026 press releases, leadership changes, or new program announcements turned up in web search as of this research — the newsletters page shows the foundation's most recent public newsletter dated January 2026, but its content was not accessible via search, so grant seekers should check that page directly for the latest operational detail.

This is a high-touch, low-bureaucracy funder, and the tips that matter are procedural, not narrative. First, self-screen hard on the two non-negotiable eligibility facts: the individual must hold a Michigan driver's license or state ID showing a CURRENT Wayne or Oakland County address ('no exceptions,' per the foundation's FAQ), and — since January 2023 — must be a returning citizen (formerly incarcerated); anyone else is directed by the foundation's own homepage to United Way's 211 line, so don't waste an advocate relationship pursuing a non-qualifying case. Second, understand the payment mechanic before reaching out: Here To Help pays the service provider, landlord, or creditor directly — it does not reimburse individuals who have already paid a bill themselves — so come prepared with the payee's name, contact information, and an exact dollar amount (an invoice, a security-deposit figure, a shutoff notice, a repair estimate). Third, skip the idea of a written proposal entirely: there is no downloadable application form or RFP; initial contact is by text (248-330-7271) or email (heretohelpfoundation@icloud.com), and the foundation explicitly invites 'any questions, please text.' Fourth, the single biggest access lever is relationship-based: the foundation works through roughly 800 'Qualified Advocates' — parole officers, reentry-program case managers, and social-service staff — so a nonprofit trying to help clients access this funder should establish itself as a known referral source rather than have individual clients apply cold. Fifth, calibrate expectations on size: with a median award around $209 and a hard ceiling near $4,000, this is bridge/gap funding to combine with other emergency-assistance resources, not a program-level grant. Finally, remember the request must solve a genuinely one-time problem — the foundation explicitly will not fund a 'temporary solution,' such as covering back rent that will recur next month — so frame the need as resolving the crisis outright (e.g., a full security deposit that secures new, sustainable housing) rather than a stopgap payment.