Klein Family Foundation

The Klein Family Foundation (Brooklyn, NY; EIN 13-4092608; tax-exempt since February 2000; $46.1M in assets as of FY2024) supports Jewish organizations, religious educational institutions, temples, and schools, with a focus on community improvement and capacity building in New York (per the Foundation's mission statement). ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer categorizes the Foundation under NTEE "Philanthropy, Voluntarism and Grantmaking Foundations / Private Independent Foundations." As a Brooklyn-headquartered Jewish family foundation approaching its 25th year of operation in 2025, the Foundation fits the profile of a private family-office grantmaker that funds within a defined Jewish communal ecosystem — yeshivot and day schools, synagogues, Jewish social service agencies, and religious educational institutions — rather than a broad open-call funder. IMPORTANT TRANSPARENCY NOTE: The domain klein.org, sometimes listed as this Foundation's website in public databases, is actually the personal home page of "Harrison & Sharene Klein" of Amsterdam — unrelated individuals and unrelated to this Brooklyn-based foundation. No confirmed official web presence for the Brooklyn Klein Family Foundation was discoverable through open web search during this research pass. Prospective applicants should rely on the most recent Form 990-PF rather than any klein.org content.

Per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, the Foundation has maintained a stable asset base in the $41M–$48M range since 2011, with annual expenses (which approximate grants paid for a typical private foundation) varying by year: FY2024 $1.92M; FY2023 $2.77M; FY2022 $0.89M; FY2021 $1.38M; FY2020 $0.39M; FY2019 $0.32M; FY2018 $7.14M (a large outflow year); FY2017 $3.07M; FY2016 $2.56M; FY2015 $3.32M. The 2019–2022 years show unusually low expense totals ($0.3M–$1.4M) possibly reflecting below-5%-minimum payouts compensated by larger outflows in other years (such as 2018's $7.1M). FY2024's $1.92M expense figure is roughly 4.2% of the $46.1M asset base — at or slightly below the 5% private-foundation minimum distribution requirement. With an asset base around $46M and typical annual outflows of ~$2M, the Foundation is a mid-tier family grantmaker. Given the mission's explicit focus on Jewish organizations, religious educational institutions (yeshivot/day schools), temples, and schools, grants are likely concentrated in New York-area Orthodox and traditional Jewish institutions with established family relationships. No public grants database is published; the 990-PF grant schedule is the only authoritative source for grantee names and award sizes.

Klein is a smaller, New York-focused family foundation rather than a national Jewish philanthropy. Unlike UJA-Federation (which runs a large allocations system) or Weinberg (which accepts open proposals for many programs), the Klein Family Foundation has no public application process, placing it closer to Avi Chai or Schusterman in posture but at roughly 1/30th the asset scale. Its practical peers are mid-sized Brooklyn and Queens Orthodox family foundations that fund NY-area yeshivot, day schools, and kollelim.

The most recent concrete public data point is the Form 990 filing for fiscal year ending 2024, visible on ProPublica: revenue $3.69M, expenses $1.92M, total assets $46.1M (up from $44.3M in 2023). No press releases, news coverage, website, or public program announcements were discoverable through open web search for the Brooklyn Klein Family Foundation during this April 2026 research pass. As noted above, the domain klein.org — sometimes listed as the Foundation's website — is confirmed to be the personal home page of Harrison & Sharene Klein of Amsterdam and is not affiliated with this Foundation. Given the Brooklyn address and Jewish communal mission, the Foundation likely operates as a quiet family office with limited or no external-facing communications, which is typical for traditional Jewish family foundations of this scale. Prospective applicants should treat absence-of-public-activity as a sign of a closed, relationship-only access model rather than inactivity — the Foundation continues to file 990s and maintain a $46M asset base in active use.

1. Expect a closed, relationship-only access model. No public application process, no published RFP, no confirmed official website. This is consistent with traditional New York Jewish family foundations. 2. Confirm fit before pursuing. The mission specifies Jewish organizations, religious educational institutions, temples, and schools. If your nonprofit is outside these categories, do not pursue. If you are inside — particularly a Brooklyn or NY-area yeshiva, Bais Yaakov, day school, kollel, or synagogue — proceed. 3. Build a warm introduction through the NY Jewish communal network. Practical paths: Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel of America, Torah Umesorah, UJA-Federation of NY program officers, or rabbinic leaders who know the Klein family. Introductions from existing grantees are the single most effective access route. 4. Do not use klein.org or any general web contact attempt — that is an unrelated personal site in Amsterdam. 5. Pull the most recent Form 990-PF grants schedule (EIN 13-4092608) from ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer or Candid to identify actual grantees. Those grantees are both your best fit signal and your best referral sources. 6. Expect grant sizes in the low five to mid-six figures. With ~$2M/year typical outflow and an established multi-decade grantmaking pattern, grants are likely in the $10K–$250K range depending on institutional history with the family. 7. Prepare for a multi-year relationship-building posture. For a foundation of this type, the first meaningful grant typically follows 12–24 months of relationship development rather than a single written proposal.