Iris Foundation

The Iris Foundation is a small, private family foundation established in 1991 by George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist. Despite its connection to one of the world's most prominent philanthropists, the Iris Foundation operates as a very modest, personally-directed vehicle separate from the much larger Open Society Foundations. The foundation is governed by a three-person board — Susan Weber (trustee), George Soros (co-chair trustee), and William D. Zabel (trustee). The foundation's approach is entirely invitation-driven and internally directed, with no application process, no published strategy, and minimal public presence. Its website at irisfoundation.org exists but provides virtually no substantive information about programs or grantmaking. The foundation appears to function as a personal giving vehicle for its founders, directing funds to a very small number of organizations each year in areas of personal interest including education, arts, and philanthropic infrastructure. With approximately $90 million in assets, the foundation maintains a low profile despite its significant financial resources.

The Iris Foundation distributes approximately $10.7 million annually through an extremely small number of grants — typically just 4 to 7 awards per year. This concentration results in highly variable individual grant sizes, ranging from as little as $1,500 to as much as $11.67 million, with a median around $8,000. This extreme range suggests a pattern of one or two very large anchor grants alongside a few small discretionary gifts. The foundation's focus areas — education, philanthropy/voluntarism/grantmaking, and arts/culture/humanities — are broad categorizations that likely reflect personal giving interests rather than a formal programmatic strategy. Geographically, grants concentrate in New York and Florida, aligning with the founders' personal connections. The foundation did not e-file for 2014-2020, creating a gap in publicly available detailed grantee information. Recent years show consistent annual giving with a steady asset base, indicating a well-managed endowment with regular distributions.

The Iris Foundation is a micro-grantmaker in terms of number of grants but a macro-grantmaker in per-grant size, making it unusual among foundations of similar asset size. Most $90M foundations make dozens to hundreds of grants; Iris makes fewer than 10. Compared to the much larger Open Society Foundations also founded by George Soros, the Iris Foundation is a personal vehicle rather than an institutional philanthropy. The Jennifer & Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation (George Soros's son) operates similarly but at larger scale with more grants. The Iris Foundation's extreme concentration — one grant can account for over 90% of annual giving — makes it essentially a single-recipient funder in most years.

Based on the most recent IRS filings (2024), the Iris Foundation made 4 grants totaling $10,693,927. This is consistent with its historical pattern of making a very small number of concentrated grants. The foundation's total assets remain approximately $90 million. The board composition remains stable with Susan Weber, George Soros, and William D. Zabel as trustees. The foundation's website at irisfoundation.org remains minimally informative, featuring a brief philosophical statement about the pace of modern society. The foundation resumed e-filing after a gap from 2014-2020, making recent 990 data available through ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer and Instrumentl. Form 990 PDFs are accessible for 2009-2024, though detailed grantee breakdowns require review of the full filings rather than summary data.

The Iris Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications, and its extremely small grant count (4-7 per year) makes it one of the most inaccessible foundations in the U.S. for prospective grantees. Practical considerations: (1) With only 4-7 grants per year and no application process, traditional grant-seeking approaches are not viable. (2) The foundation appears to be a personal giving vehicle, so any pathway to funding runs through the personal networks of the trustees — Susan Weber, George Soros, and attorney William D. Zabel. (3) Susan Weber is the founder of the Bard Graduate Center, an academic institution focused on decorative arts, design history, and material culture — organizations in this space may have natural connections. (4) The foundation's address is 18 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024, but direct outreach is unlikely to result in funding. (5) For organizations aligned with education or arts in New York, building visibility in the same philanthropic circles as the trustees is the most realistic path. (6) Monitor 990 filings on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer to identify current grantees and understand evolving funding patterns. (7) Given the Soros connection, organizations already in the Open Society Foundations ecosystem may have better visibility.