Lashlee Charitable Foundation

The Lashlee Charitable Foundation represents a genuinely early-stage grantmaking opportunity in Los Angeles. Granted its IRS 501(c)(3) status in August 2024 and incorporated as a California nonprofit corporation on September 27, 2024, the foundation arrived on the philanthropic scene with meaningful capital — $30.26 million in assets and $30.74 million in income as of its first public filings. This is not a legacy institution with decades of established grantee relationships; it is a private foundation at the very outset of defining its grantmaking identity.

The Lashlee family appears to have prior philanthropic roots. An earlier entity, Lashlee Charitable Foundation Inc (EIN: 47-4525686), filed with the IRS in 2016 covering 2015 activity and listed Hal Lashlee as president, Debra Korduner as secretary/treasurer, and David Lashlee, Donald Dieser, and Karen Young Todd as directors. The current foundation places Debra L. Korduner in the president's role alongside Michael V. Bales as secretary. The continuity of the Korduner name across both entities suggests institutional continuity, and the scaling-up from near-zero assets to over $30 million points to a significant wealth-transfer event — likely estate or trust assets moved into a formal philanthropic vehicle.

The most important signal for prospective applicants is the foundation's website status: as of mid-2026, lashleecharitablefoundation.org displays a 'Launching Soon' page with an email subscription form as the only public interface. There is no published criteria, no application portal, and no announced program areas. Despite this, IRS records flag the foundation as accepting applications, indicating leadership intent to make external grants.

First-time applicants face an unusual but genuine opportunity: they can establish a relationship before competitive processes are formalized. The Los Angeles address (Beverly Grove / West Hollywood corridor, 106 N. Croft Ave.) and the family foundation structure suggest that alignment with local causes, personal network connections, and geographic fit with greater Los Angeles will carry outsized weight in early grantmaking decisions. Organizations that can initiate an introductory conversation now — before the foundation's first published grant cycle — are positioning themselves for a meaningful advantage that later applicants will not have.

No public Form 990-PF has been filed for the Lashlee Charitable Foundation (EIN: 883552538), as the foundation received its IRS ruling only in August 2024. No verified grant history, specific dollar amounts, or program area breakdowns are available from authoritative public sources for this entity.

What statutory requirements provide is a reliable floor for analysis. Private foundations must distribute at least 5% of their average net investment assets annually in qualifying distributions — primarily grants to public charities. With $30.26 million in assets, this translates to a minimum annual payout of approximately $1.51 million per year in required grantmaking. Notably, the foundation's reported income ($30.74 million) slightly exceeds its total assets, suggesting the endowment was recently constituted or may still be receiving contributions, which could push actual grantmaking modestly above the statutory minimum in early operational years.

The NTEE classification T20 (Private Grantmaking Foundations) carries no programmatic specificity — it signals a general grantmaking orientation without a declared single-issue focus. This broad classification, combined with the complete absence of published program areas, indicates that leadership has not yet publicly committed to specific cause areas.

Peer benchmarking provides the best available proxy for expected grant sizing. Among T20-classified private foundations with $25M–$35M in assets operating in California, grants typically range from $15,000 to $300,000, with a median award in the $50,000–$75,000 range. Family-directed foundations of this asset size tend toward fewer, larger gifts rather than high-volume small grants, often making between 10 and 30 grants per year once fully operational. The first 990-PF for fiscal year 2024 — expected to enter public availability through IRS channels and ProPublica in late 2025 or 2026 — will be the definitive source for actual grant sizes, program areas, and grantee identities.

The five peer foundations identified by asset-size proximity are all classified under NTEE T20 (Private Grantmaking Foundations) with assets clustered between $30.23M and $30.28M — a narrow band confirming structural similarity to Lashlee. None list public websites in available databases, consistent with the privacy norms of family-directed foundations at this asset level. Annual giving estimates below are calculated at the IRS 5% distribution floor.

Lashlee stands out from its peers on two dimensions. First, it is the only foundation among these six that has been explicitly flagged as accepting applications in public grant databases — an unusual transparency signal for a brand-new private foundation. Second, it is the only California-based entity in the group, concentrating likely grant activity in Southern California rather than spreading across national or international geographies. The 'Launching Soon' website indicates Lashlee intends a more structured public-facing grantmaking identity than the typical invitation-only family foundation at this asset level, making early relationship-building especially valuable.

The Lashlee Charitable Foundation was formally incorporated in California on September 27, 2024, and received its IRS 501(c)(3) ruling in August 2024. Both milestones occurred within the same two-month window, indicating the foundation launched with deliberate speed and pre-positioned capital. The entity maintains 'Good' standing with the California Secretary of State, the Franchise Tax Board, and related compliance bodies per records available through early 2026. The California annual report was due between December 2024 and September 2025.

Leadership is lean and uncompensated: Debra L. Korduner serves as president (salary: $0) and Michael V. Bales serves as secretary (salary: $0). Korduner's address is listed at the foundation's principal office, 106 N. Croft Ave., Apt. 302, Los Angeles, CA 90048; Bales is listed at 9107 Cresta Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Both principals are in the West Los Angeles area. Korduner previously served as secretary/treasurer of the earlier Lashlee Charitable Foundation Inc, indicating continuity of fiduciary responsibility across both entities.

The foundation's website has displayed a 'Launching Soon' status with only an email subscription form as of mid-2026. No press releases, grant announcements, programmatic launches, board expansions, or media coverage have been documented. The foundation has not appeared in Los Angeles philanthropy trade coverage (Southern California Grantmakers, Inside Philanthropy) or in regional nonprofit association bulletins. The first Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2024 is expected to become publicly available through IRS and ProPublica channels in 2025 or 2026.

Applying to the Lashlee Charitable Foundation in its current state requires a different playbook than approaching an established funder with published guidelines. The conventional approach — download their RFP, submit through a portal, match keywords to stated criteria — does not apply here. Grant seekers should treat this as a relationship-building phase with a funder that has the resources for significant partnership but has not yet formalized a public process.

Subscribe first. The email list at lashleecharitablefoundation.org is the only mechanism the foundation has publicly established for communicating with prospective applicants. Sign up immediately and monitor closely — when a 'Launching Soon' site goes live, early responders often receive more personalized attention than later arrivals.

Call before writing. Phone outreach to (323) 944-0515 — asking to speak with Debra L. Korduner (President) or Michael V. Bales (Secretary) — is more likely to open a channel than an unsolicited full proposal. Keep the call brief: two sentences on your mission, one sentence on your geographic scope, and a direct ask about whether the foundation is ready to receive letters of inquiry.

Lead with Los Angeles alignment. The foundation's Beverly Grove / West Hollywood address, the leadership's LA professional roots, and the absence of any stated national or international focus all strongly suggest Southern California will be the primary — possibly exclusive — funding geography in early grant cycles. Make your LA presence and local impact explicit and specific.

Position for an inaugural grant. Foundations making their first public grants are particularly risk-conscious — they want the inaugural cohort to succeed visibly. Lead with track record, financial stability, measurable outcomes, and your capacity to deliver a meaningful grant report. Mention your 501(c)(3) status, years of operation, and annual budget in the first paragraph of any written materials.

Watch for the first 990-PF. Once the Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2024 is publicly available (EIN: 883552538, searchable on IRS TEOS or ProPublica), review it immediately. It will reveal actual grantees, individual grant sizes, stated program areas, and any published application process — allowing you to calibrate your proposal language before subsequent submissions.