Limestone Foundation

The Limestone Foundation is a Boston-based private family foundation established in 2015 as one of two successors to the dissolved Stoneman Family Foundation. Led by trustee Elizabeth Deknatel — alongside co-trustees Maria Deknatel, Gabriel Deknatel, Alan Rottenberg, and David Wood — the foundation received approximately 47% of the Stoneman legacy. It operates with zero paid staff, maintained through Goulston & Storrs, a prominent Boston corporate law firm at 1 Post Office Square. The phone number on file (617-482-1776) connects to that firm, not to a program officer.

No open application process exists. The foundation's website displayed a 'Coming Soon' placeholder as of May 2026, and the foundation carries a 'preselected only' designation across multiple grant databases. Cold, unsolicited proposals will not reach decision-makers. The only viable path to funding is through a warm introduction from a trusted peer.

Limestone carries forward the Stoneman Family Foundation's dual mandate: (1) progressive fiscal and economic policy advocacy — state budget centers, tax policy organizations, and civic engagement tables — and (2) legacy charitable support for Jewish community organizations, Boston-area nonprofits, and arts/culture causes. These two lanes are functionally separate in dollar volume. The policy advocacy work dominates (approximately 65–70% of total giving), while the charitable lane handles dozens of small $5–20K relationship grants.

The foundation overwhelmingly prefers general operating support. Reviewing the top 50 grants in the public record, nearly every major award lists 'General Operating Support' or 'General Operations' as its purpose. Limestone finances institutional capacity, not project outcomes. Proposals framed around discrete deliverables or restricted programs are fundamentally misaligned with the foundation's philosophy.

The typical relationship arc mirrors patterns common to engaged family foundations: (1) a trustee learns of the organization through a colleague, peer grantee, or funder convening; (2) an informal meeting or site visit; (3) a modest first grant in the $20–50K range; (4) annual or biennial renewals; (5) eventual escalation to flagship general operating support at $200–500K. The $820,000 cumulative award to Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and $710,000 to Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (KCEP) exemplify this multi-year relationship model. First-time applicants must arrive via warm introduction — board members are most accessible through progressive donor-funder convenings connected to the state fiscal policy ecosystem.

Over six fiscal years (2019–2024), Limestone's total annual giving ranged from $2.98M (2021) to $4.47M (2020), averaging approximately $3.57M per year. Grants paid (cash disbursed) ranged from $1.96M (FY 2021) to $3.57M (FY 2020). The most recent complete data year (FY 2023) shows grants paid of $3.27M against total giving of $4.28M; FY 2024 charitable disbursements were $2.83M — the lowest in the six-year record — on assets of $46.2M, yielding a payout rate of approximately 6.1%. Assets have held steady in the $41–46M range since inception, sustained primarily by investment returns (FY 2024 revenue: $8.56M, of which $7.36M derived from asset sales).

Grant size follows a bimodal distribution. A tight cohort of 6–10 flagship grantees receives $100K–$450K per grant cycle; a longer tail of 20+ charitable recipients receives $5K–$40K. From a 32-grant sample in the foundation database: median grant $20,000, average $61,250, minimum $5,000, maximum $450,000. The median significantly understates the experience of flagship recipients — more than 60% of total grant dollars concentrate in just five organizations.

Dollar concentration by recipient: - Top 5 grantees (CBPP, MACED/KCEP, Kansas Action for Children, KY Coalition, KY Civic Engagement Table) account for $2.57M of $4.21M tracked (61%) - Top 10 grantees account for approximately $3.2M (76%) - Bottom 20+ charitable grantees account for approximately $210K (5%)

Estimated breakdown by issue area: - Fiscal/economic policy (CBPP, ITEP, Urban Institute Tax Policy Center, state budget centers): ~65% - Civic engagement and voter mobilization (KY Civic Engagement Table, One Arizona, State Power Fund, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center): ~15% - Economic development (MACED/KCEP, Community Foundation of Louisville): ~12% - Media and investigative journalism (The American Prospect, Kentucky Public Radio): ~5% - Charitable/community giving (Jewish arts, medical, food pantry): ~3%

Geographic distribution of tracked grants: - Washington, DC (national organizations): 16 grants - Massachusetts (Boston-area charities): 12 grants - Kentucky: 10 grants — disproportionately large relative to state population - New York: 6 grants - Other states (AZ, GA, KS, MT, VA, WV): 18 grants

Giving peaked in 2020 ($4.47M) and again in 2023 ($4.28M), years coinciding with heightened election-cycle civic engagement spending. The 2020 spike likely reflects accelerated voter mobilization grants around the federal elections.

The five peer foundations in the Granted database all hold approximately $46M in assets in the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category (T20). Annual giving data for most peers is not publicly available at this time, limiting full comparison.

Among this asset-comparable cohort, Limestone distinguishes itself through ideological clarity and strategic concentration. Most $46M foundations distribute giving broadly across health, education, arts, and community development. Limestone channels an estimated 65–70% of its grant dollars into a single thematic lane: state-level fiscal policy and progressive civic infrastructure. This makes it one of the more focused family foundations of its size operating in the state policy space.

Unlike Mississippi Power Foundation — a corporate utility subsidiary foundation with likely obligations to its regional service territory — Limestone operates as a pure family vehicle with no geographic obligation. Its consistent willingness to fund work in Kentucky, Arizona, Montana, and West Virginia from a Boston base signals that program fit, not home geography, drives decision-making. Organizations in the Clermont Foundation's Massachusetts orbit may face more local competition for Limestone's Boston-area charitable grants, but the national policy portfolio is genuinely open to the right organizations regardless of location.

FY 2024 filings (the most recent year with detailed data) document three major confirmed grant awards: $505,000 to Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (designated for the Greenstein Fund for a Just Future), $300,000 to New Mexico Voices for Children (general operating support), and $275,000 to Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (general operations). These three grants alone account for approximately $1.08M of the $2.83M in FY 2024 charitable disbursements.

The addition of New Mexico Voices for Children as a $300K recipient is the most notable strategic development in recent filings. No prior grants to New Mexico-based organizations appear in the top-50 historical grantee record, suggesting the foundation is deliberately broadening its state fiscal policy portfolio beyond its traditional Kentucky/Appalachian and DC-centric footprint — possibly in response to Southwestern states becoming new battlegrounds for tax and budget policy debates.

Total FY 2024 charitable disbursements of $2.83M represent the lowest annual grant volume in the six-year dataset, despite assets growing to a record $46.2M after strong investment returns ($7.36M in asset sales, $981K in dividends). Whether this reflects a strategic pause, a timing shift in multi-year grant payments, or transitional grantmaking activity is not determinable from public filings alone.

No public leadership changes, new program announcements, or press releases from the foundation were identified during this research cycle (May 2026). The foundation's website (limestonefoundation.org) remained a 'Coming Soon' WordPress placeholder. The foundation has no disclosed social media presence, and all public filings continue to route through Goulston & Storrs, Boston. Organizational continuity through FY 2024 is confirmed.

1. Accept invitation-only status as a hard constraint. No public application portal, RFP, or LOI submission mechanism exists. The foundation's 'preselected only' status is confirmed across ProPublica, CauseIQ, InfluenceWatch, and the Granted database. Sending materials to the Goulston & Storrs address without an introduction is almost certainly unproductive.

2. Enter the right convening networks. The most direct pathway to trustee attention is active participation in the funder-grantee ecosystems Limestone already supports. These include: Economic Opportunity Funders (an explicit grantee in the database), the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, State Voices, the Funders' Committee for Civic Participation, and Democracy Alliance-adjacent convenings. These forums are where trustees encounter and vet new organizations.

3. Build a recognizable state fiscal policy identity. Limestone's flagship giving concentrates on state budget centers, tax policy advocacy, and fiscal transparency work. Organizations without a clear fiscal/economic policy mission are unlikely to break into the top-tier giving tier. Even civic engagement grantees in the portfolio (KY Civic Engagement Table, One Arizona, State Power Fund) connect back to structural policy infrastructure.

4. Emphasize Kentucky, Appalachian, or Southwest geography. Kentucky organizations are overrepresented at 10 of 62 tracked grants. The FY 2024 addition of New Mexico Voices for Children signals possible Southwest openness. Organizations in WV, VA, MT, GA, and adjacent 'policy-undersourced' states also appear in the record and may find favorable conditions.

5. Ask for general operating support. Every large grant in the public record is unrestricted. Frame your ask around sustaining or growing your organization's core capacity — not delivering a specific program or project output.

6. Start with a modest introductory ask ($25–50K). Most grantees in the dataset appear to have begun at smaller amounts before graduating to five- and six-figure annual grants. A $25–50K introductory ask positions you for a durable multi-year relationship rather than a transactional exchange.

7. Leverage peer grantees as connectors. CBPP, MACED/KCEP, Kansas Action for Children, and Georgia Budget and Policy Institute are long-tenured Limestone partners. A personal introduction from a colleague at one of these organizations carries significant credibility with the trustees.

8. Expect a biennial renewal rhythm. Nearly all grantees in the dataset appear exactly twice in the grant record, suggesting Limestone makes grants on annual or biennial renewal cycles. Once a relationship is established, plan for a predictable multi-year cadence.