Herman Goldman Foundation Inc.

Herman Goldman Foundation Inc. (IRS ruling date April 1944; EIN 13-6066039) is a small, closely-held family/board foundation administered through Foundation Source, a third-party foundation-management platform — visible in the 990's contact field ('% Foundation Source') and in the live 'Apply for Grant' link, which routes to a Foundation Source eligibility quiz. That structure signals a lean, no-program-staff operation: a 13-member volunteer board (David Brauner as President, Mel Barkan as Treasurer, David Kay as Secretary, Roy Sparber as Vice President, plus nine additional directors including Michael Clain, Charles Damato, John Enteman, Donald Gibson, Michael Goldstein, Alan Michigan, Alan Nisselson, Christopher Schwabacher, and Howard Simon) each draws a flat $12,000 stipend, totaling $144,000 in officer compensation in the latest filed year, with no visible program officers in public filings. Applicants should read this as a board-decision funder, not a staffed institution with dedicated grants managers. There is no LOI stage: the foundation explicitly asks for a single-stage submission on the New York/New Jersey Area Common Application Form, accompanied by proof of 501(c)(3) status, and states plainly that it does not conduct site visits or interviews before deciding. That means the written proposal has to be self-contained and complete on first submission. First-time applicants should also know that grants to individuals are categorically excluded, only verified 501(c)(3)s are eligible, and — per the foundation's own instructions — applications are 'accepted at any time, but are considered only at specific times during the year,' so a rolling submission does not guarantee a rolling decision; build in several months of runway. With only a handful of distinguishable grant-schedule entries recorded in parsed 990 data (averaging $262,650, but reflecting bundled multi-grant schedule lines rather than individual named grantees) against roughly $730,000-$920,000 distributed annually, this reads as a small, semi-recurring portfolio funder rather than an open-doors mass grantmaker. Organizations with an existing New York (or secondarily Fairfield County, CT) service footprint aligned to health, education, social welfare, the arts, or the administration of justice are best positioned, particularly those that can surface some connection to the closely-held board given the absence of program staff to build a relationship with directly.

In the most recent filed fiscal year (FY2022), the foundation reported $737,500 in grants paid, $1,373,508 in total giving (which includes administrative and director costs), $820,055 in total revenue, $579,152 in net investment income, $144,000 in officer compensation, and $14,011,512 in total assets. Across the ten fiscal years on file (2010-2014, 2018-2022, with 2015-2017 not present in the record), grants paid ranged from a low of $729,000 (FY2020) to a high of $921,500 (FY2012), averaging roughly $818,000 per year — a mild downward drift of about 20% from the 2012 peak to FY2022. Total assets tell a similar story: they peaked at $20,777,720 in FY2013 and fell to $14,011,512 by FY2022, a decline of roughly 33%, while contributions received were $0 in every single filed year — this is a pure spend-from-endowment funder living entirely off investment returns, not one raising new money, and net investment income swung widely with markets (from $74,299 in FY2020 to $1,666,889 in FY2014). The parsed grant-schedule data captures 12 distinguishable line items across the filed years, split 9 in New York and 3 in Connecticut, totaling $3,151,800 at an average of $262,650 — but these are IRS-990 schedule aggregates (e.g., '3 Schedule Attached Payable As At...') rather than individually named grantees, so a true median single-grant size cannot be derived from this bundle. Given annual grants-paid in the $730,000-$920,000 range and third-party trackers reporting figures like 84 awards in a recent year, the effective typical single grant is almost certainly far smaller than the $262,650 schedule-line average — likely concentrated in the low five figures per organization. Every schedule line on file carries the identical five-way purpose tag (Arts, Education, Health, Justice, Welfare), indicating the foundation reports its giving as one blended basket rather than publishing a program-by-program budget split; applicants should not expect the foundation to disclose what percentage goes to each of its five areas. Director/officer compensation of $144,000-$168,000 per year across the filed decade represents roughly 10-20% of total giving in a typical year — a modest governance overhead consistent with a Foundation-Source-administered small family foundation.

Herman Goldman Foundation sits at the small end of its New York philanthropic peer set. Its $14.0M in assets and roughly $737K-$1.37M in annual giving are a fraction of the multi-issue New York funders it most resembles by program mix (health, education, arts, human services, justice/community work):

Herman Goldman is roughly one-quarter the size of New York Foundation and a rounding error next to Heckscher, which does not accept unsolicited applications at all. That makes Herman Goldman procedurally one of the more accessible funders in this peer group for a first-time, unsolicited applicant — no LOI gate like New York Foundation, no invitation requirement like Heckscher — even though the absolute dollars on offer are far smaller than any of the three larger peers.

No material news coverage, press releases, or leadership changes were identified for Herman Goldman Foundation in 2025-2026 through web search or the foundation's own website — this is typical for a small, Foundation Source-administered family foundation with no communications staff. The most recent confirmed activity is administrative: a Form 990-PF was filed with the IRS on January 14, 2025, per ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, continuing the foundation's unbroken filing history back through at least 2010. The foundation's website (hermangoldmanfoundation.org), last updated in 2025 per its own footer, still lists the same five funding areas — Health, Education, Social Welfare, Arts, and Administration of Justice — that appear in IRS filings going back years, and the same 13-member board structure with flat $12,000 director stipends persists in the latest compensation data available ($144,000 in officer compensation, FY2022). The 'Apply for Grant' flow currently routes through a Foundation Source eligibility quiz rather than a static PDF form, which is the most concrete operational change visible, though it is not possible to date exactly when that transition occurred from public sources. Grant-schedule detail beyond FY2022 was not available in the data reviewed; applicants should treat FY2022 figures ($737,500 grants paid, $14.0M in assets) as the most current confirmed baseline and verify directly with the foundation or its FY2023/FY2024 990-PF (once posted) for anything more recent.

Timing: applications are accepted year-round, but the foundation's own instructions state they are 'considered only at specific times during the year' — treat this as a multi-month review cycle, not a rolling one, and don't expect a quick turnaround regardless of when you submit. What they look for: a complete, single-stage proposal using the New York/New Jersey Area Common Application Form (obtained at nyrag.org), with a copy of your organization's IRS tax-exempt determination letter attached — the foundation states plainly it will not consider a request without that documentation. Use the foundation's own vocabulary rather than generic mission language: frame the request around 'effective delivery of physical and mental health care services' (Health), 'organizational, social, and legal approaches to aid deprived or handicapped people' (Social Justice), 'improved counseling for effective preschool, vocational and paraprofessional training' (Education), or 'training for talented youth' and 'access for less affluent individuals' (Arts) — this is the exact taxonomy echoed in both IRS filings and the current program page. Common mistakes to avoid: sending a Letter of Inquiry first (unnecessary — the foundation explicitly does not require one and it just adds a wasted cycle), applying on behalf of individuals (categorically ineligible), submitting without proof of 501(c)(3) status, requesting emergency or relief funding (reported as excluded by third-party grant trackers), or assuming a site visit or phone interview will follow submission — the foundation states neither occurs before a funding decision, so the written application is the entire case. Relationship-building: because governance is a closely-held 13-person volunteer board with flat stipends and no visible program staff, warm or board-adjacent introductions carry more relative weight here than at a staffed foundation — there is no program officer to build a relationship with directly, so any existing connection to a board member or to an organization the foundation has funded before is worth surfacing in a cover note. Geographic framing: 9 of the 12 distinguishable grant-schedule entries on file are New York-based versus 3 in Connecticut, so New York organizations should lead with in-state service data, and Connecticut applicants (particularly Fairfield County, historically referenced by third-party trackers) should note that secondary geography explicitly.