Huang Pacific Foundation

Huang Pacific Foundation is a family-run private foundation based in Atherton, CA, founded around 2013-2014 (IRS ruling date July 2014) by Robert T. Huang, founder of Synnex Corporation (now TD SYNNEX, a Fortune 500 IT distribution company), and his wife Lily S. Huang. Family members Nicole Huang (Secretary) and Robert T. Huang Jr. (CFO/Treasurer) have joined the officer roster in more recent filings, and all officers serve without compensation. Critically, the foundation's own Form 990-PF checks the box stating it 'only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and doesn't accept unsolicited applications' — there is no portal, LOI process, or published deadline anywhere in the IRS record or on its website. The 32 tracked grants show funding flowing almost exclusively to organizations with a pre-existing personal tie to the Huang family: Robert's direct work with MIT Sloan entrepreneurship students, the company he founded (the Synnex Leadership Scholarship and Synnex Share the Magic matching-gift program), causes where family members hold board or trustee seats (Lily Huang is a board member of That Man May See / All May See Foundation, an ophthalmology research and sight-restoration program at UCSF; Robert Huang is a Trustee of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco), Taiwan-linked heritage organizations (Canaan Taiwanese Christian Church, the largest single recurring direct grantee at $89,000 across 4 grants; Ximen Elementary School in Taipei; the Abundant Life International Fund), and Bay Area institutions (the Asian Studies Fund at College Preparatory School in Oakland, the Krause Center for Innovation). For grant seekers, the realistic path in is not a written proposal but an actual relationship — board service, Synnex/TD SYNNEX employment or alumni ties, a shared trustee connection, or a warm introduction through an existing grantee. Organizations with no such tie should treat this as a closed, relationship-first funder. Typical gift size is modest (median $5,000, average $24,786 per the foundation's own reported range), and once a relationship is established, funding tends to repeat across multiple years rather than being a one-time award — this is a foundation that sustains existing commitments rather than searching for new grantees each cycle.

Total assets grew from $1,911,985 at founding (2013) to $9,814,244 in the most recent filed year (2024) — roughly 5x growth over eleven years — driven far more by investment performance than new contributions: net investment income alone reached $1,331,669-$1,580,264 in 2021-2022, while contributions received were $0 in most years except the founding infusions ($238,800 in 2014, $1,665,835 in 2019). Grants paid have ranged from $0 (2013, 2015) to a peak of $509,005-$517,758 in total giving in 2019 and 2021, settling to $276,550-$344,199 paid in 2022-2023 and an unreported figure for 2024 (though third-party aggregator Cause IQ puts 2024 giving near $318,000). Across the 32 recorded grants totaling $1,055,968 (average $32,999 per grantee relationship), dollars concentrate heavily: National Philanthropic Trust ($325,000 across 3 grants, a donor-advised-fund pass-through rather than a program grant), All May See Foundation ($159,000/3 grants, ophthalmology/health), Synnex Leadership Scholarship ($150,000/1 grant, education), Svc Foundation ($100,000/1 grant), and Canaan Taiwanese Christian Church ($89,000/4 grants, the largest direct recurring community grantee) together account for $823,000 — 78% of all tracked dollars — in just 5 of 32 relationships. The foundation's self-reported typical grant size is a median of $5,000 and average of $24,786 (range $500-$100,000), which is skewed by a long tail of token gifts: World Wildlife Fund ($50), Air Force Academy Endowment ($1,000), and Del Monte Forest Conservancy ($1,700 across 3 grants). Geographically, tracked grantees cluster in California (19 of 32 grants), with smaller counts in Pennsylvania (3), South Carolina (3, likely tied to Synnex's historic HQ state), DC (2), Massachusetts (2, likely MIT/Northeastern-linked), and single grants each to Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Program focus by NTEE classification centers on Education, Philanthropy/Voluntarism & Grantmaking, and Health Care.

All five peers sit within roughly $2,500 of Huang Pacific's asset base, forming a size-matched cohort under the same 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE category. None of the peers have a listed website in IRS records, making Huang Pacific unusual for this asset tier in having any public program information at all — its Activities and About pages give grant seekers far more visibility into giving philosophy and named initiatives than a typical $9-10M family foundation offers. That transparency, however, does not translate into openness: the underlying preselected-only, no-unsolicited-applications model is likely the norm rather than the exception across small family foundations at this size, and Huang Pacific's public presence should not be mistaken for an open door.

No dedicated press releases or news coverage were found for Huang Pacific Foundation in 2025-2026; search results returned only nonprofit-data aggregator profiles (Instrumentl, Cause IQ, GuideStar, Charity Navigator, ProPublica, Grantmakers.io) rather than announcements. The most recent filed financial data (FY2024) shows total assets of $9,814,244, essentially flat against FY2023's $9,962,341, and total revenue of $215,100 — a marked pullback from the $1.35M-$1.58M in revenue (mostly investment income) seen in 2021-2022, suggesting calmer markets or a more conservative portfolio posture in the most recent year. Grants-paid figures for FY2024 were not available in filed data at the time of this report, though Cause IQ's aggregated estimate of ~$318,000 would be consistent with the foundation's 2021-2023 giving pattern of $276,550-$495,177 paid annually. No leadership departures or arrivals were identified, but officer records across filing years show a likely generational transition underway: founders Robert T. Huang (President/Chairperson) and Lily S. Huang (Secretary & Treasurer, later President & CEO) remain in place, while Nicole Huang (Secretary) and Robert T. Huang Jr. (CFO/Treasurer) have joined the officer slate in more recent years — worth noting for any prospective partner with a multi-generational family connection. No new programs, RFPs, or public grant cycles were identified; the foundation's own Activities page describes a stable, long-running slate of initiatives (Kyushu University's QREC entrepreneurship center, MIT Sloan engagement, the Torch Scholars program at Northeastern, the Asian Studies Fund at College Preparatory School) with no evidence of recent additions.

Unsolicited applications are explicitly not accepted — the foundation's Form 990-PF checks the box confirming it funds only preselected organizations, and no application form, portal, deadline, or program officer contact is published anywhere in its IRS filings or on its website. Spending time on a generic written proposal or cold letter of inquiry to this funder will very likely go unanswered. The realistic path in is relationship-based: identify a genuine connection to one of the family's known touchpoints — Synnex Corporation / TD SYNNEX (as an employee, alumnus, or scholarship-eligible family member), MIT Sloan's entrepreneurship programs (where Robert Huang works directly with students), the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (Robert Huang is a Trustee), That Man May See / UCSF ophthalmology research (Lily Huang is a board member), Northeastern University's Torch Scholars program, Kyushu University's QREC center in Japan, College Preparatory School in Oakland, or Bay Area Taiwanese-American church and cultural networks (notably the Canaan Taiwanese Christian Church relationship). A warm introduction through an existing grantee, board colleague, or the family directly will succeed where a cold submission will not. If Synnex/TD SYNNEX employment or family ties apply, pursue the Huang Leadership Development Scholarship ($10,000 annual awards for undergraduate, Master's, or continuing-education study across North America, Japan, China, and India) through the company's scholarship administrator rather than the foundation itself. When positioning any ask, keep it modest and specific: the median tracked gift is $5,000 and the average $24,786, so framing a defined project, scholarship line, or matching-gift request will land better than a general-operating-support pitch. Use language that mirrors the foundation's own stated philosophy — 'bridging Asian and Western cultures' and 'giving them the tools and opportunities to help themselves, their families, and their communities' — and lean into entrepreneurship, technology education, or U.S.-Asia (particularly Taiwan, Japan, China, India) ties, which resonate directly with Robert Huang's own career founding a global technology distribution company. Because grants recur across fiscal years with no visible annual RFP cycle, treat this as an ongoing, relationship-driven decision process rather than a competitive grant round with a submission window.