Lubin Family Foundation

The Lubin Family Foundation (EIN 13-6991626, New York) is a single-trustee, zero-staff legacy vehicle run by Sara L. Schupf, who receives no compensation and appears as the sole listed officer across every available filing. Its own domain, lubin.org, shows only a 'Coming Soon' placeholder as of August 2026 — there is no grants portal, published mission statement, or staff to court. This is a personal-network foundation, not an RFP-driven institution, and its grantee list confirms it: recipients trace directly to Schupf's own biography. She is Skidmore College class of 1962 and established the Charles Lubin Family Chair for Women in Science there (named for her father, Sara Lee Corporation founder Charles Lubin); she has chaired the New York Hall of Science since 2000 and created its Schupf Family Center for Science, Play and Technology Learning; she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2002) and a trustee of Eugene Lang College at The New School. Those four institutions alone account for a large share of the foundation's tracked dollars. Of the 112 grants in the available record, the top nine recipients — American Academy of Arts and Sciences, New York Hall of Science, Eugene Lang, Skidmore, Jewish Museum, Storm King Art Center, Freedman Charitable Endowment, Lincoln Center, and Colgate University — total roughly $2.36 million of the $2.96 million tracked, about 79%. Giving is heavily repeat and multi-year (most top recipients show 2-4 separate grants) rather than oriented toward acquiring new grantees. Every recorded grant is coded GENERAL USE, meaning the foundation prefers flexible operating support once a relationship exists rather than funding discrete programs or proposals. For an organization with no existing tie to Schupf, her family, or this circle of institutions, the realistic path in is a warm introduction — through a shared board member, an alumni connection to Skidmore or Colgate, or a development officer at NYSCI, AAAS, or Eugene Lang who already has the trustee's ear — not a cold Letter of Inquiry. There is no visible LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline and no program staff; every decision runs through Schupf directly.

Giving here is small and volatile year to year. Total disbursed giving was $924,394 in FY2021 and $853,902 in FY2022, then fell roughly 71% to $248,243 in FY2023, with an estimated $247,500 disbursed in FY2024 (24 grants, per the FY2024 filing) — a marked step down from the 2020-2022 run rate. Earlier years show the same variability: $455,917 (FY2019), $430,628 (FY2020), $517,207 (FY2015), $469,479 (FY2014), $326,083 (FY2013). Total assets have drifted down about 11% over five years, from $7.69 million (2019) to $6.86 million (2024), with no new contributions received in any year from 2020-2023 — giving capacity now depends entirely on net investment income, which itself swung from $77,638 (2020) to $744,974 (2019). Grant size is heavily right-skewed: the foundation's own typical-grant-size data shows a median of $7,500 against an average of $33,904 (range $1,500 to $500,000), meaning a handful of large legacy gifts pull the average far above what a typical or new grantee should expect. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences alone received four grants totaling $1,530,000 (average $382,500 per gift) — including a documented $1 million contribution toward implementing the 'Our Common Purpose' democratic-citizenship report — while most other grantees receive far smaller, five-figure or lower sums (Biobus $25,000, Untermyer Gardens Conservancy $10,000, Environmental Defense Fund $5,000, Columbia University $2,500, Speakup $1,000). By inferred program area, science and STEM education dominates at roughly 59% of tracked giving (AAAS $1.53M, NY Hall of Science $200,000), followed by higher education at about 22% (Eugene Lang $200,000, Skidmore $137,500, Colgate $50,000, Denison $15,000, Brandeis $15,000) and arts and culture at about 10% (Jewish Museum $100,000, Storm King $70,000, Lincoln Center $50,000, Alvin Ailey combined $40,000). Geographically, New York recipients take 60 of 112 recorded grants (54%), followed by Pennsylvania with 16 (14%, largely Philadelphia-area schools and hospitals reflecting family ties), Massachusetts with 8 (7%), and Illinois and Connecticut with 7 each (6%).

Despite the similar name, the much larger Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation in Boston is a separate, unrelated entity — a useful contrast showing how much bigger an 'invitation-only' family funder can operate at scale. Within its true peer set of small, single-family, single-trustee New York foundations (Alexis Gregory, Meyer), the Lubin Family Foundation is notable mainly for its transparency of grantee data relative to its closed process: detailed 990-PF records are public even though no application channel is. Compared to the Heckscher Foundation, which runs a formal LOI process at roughly 60x the asset base, Lubin operates at a scale where a handful of trustee relationships — not a program staff or review committee — determines essentially all outcomes.

The most concrete recent data point is the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed November 13, 2025: $611,399 in revenue, $275,948 in total expenses (89.7%, or roughly $247,500, as charitable disbursements), about 24 grants awarded, and total net assets of $6.86 million. No press releases, leadership changes, or new program announcements were identified for 2025 or 2026 in news search, philanthropy trade press, or the foundation's own site — Sara L. Schupf remains the sole, uncompensated trustee, consistent with every prior filing back to at least 2012. The foundation's own domain, lubin.org, displays only a 'Coming Soon' placeholder as of this research (August 2026), indicating no active communications effort. The most notable documented gift on record — separate from routine annual grants — is a $1 million contribution to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to help implement 'Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century,' the report from the Academy's Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship; this aligns with the $1,530,000 in cumulative AAAS giving visible across four grants in the underlying data, though an exact date for that specific gift could not be confirmed. Financially, the trend line since 2019 is one of gradual contraction: assets down from $7.69 million to $6.86 million, and total giving down from a 2021 peak of $924,394 to an estimated $247,500 in FY2024, with no new outside contributions received in that window to offset it.

There is no formal application process to optimize for here — no deadline, no portal, and no funding cycle appear in IRS filings or public records (the foundation's own database record lists application_deadline, application_form_url, and funding_cycle as all blank). The single highest-leverage move is relationship, not proposal quality: organizations with an existing tie to Sara L. Schupf's documented network — Skidmore College, the New York Hall of Science, Eugene Lang College at The New School, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Colgate, Denison, or Brandeis — have received repeat, multi-year gifts, while organizations outside that circle appear rarely and at far smaller dollar amounts. If you have no existing connection, the most realistic entry point is a warm introduction routed through a development officer, alumnus, or board member already known to Schupf, rather than an unsolicited letter or email. If a direct approach is the only option, keep it brief and framed around unrestricted general operating support — every grant in the available record is coded GENERAL USE, so a narrowly scoped, program-restricted ask is likely to be a mismatch even if it reaches the trustee. Calibrate dollar expectations tightly: the median tracked grant is $7,500, and even well-connected recipients typically receive four-figure to low-five-figure gifts in most years — the seven-figure AAAS gifts are the exception tied to a decades-long personal relationship, not a benchmark for a new applicant. A common mistake would be treating this as a conventional institutional funder and investing in a polished formal proposal package; with zero program staff, there is no one positioned to review one on its merits alone. Instead, build visibility over a multi-year horizon — get the organization onto Schupf's radar through the institutions she already trusts, attend events hosted by NYSCI, Skidmore, or AAAS where she is likely to appear, and let a relationship develop before any direct ask. Given the foundation's own contact record lists '% DDK & Co LLP' (an accounting firm) as the registered contact, any written outreach should go through that formal channel at 620 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065, or by phone at (212) 997-0600, but should not be expected to generate a response absent a pre-existing connection.