Karma Foundation

Karma Foundation is a small, family-governed private foundation (established 1996 by the Karmazin family, based in Princeton, NJ) that runs a genuinely open, two-stage review process rather than a strict invite-only model — a rarity at this asset size ($4.99M in FY2024). New applicants start with a digital Letter of Inquiry (LOI) through GrantInterface; the board reviews it in 2-4 weeks and either invites a full proposal or declines. Organizations funded within the past two years skip the LOI and log back into the same portal with a returning-applicant password. The foundation is run lean: Executive Director Dina Karmazin Elkins draws the only real compensation (~$120-125K/year across recent filings), while President Sharon Karmazin and Trustee Craig Karmazin serve unpaid — a signal this is a hands-on family operation, not a staffed program-officer shop, so tone and clarity in the LOI matter more than polish. Karma favors organizations it can build a multi-year relationship with: the grantee list shows repeat, multi-year support to the same names (George Street Playhouse, Bildner Center at Rutgers, Matan, Congregation Sinai, Lincoln Center Theater), and the FAQ confirms multi-year commitments of up to three years are available, gated on annual reports before each subsequent payment. First-time applicants should email info@karmafoundation.org before drafting anything — the foundation explicitly invites this pre-LOI contact to screen for fit, which is also the fastest way to learn whether a request lands in a given year's already-thin budget. Given only one request per organization per calendar year is permitted, align the ask (department, program, or campaign) internally before submitting. The foundation's five stated pillars — Arts & Culture, Autism, Education & Literacy, Health & Human Services, and Development & Enrichment of Jewish Life — are broad on paper but the actual grantee list skews heavily toward New Jersey human-services/health nonprofits, NY/NJ performing-arts and theater institutions, and Jewish communal and cultural organizations, so applicants furthest from those three clusters face a harder sell regardless of geography.

Karma Foundation's own materials state typical grants of $1,000-$10,000, with an outer range of $500-$25,000; the most recent grantee snapshot in this data (40 grants, $471,391 total, $11,785 average) confirms that band once two outlier multi-grant relationships are set aside — George Street Playhouse ($135,220 across 2 grants) and the Bildner Center at Rutgers University ($63,600 across 2 grants) — both of which look like sustained institutional/capital relationships rather than one-off program grants. Excluding those two, the median single grant is $5,000 and the bulk of awards cluster between $1,000 and $20,000 (Children's Radiothon $32,000, Matan and Congregation Sinai $20,000 combined across 2 grants each, Children's Specialized Hospital $20,000). The smallest recorded gifts run down to $250-$1,000 (Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple $250, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS $375, Mayor Cohen's Charity Fund $1,000), showing the foundation will write modest checks to very small local causes alongside its core grantees. Geographically, of 40 tracked grants, 18 went to New Jersey (its stated priority: Middlesex, Union, and Mercer Counties), 11 to New York (largely NYC theater and cultural institutions — Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, Ars Nova), and single-digit counts scattered across MA, DC, MD, PA, TX, UT, and WI, consistent with the foundation's stated 'National' and 'International' secondary reach. Every grant in the sample carries the purpose code 'GENERAL SUPPORT' — Karma does not appear to fund narrowly-scoped restricted projects in its public grant descriptions, though its application guidance does ask for project-specific budgets. On giving trend: total giving has declined significantly over the past decade — from $1.3M (FY2012) and roughly $1.0M (FY2013-2014) down to $329K-$506K annually in FY2021-2023 — while total assets fell in step, from $6.2M (2012) to $4.99M (2024). Officer compensation has stayed flat near $120K/year across this entire decline, meaning a shrinking share of a shrinking asset base is going out the door as grants — first-time applicants should expect a genuinely competitive, budget-constrained review, not a foundation flush with new capital.

These five peers are asset-matched almost to the dollar ($4.987M-$4.988M) but none maintain a public website or disclosed application process in this dataset, which is typical of small family foundations that give only to pre-identified relationships. Karma stands out within this peer set precisely because it publishes a real website, a documented LOI process, an application portal, and named staff/board contacts — for a grant seeker with no existing relationship to any of these six foundations, Karma is by far the most approachable entry point. That transparency is also a double-edged signal: an accessible process at this asset size means a high volume of unsolicited LOIs competing for a shrinking annual giving pool, so differentiation in the LOI (clear NJ/Jewish/arts/autism/health alignment, a named prior contact, or a warm introduction) matters more than for a foundation this small might otherwise suggest.

Public 2025-2026 news specific to Karma Foundation is limited — this is a low-visibility family foundation with no dedicated press office, and searches for 'Karma Foundation' are heavily crowded out by an unrelated EV maker of the same name. Two concrete, dated local items surfaced: a $10,000 gift to Children's Specialized Hospital Foundation, and sponsorship of the Middlesex County 'Aging Out' conference on October 24, 2025, which served nearly fifty young people transitioning out of foster care — both consistent with the foundation's Health & Human Services pillar and its Middlesex/Union County geographic priority. Separately, community coverage describes President Sharon Karmazin as the long-running founding sponsor (more than two decades) of a Jewish cultural festival, reinforcing the Jewish Life & Enrichment pillar as a personal, board-level priority rather than a peripheral program line. The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers (CNJG) has profiled Executive Director Dina Karmazin Elkins in an 'Eight Questions With...' feature, indicating the foundation is an active, engaged member of the state's grantmaker community, though the article's content was not accessible for this report (403 error). No leadership changes, new program announcements, or major grant-size increases were found in 2025-2026 sources; the most reliable read on 'recent activity' is the foundation's own multi-year 990 trend, which shows total giving holding in the $330K-$506K range for FY2021-2023 (FY2024 total giving not yet reported in this dataset) after a sharper decline from over $1M annually in FY2012-2015.

Email info@karmafoundation.org before submitting anything if your organization has never received a Karma grant — the foundation's own guidance frames this as the expected first step, not an optional courtesy, and it's the fastest way to learn whether your program fits this year's budget before investing time in a full LOI. Apply only through the GrantInterface portal (grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=karmafoundation) — the foundation states it accepts LOIs and proposals online only, so mailed or emailed proposals outside the portal will not be reviewed. Budget for a 2-4 week wait on the LOI decision and up to 60 days for a full proposal decision; the board reviews submissions roughly every 30 days rather than against fixed deadlines, so there is no single 'best' month to apply, but submitting well ahead of when funds are needed is essential given the multi-step timeline. Request a specific, budgeted project or program rather than an open-ended ask — every tracked grant in the public record is coded 'GENERAL SUPPORT,' but the application guidance and FAQ both stress project-level detail and budget justification, so pair a general-support framing with a concrete, itemized use of funds. Respect the one-request-per-calendar-year rule — a second request in the same year, even from a different program within the same organization, is likely to be declined or ignored; consolidate internally first. If you are located in New Jersey, lead with Middlesex or Union County ties explicitly (Mercer and Somerset are secondary but still in scope) — geography is a hard filter for the NJ giving line, though the foundation's National/International reach for arts, autism, and Jewish-life causes gives out-of-state applicants a real path if the program area is a tight match. Do not apply for: grants to individuals or personal businesses, loans, litigation support, political activity, charter school funding, sports/band travel costs, or fundraising-event advertising — these are explicit, stated declines, and submitting one wastes a year's single request. If you were funded in the past two years, skip the LOI and email for the returning-applicant login rather than re-submitting a full inquiry — this is faster and signals you've read the guidelines. Given officer/board time is thin (an unpaid president and trustee, one paid executive director), keep the LOI concise and lead with the clearest one-line statement of fit to one of the five named pillars.