Leo Goodwin Foundation Inc.

The Leo Goodwin Foundation is a legacy Broward County family foundation — founded in 1953 by GEICO co-founder Leo Goodwin Sr. — that operates as a relationship-driven, mostly repeat-grantee funder rather than a competitive open-RFP shop. Of its 93 tracked grants totaling $1,290,660, 91 went to Florida organizations and only 2 to New York, and the top of its grantee list is dominated by the same institutions appearing three or four times each: Henderson Mental Health Center ($170,000/4 grants), Broward Partnership for the Homeless ($169,000/4), PACE Center for Girls Broward ($133,300/4), Kids in Distress ($97,500/4), and Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward ($88,360/4). That repetition signals a foundation that builds multi-year commitments with a trusted circle rather than one that samples widely each cycle. First-time applicants should read this as: getting funded once is the hard part, but the Foundation is built to keep funding the organizations it trusts. The Foundation's own materials describe a mission 'to improve the lives of all of those who live in the community,' beginning with 'the youngest and most vulnerable,' and organized around four cumulative giving buckets it publishes on its website: Family Issues ($7.7M all-time), Health ($2M), Education ($1.6M), and The Arts ($1.3M). With only two staff-level leaders — President Alan J. Goldberg and Vice President Elliot P. Borkson, each drawing $150,000 in 2023 — decision-making is concentrated and personal; a warm introduction or existing board relationship in Broward's nonprofit sector likely matters more here than with larger, staffed foundations. There is no formal LOI-to-full-proposal funnel described publicly; the Foundation instead asks for a single, complete package upfront (see application_checklist). Grant sizes cluster small-to-mid: median $7,000, average $13,896, and a ceiling around $55,000, so organizations should size their ask to match — asking for $200,000+ from this funder would be out of pattern. Geographic priority explicitly favors Broward County and Florida residents; out-of-state or non-Florida-serving organizations are a poor fit.

Based on the Foundation's own typical-grant-size data (24 tracked awards), the median grant is $7,000, the average is $13,896, and the range runs from $1,000 to $55,000. The broader 93-grant historical dataset shows a similar pattern at slightly higher average size — $13,878 average, $1,290,660 total — reflecting that most grantees receive multiple smaller installments (nearly every top grantee shows 3-4 separate grants) rather than one lump sum. Geographically, funding is almost exclusively Florida-based: 91 of 93 grants went to Florida organizations versus 2 to New York, reinforcing the stated priority for 'residents of Broward County and Florida.' By program area, the Foundation's own cumulative figures show Family Issues as the dominant historical bucket at $7.7 million, more than triple Health ($2M), Education ($1.6M), and The Arts ($1.3M) combined relative to each other — human/social services clearly outweigh arts and culture in total dollars, even though arts grantees (Broward Performing Arts Foundation, $90,000/3 grants; Museum of Discovery and Science, $60,000/3 grants) are present and recurring. On the financial trend side, total assets have fallen from $16,390,606 in 2011 to $9,970,077 as of the most recent filing — a steady, long-run decline of roughly 39% over twelve years — while annual total giving has ranged narrower, from $840,552 (2019) up to $1,468,707 (2011) and settling at $919,749 in fiscal 2023. Grants-paid (a stricter direct-grant line distinct from total giving, which includes scholarships and pledges) fell from $530,580 (2011) to $300,160 (2023), a ~43% decline, tracking the asset drawdown. One filing anomaly stands out: fiscal year 2013 shows $0 in grants paid and only $68,424 in total giving against $578,466 in revenue, likely a reporting gap or unusual year rather than a real pause in giving, since the years immediately before and after show normal $480K-$530K grant levels.

The Leo Goodwin Foundation sits at the small end of Broward County's institutional philanthropy, dwarfed in asset size by the county's largest funders but comparable in per-grant size to other small family foundations. No DB-tracked peer set was available for this funder, so the comparison below uses independently verified Broward-area funders from public 990 data.

Leo Goodwin's giving is roughly 1/28th the size of Jim Moran Foundation's and 1/22nd of Community Foundation of Broward's, positioning it as a complementary, smaller-check funder best approached alongside — not instead of — these larger Broward players. Its genuine differentiator is accessibility: unlike Jim Moran's largely invitation-driven process or the Community Foundation's donor-advised-fund structure, Leo Goodwin publishes a concrete, self-service application process open to any qualifying 501(c)(3) serving Broward/Florida residents.

The most recent confirmed activity is a January 8, 2026 announcement dedicating the 'Otters at Play' habitat at the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS) in recognition of the Foundation's support — consistent with its history of arts/science-institution giving to MODS, which has received $60,000 across three grants in the tracked data. Beyond that, the Foundation's published news page shows no items dated between early 2021 and January 2026, a five-year visible gap; this likely reflects an infrequently updated news page rather than a pause in grantmaking, since fiscal 2023 IRS data confirms $919,749 in total giving and $300,160 in direct grants paid that year. The last cluster of visible news activity was 2020-2021: the April 2021 ribbon-cutting for Henderson Behavioral Health's Crisis Stabilization Unit (capping a commitment that began with a $250,000 gift in December 2018 and a March 2020 groundbreaking), the January 2021 launch of NSU Art Museum's Planned Giving Advisory Board, and 2020 COVID-19 emergency support to United Way of Broward County and continued funding for Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward. No leadership changes were found — Alan J. Goldberg (President) and Elliot P. Borkson (Vice President) appear consistently across all available filings and news, each at $150,000 in officer compensation as of the FY2023 filing. Applicants should not expect a fast-moving news cycle from this funder; its public communications lag its actual grantmaking activity by months to years, so absence of news is not a signal the Foundation is inactive.

The Foundation explicitly states it accepts applications 'anytime provided sufficient time to review' — there is no formal deadline or cycle, which is both an opportunity and a trap: without a submission deadline forcing review, slow response times are common with rolling-application funders, so apply several months before funds are needed, not immediately before a program launch. The application restrictions are stated as 'None, other than qualification for charitable purposes,' meaning the real filter is fit with the funder's actual grant history, not a formal eligibility gate — organizations serving Broward County or Florida residents in family/social services, mental health, homelessness, youth development, education, or the arts match the visible grantee pattern; organizations outside Florida or outside these sectors are a weak fit regardless of mission quality. Because 91 of 93 tracked grants went to Florida recipients and most top grantees recur 3-4 times, first-time applicants should frame their ask as the opening move in a multi-year relationship, not a one-time transaction — proposals that describe a sustained program with renewal potential likely resonate more than one-off project requests. Given the Foundation's own published range (median $7,000, average $13,896, ceiling near $55,000), request amounts should stay well under six figures; asking for more than $55,000 is outside its demonstrated pattern and risks an automatic mismatch. With only two named leaders (President Alan J. Goldberg, VP Elliot P. Borkson) and no program-officer layer visible in public data, a direct phone call to 954-772-6863 or a short exploratory letter ahead of a full application is a reasonable way to confirm current priorities before investing in the full documentation package. Common mistakes to avoid: submitting without the audited financials and IRS determination letter the Foundation explicitly requires (incomplete packages likely stall in a funder this lean-staffed); failing to state the specific population reached (age, geography, socioeconomic status) as instructed; and omitting the list of governing board members, which is a named requirement, not an optional extra. Language that mirrors the Foundation's own framing — 'quality of life,' 'the youngest and most vulnerable,' community mutual benefit ('everyone wins') — is worth echoing authentically rather than generic grant-speak.