Leir Retreat Center Inc.

Leir Retreat Center Inc. is structured as a private operating foundation, not a conventional grantmaking foundation — every fiscal year on record (2012 through 2023, with FY2024 data emerging) shows $0 in grants paid to outside organizations, even though total charitable spending has run $1.2M-$1.5M annually. That spending funds the foundation's own 33-acre conference and retreat facility in Ridgefield, CT, which hosts humanitarian, scientific, and health-focused convenings — subject areas have included substance abuse, Lyme disease, human rights, suicide-risk assessment and treatment, mental health, dementia, and child abuse — plus nature-based children's programming. Grant seekers hoping for a check should recalibrate: the realistic "ask" here is not funding, it's facility access — proposing to host a conference, training, or retreat on the Center's campus, or partnering on programming. Framed this way, the fit test is topical: does an organization's work align with the health, humanitarian, and human-services convening themes the Center has hosted before? The foundation is run by a small, closely held board and staff. Earlier filings (through FY2022) list Margot A. Gibis as President/Director, Uwe Gertz as Secretary/Director, Jack Fong as Director, and Markus Fuchs as Director/Chair/Secretary; the most recent filing instead shows Laurie Kuhn as Assistant Secretary ($190,000) and Katie Cooper in an administrative role ($75,000), with Markus Fuchs continuing as an unpaid director alongside a newly listed Paul Cambrai Bell. There is no public RFP, grants page, or application portal — the application_instructions field on file is blank, and independent funder directories describe the organization as relationship-based and invitation-only. First approaches should not lead with an unsolicited proposal; they should lead with a warm introduction through the board or an organization that has previously convened at the facility, or a direct, specific inquiry about facility use for a named event. Total assets crossed $12.3M in FY2024, up from $8.9M in FY2022, on a surge in contributions received — a signal the family behind the foundation is actively growing its endowment rather than distributing it externally. Treat Leir less as a "funder to apply to" and more as a "convening partner to court," and set applicant expectations accordingly.

Leir Retreat Center Inc.'s Form 990 filings show over a decade of consistent direct charitable spending with zero dollars distributed as grants to outside organizations. Across every fiscal year with data (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2019-2023), grants_paid is reported as $0, while total_giving — spending on the foundation's own charitable activities — ranged narrowly from $1,237,971 (FY2023, the low) to $1,477,734 (FY2013, the high), a band of roughly $1.2M-$1.5M that has held steady for more than ten years even as total assets nearly doubled. Total assets grew from $8.5M in FY2012 to a plateau near $8.9M-$9.0M through 2019-2022, then accelerated sharply to $10.5M in FY2023 and $12.3M in FY2024 — a 17% single-year jump driven by $2.71M in contributions received in FY2023 and roughly $3.65M in FY2024, well above the prior decade's typical $1.2M-$1.5M annual contribution pattern. Officer compensation has been volatile: $164,907-$187,885 through 2012-2021 for the then-President (Margot A. Gibis), spiking to $272,453 in FY2022 (22% of that year's total giving) before dropping to $150,000 in FY2023 (12% of giving) and, per the most recent filing, restructuring into a $190,000 Assistant Secretary role plus a separate $75,000 administrative position. Net investment income is modest and erratic ($0-$51,770/year), confirming the foundation is contribution-funded rather than endowment-return-funded — consistent with an actively supported family operating foundation rather than a passive grantmaking trust. There is no program-area breakdown by issue or geography in the available data because the foundation does not disburse funds to third parties; instead, 100% of its roughly $1.2M-$1.5M in annual program spend funds its own Ridgefield, CT facility and convening programs. For grant seekers, the practical takeaway is that there is no median or typical "grant size" to benchmark against here — the only funding pattern that matters is whether an organization's convening or programming need matches the Center's facility and its established health, humanitarian, and scientific themes.

Leir sits mid-pack by asset size among these six Human Services-focused foundations ($8.7M-$14.7M), but it stands out structurally: it is the only one confirmed, via a decade of $0 grants-paid filings, to operate as a self-funding operating foundation rather than a pass-through grantmaker — making it the least promising of the six for a traditional grant application regardless of relative asset size. Only Second Family Foundation and Newco Foundation disclose active public websites, suggesting they may be more accessible first points of contact than Leir, Golden Children, Foundation At Shield Ranch, or the Reba J Walker Trust, none of which show a public grants portal. Applicants should treat this peer set as a broadly "closed circle" of family/human-services foundations near the $9M-$15M asset tier and prioritize relationship-building outreach over unsolicited proposals across the board.

Public reporting on Leir Retreat Center Inc.'s recent activity is thin — no dedicated press coverage or public announcements surfaced in web research as of July 2026, consistent with an organization that neither issues grants nor maintains active public communications. The most concrete recent signal is procedural: the foundation's FY2024 Form 990 was filed November 12, 2025, and reported total assets of $12,344,930 and revenue of $3,756,640, both notably higher than any prior year on record — a jump attributable to a roughly $3.65M contribution inflow (about 97% of FY2024 revenue), well above the prior year's already-elevated $2.71M. Leadership also appears to have shifted: earlier filings (through FY2022) list Margot A. Gibis as President/Director, Uwe Gertz as Secretary/Director, Jack Fong as Director, and Markus Fuchs as Director/Chair/Secretary, all compensated modestly or not at all; the most recent 990 summary instead shows Laurie Kuhn as Assistant Secretary ($190,000) and Katie Cooper in an administrative role ($75,000), with Markus Fuchs continuing as an unpaid director alongside a newly listed Paul Cambrai Bell — suggesting a governance or staffing transition around FY2023-2024 that grant seekers should confirm directly rather than assume continuity with older public profiles. Programmatically, a Facebook events listing references a "Nature-Based Programs & Self-Regulation in Children" session hosted at the Center's Branchville Road address, consistent with its known pattern of hosting health, humanitarian, and scientific convenings on-site, though no specific date could be confirmed. No new grant programs, RFPs, or public funding announcements were identified in this research pass.

Because Leir Retreat Center Inc. has paid $0 in grants to outside organizations in every fiscal year on record (2012 through 2023, with FY2024 following the same pattern), the single most important tip is to correctly diagnose what you are asking for. If you are seeking a cash grant for your own program, third-party funder directories (Impala, Hinchilla) consistently describe this foundation as relationship-based and invitation-only with no unsolicited-proposal process — an unsolicited LOI or application is very unlikely to convert, and the IRS-reported application_instructions field for this EIN is blank, with no public grants page or application-form URL. If instead your organization runs conferences, trainings, or retreats in the health, humanitarian, human-services, or scientific space — subject areas the Center has previously hosted include substance abuse, Lyme disease, human rights, suicide-risk assessment and treatment, mental health, dementia, and child abuse — the more realistic ask is facility partnership: proposing to hold your convening at the Center's 33-acre Ridgefield, CT campus rather than requesting funds. Lead with a specific, named event proposal (dates, attendee count, subject matter) rather than a general funding request. Because the organization has no working public grants or programs pages and no recent press presence, the best entry point is a warm introduction — through a board member (Markus Fuchs continues as a director; earlier filings show Margot A. Gibis, Uwe Gertz, and Jack Fong on the board) or through an organization that has previously convened at the facility. A direct phone call to the listed number, (475) 215-5690, or a letter addressed via the listed contact, "% Laurie Kuhn," 240 Branchville Rd, Ridgefield, CT 06877, is more likely to get a response than a web form, since no functioning web form was found. Common mistakes to avoid: treating this as a standard Human Services grantmaker and submitting a generic cash-grant proposal; assuming the $12.3M asset base implies an active external grants budget (it does not — 100% of the roughly $1.2M-$1.5M in annual charitable spend funds the foundation's own operations); and relying on outdated board contacts from older 990s without confirming current leadership, since the FY2024 filing shows a different officer slate (Laurie Kuhn, Katie Cooper) than filings through FY2022.