Malama Foundation

Malama Foundation is an ultra-small, closely held family/private foundation with no staff, no published program areas, and no formal application infrastructure. Its IRS filings list three unpaid directors — Sandra R. Higman (President), Laura A. Brown (Secretary), and Victor Perelmuter — who together decide every grant. The foundation's own application_instructions field reads simply 'written and verbal requests,' and awards are made 'at officer's discretion,' with no stated deadline. In practice this means there is no LOI portal, no RFP cycle, and no scoring rubric to reverse-engineer — the entire process runs on the directors' personal judgment and relationships. Its official website (malamafoundation.org) currently returns a 404/dead response, confirming it maintains no public-facing grant program at all. Grant history across the eight disclosed awards (totaling $133,900) spans a strikingly wide set of causes — cultural and ethnic awareness, orphanage/widow humanitarian support, environmental advocacy, university scholarships, and general social services — which points to a founder-directed foundation funding causes its directors personally care about, not a themed strategic-giving program. The clearest signal of relationship-driven giving is Sunbridge International Collaborative Inc, which alone received 3 of the 8 recorded grants ($70,900, over half of all disclosed giving), suggesting a sustained personal or organizational relationship rather than a one-off competitive award. Geographic activity concentrates in Hawaii and Michigan (per the foundation's stated geographic_focus), with additional grants recorded in Missouri (its home state) and Pennsylvania. For applicants, the strategic implication is clear: a cold written proposal is unlikely to be read the way it would be at an institutional funder. The realistic path in is a warm introduction to Higman, Brown, or Perelmuter, or a pre-existing connection to one of the causes it has already funded (Hawaiian/Pacific cultural preservation, faith-based humanitarian relief, environmental stewardship, or Central Missouri higher-education scholarships). Applicants should also calibrate expectations on size: this is a $2.57M-asset foundation giving under $100K most years, so requests should be modest — in the $3,000-$20,000 range demonstrated by its own disclosed typical grant size — not major multi-year commitments.

Malama Foundation's total giving has grown slowly and unevenly, tracking large, irregular contribution years rather than a steady payout formula. Grants paid by fiscal year: $31,700 (2014), $31,150 (2015), $37,500 (2019), $43,000 (2020), $45,000 (2021), $45,900 (2022), and $95,000 (2023) — roughly tripling in a single year after a $1,235,175 contribution inflow in 2023 pushed total revenue to $1,241,102 and assets from $1,253,103 to $2,396,413. Total assets have grown nearly ninefold since 2014 ($284,129 to $2,573,131 in 2024), driven almost entirely by episodic donor contributions (e.g., $555,000 in 2021, $1,235,175 in 2023) rather than investment returns, which have stayed modest (net investment income peaked at just $5,836 in 2023). FY2024 shows $209,214 in revenue but total_giving was not disclosed in the most recent filing available to us. Across the 8 individually disclosed grants (totaling $133,900), the average award is $16,738 and the largest single relationship — Sunbridge International Collaborative Inc — received $70,900 across 3 grants (53% of all disclosed dollars), for cultural and ethnic awareness programming. The foundation's own reported typical_grant_size metric (drawn from its 990-PF Part XV) shows a $3,000-$20,000 range with a $20,000 median and $14,333 average across 3 listed awards — consistent with the broader grantee list. By geography, disclosed grants split HI (3), MI (3), MO (1), and PA (1), aligning with the foundation's stated HI/MI geographic focus while showing it will fund outside that footprint when a personal connection exists (its own home state of Missouri, and one Pennsylvania grant). By cause: humanitarian/faith-based relief (Breath of Heaven, $23,000), environmental advocacy (Citizen Coal Council, $20,000), higher-education scholarships (University of Central Missouri Alumni Foundation, $15,000), and general social services (The Shelter, $5,000) round out the remaining ~46% of disclosed giving, confirming no single program area dominates beyond the one large relationship with Sunbridge.

All five identified peers sit within a few thousand dollars of Malama Foundation's $2.57M asset base and share its NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking, T-category), and — like Malama — none maintain a public website according to our records. This is a structural pattern, not a coincidence: these are all small, closely held family/trust foundations sized just above the smallest private-foundation reporting thresholds, run by a handful of unpaid family trustees rather than program staff. Applicants should treat the entire peer set the same way as Malama itself: none can be approached through a conventional RFP, and success depends on personal networks rather than competitive proposals.

No news coverage, press releases, or public announcements referencing Malama Foundation (EIN 68-0625112, Kansas City, MO) were found for 2025 or 2026 — consistent with a foundation that has never maintained a public communications presence. The only confirmed recent activity is administrative: its FY2024 Form 990-PF was filed with the IRS on October 13, 2025, reporting $209,214 in revenue (down sharply from FY2023's $1,241,102, which had been inflated by a one-time $1,235,175 contribution) and total net assets of roughly $2.55M-$2.57M. Leadership has been stable, with Sandra R. Higman, Laura A. Brown, and Victor Perelmuter continuing as the foundation's only listed officers across all reviewed filing years, none drawing compensation. The foundation's website, malamafoundation.org, currently returns a 404 error, meaning it either never launched a public site or has let one lapse — a signal that outreach must go through direct contact (phone/mail) rather than a web portal. Given the size and informality of this foundation, grant seekers should not expect the kind of programmatic news, RFP announcements, or grantee spotlights that larger funders publish; the most reliable 'recent activity' signal available is the annual 990-PF filing itself, which should be checked yearly (typically filed in the fall) to see updated total giving and any newly disclosed grantees.

Because Malama Foundation has no published RFP, portal, or deadline, the standard grant-writing playbook does not apply — success here is almost entirely relational. First, do not wait for a call for proposals; none exists. The foundation's own application_instructions say simply 'written and verbal requests,' so a concise letter or a phone call to the foundation's listed contact, Laura Brown (via the Kansas City, MO address at 512 E 12th Ave, or by phone), is the appropriate format — not a formal grant application packet. Second, calibrate your ask to what this foundation actually gives: disclosed grants range from $5,000 to roughly $20,000-$23,000 per relationship (with one outlier multi-year relationship at $70,900 cumulative), so a request in the $5,000-$20,000 range is realistic; asking for six-figure support from a foundation with under $100K in typical annual giving will likely be a nonstarter. Third, lean into causes the directors have already shown they care about: cultural and ethnic awareness programming (its single largest funded relationship), humanitarian/orphan and widow support, environmental advocacy, scholarships tied to Central Missouri, and general social-service work — proposals that clearly connect to one of these themes, or to Hawaii/Michigan communities specifically, are more likely to resonate than generic asks. Fourth, the single biggest mistake an applicant could make is treating this like an institutional funder — submitting a lengthy formal proposal to a generic 'grants@' inbox, expecting a published deadline, or following up through a nonexistent online portal will signal you haven't done basic homework, since the foundation's own site is currently offline. Fifth, given the 'at officer's discretion' language, the most effective approach is a warm introduction — through a mutual contact, board connection, or prior grantee like Sunbridge International Collaborative or Breath of Heaven — rather than a cold outreach attempt. Finally, because this is a small, low-visibility foundation, patience matters: with three volunteer directors and no staff, response times are likely to be slow and informal, so a polite follow-up call after a few weeks is reasonable, but persistent pressure is not.