Hernan Lopez Family Foundation

The Hernan Lopez Family Foundation (HLFF) operates two entirely separate funding tracks, and grant seekers need to know which one applies to them. The first is the Lopez Fellowship, a genuinely open-application program for individual professionals — this is the foundation's only formal, publicly advertised application process. The second is direct grantmaking to nonprofit organizations (GLAAD, City Year, The Opportunity Network, Point Foundation, Endeavor, Latino U College Access, and a handful of smaller recipients), which the foundation's own records flag as "preselected only" — there is no open RFP, LOI portal, or published eligibility criteria for organizations. In practice this makes HLFF a closely held, founder-directed funder: all four listed officers (Hernan Lopez, Scott Velasquez, Andrea Link, Sharon Tal) draw zero compensation, signaling a lean, personally-run vehicle rather than a staffed program office. Organizations that already appear on the grantee list are overwhelmingly repeat partners — GLAAD, City Year, Opportunity Network, Point Foundation, and Endeavor each received the same grant three separate times, indicating multi-year renewed relationships rather than one-off awards. First-time nonprofit applicants should not expect a competitive open call; the realistic path in is a warm introduction or direct outreach to hello@hlff.org that clearly aligns with the foundation's four pillars (mentoring/modeling, training/networking, storytelling, and partnering with organizations serving students or celebrating underrecognized achievement) and, ideally, with founder Hernan Lopez's own story as a gay Latino immigrant who built Wondery before its sale to Amazon. Individuals, by contrast, have a real and fair shot: the Fellowship publishes explicit eligibility criteria (US-based, bachelor's degree, 7+ years of experience with a promotion, expanded role, or funded startup) and selects roughly 8 fellows annually from a broad applicant pool across tech, media, entertainment, healthcare, finance, and education. With $8.4M in total assets and grants paid ranging from $152,537 to $1.26M across the three most recent filed years, HLFF is a small, founder-funded family foundation — seekers should calibrate expectations to modest five- and low-six-figure grants, not large institutional awards.

HLFF's grantee data covers 26 grants totaling $1,609,627 (average $61,909), but that average is skewed heavily by one relationship: GLAAD alone received 3 grants totaling $1,090,000 — 68% of all tracked giving. Excluding GLAAD, the remaining 25 grants total $519,627, averaging roughly $20,800, a far more representative figure for a prospective applicant. The next tier of repeat partners cluster in the $25,000-$75,000-per-grant range: City Year ($225,000 across 3 grants, ~$75,000 each), The Opportunity Network ($105,000 across 3 grants, ~$35,000 each), Point Foundation ($75,000 across 3 grants, $25,000 each), and Endeavor ($75,000 across 3 grants, $25,000 each). Below that sits a long tail of smaller, apparently one-time gifts: Latino U College Access ($15,000 across 3 grants), and single $5,000 grants to Out & Equal, California Community Foundation, StartOut, and Prep for Prep, down to $2,090 (The Miami Foundation), $1,500 (Simon Wiesenthal Center), and $1,037 (Literacy Partners) — the smallest gift on record. Geographically, giving concentrates in New York (11 grantees) and California (10), with smaller footprints in Massachusetts (3) and Florida (2), tracking Lopez's dual New York/Los Angeles media and entertainment network rather than a defined geographic mandate (the foundation lists "United States" as its geographic focus). Total giving has declined sharply since launch: FY2020 total giving was $1,268,592 (grants paid $1,260,000), coinciding with a one-time $10,010,552 contribution that year — almost certainly the initial funding pulse from the 2021 Wondery/Amazon transaction. That fell to $490,004 in FY2021 and $386,002 in FY2022, with grants paid dropping to $241,045 and then $152,537 respectively. Total assets have held relatively steady in the $7.5M-$9.5M band across the same period, and net investment income ($1.25M in FY2022) is now the foundation's primary revenue source rather than new contributions, suggesting HLFF has settled into steady, modest endowment-draw giving rather than continued large infusions.

HLFF sits in a cluster of similarly-sized family/corporate foundations, all classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking (NTEE T22) with total assets within about $13,000 of one another — an artifact of the peer set being asset-matched rather than mission-matched. None of the five peers have a public website on file, and none show published focus areas or application processes, which makes HLFF unusually transparent by comparison thanks to its live website, named programs, and stated funding cycle.

Despite near-identical asset bases, HLFF is the only foundation in this peer group with a documented, named grant program (the Lopez Fellowship) and a publicly stated funding cycle. Grant seekers researching the other five peers will need to go directly to IRS Form 990-PF filings, since none maintain a public grants presence — a gap that itself signals HLFF is a comparatively more accessible funder within this asset tier, at least for individual fellowship applicants.

The most concrete recent development is procedural: applications for the 2026 Lopez Fellowship opened March 24 and closed April 13, 2026, per the foundation's own site — a window the foundation's internal database records slightly differently (March 17-April 6), a discrepancy worth flagging for anyone tracking exact dates for 2027. Sources also disagree on the program's tenure, describing it as either its fifth or sixth year; either way, the Fellowship has run continuously since shortly after the foundation's 2020 founding. The foundation's most recent primary tax return (Form 990-PF) was filed August 15, 2025, per ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, reflecting routine compliance rather than a substantive announcement. No press releases, leadership changes, or new program launches surfaced in web search for 2025-2026 beyond the Fellowship's continued operation and an apparent curriculum addition: an "Enterprise AI Deployment" module delivered via a partnership with Section AI, now paired with a required AI proficiency assessment for applicants — a meaningful shift from the program's original executive-coaching-only design. No new nonprofit grant partners were identifiable in current web sources beyond the established roster (GLAAD, City Year, Opportunity Network, Point Foundation, Endeavor, Latino U College Access, and the smaller one-time recipients). Absent additional disclosed activity, the most recent major event of record remains the foundation's 2020-2021 launch, funded by a one-time ~$10M contribution coinciding with Hernan Lopez's sale of Wondery to Amazon.

For individuals: the Lopez Fellowship is the only genuinely open door at HLFF, and its window is narrow — about three weeks (March 24-April 13 in the 2026 cycle) — so prospective applicants should prepare materials well in advance rather than starting cold when the window opens. Eligibility is specific and enforced: US residency and work authorization, a bachelor's degree or higher, and at least 7 years of professional experience evidenced by a promotion, a job change into greater responsibility, or founding/co-founding a funded company at least one year old. A letter of recommendation from a current or former colleague or boss is required — line this up before the window opens, since a 3-week cycle leaves little time to chase down a reference. The program now also requires an AI proficiency assessment, so applicants unfamiliar with enterprise AI tools should brush up before applying. Only about 8 fellows are selected annually from a national applicant pool spanning tech, media, entertainment, healthcare, education, and finance, so competition is real despite the program being unpaid-tuition and remote-friendly; in-person commitments in New York/West Coast (late June) and a Los Angeles closing session (September) mean applicants should be able to travel or already be based near those hubs. For nonprofits: there is no published RFP, LOI, or grant portal, and the foundation's internal classification marks its organizational giving as preselected only. The realistic approach is a direct, well-targeted email to hello@hlff.org that explicitly ties the organization's work to HLFF's four stated pillars — mentoring/modeling, training/networking, storytelling, and partnering with groups that serve students or celebrate underrecognized achievement — and, where authentic, to founder Hernan Lopez's personal narrative as a gay Latino immigrant executive (this thread runs through nearly every named grantee, from GLAAD and Point Foundation to Out & Equal and StartOut). A common mistake would be treating HLFF like a typical open-application family foundation; its grant history shows heavy reliance on repeat, multi-year relationships (GLAAD, City Year, Opportunity Network, Point Foundation, and Endeavor each received grants three separate times) rather than funding new one-off applicants, so building a relationship before requesting funds is more likely to succeed than a cold proposal.