Manat Foundation

The Manat Foundation is a tightly-held private family foundation established in October 1987 and headquartered at 1477 N. Dixboro Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan (EIN 38-2710511). It operates exclusively by invitation — it explicitly funds only preselected charitable organizations and does not accept or review unsolicited applications under any circumstances. This is not a policy subject to change at review cycles; it is the foundation's defining structural feature.

The Hankin family sits at the center of the foundation's governance and grant philosophy. Rebecca Hankin serves as President, while Joseph Hankin is a Trustee. Secretary Susan Henkin and Treasurer Jack M. Schultz round out the board, with Natalie B. Charach also serving as a trustee and former President. All officers serve without compensation — a defining mark of family philanthropy driven by personal conviction rather than institutional grantmaking.

The foundation's giving reflects three interlocking convictions: Jewish community continuity, serious illness in childhood, and community-based care for individuals with disabilities or mental health challenges. These are not competing priorities but complementary pillars unified by proximity (Michigan-centric), personal relationship (longstanding institutional partnerships), and an emphasis on direct service delivery over policy advocacy or systemic reform.

Relationship progression is implicit rather than formal. Organizations that receive an initial grant consistently receive follow-on support: of the 36 identified grantees, virtually all show 2–4 grants across multiple fiscal years, indicating that once a relationship is established, renewal is highly likely as long as the grantee continues to demonstrate impact. There are no published RFPs, grant cycles, or application deadlines.

First-time access requires personal introduction — ideally through the Hankin family directly, through Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit (a multi-cycle grantee), JCC Detroit, Tamarack Camps, or affiliated board and community networks. Organizations outside Michigan face significant headwinds: only ~21% of documented grants by count go to out-of-state organizations, and those are typically nationally recognized institutions with deep pre-existing reputations (St. Jude, Make-A-Wish, US Holocaust Memorial Museum). Local Michigan nonprofits with authentic Hankin family connections have by far the strongest pathway.

The Manat Foundation's grantmaking falls into two clearly distinct eras separated by a transformative capital influx. From FY2011 through FY2015, annual giving was stable in a $400,000–$450,000 band: $403,700 (FY2011), $426,860 (FY2012), $430,600 (FY2013), $447,500 (FY2014), and $407,200 (FY2015). During this period the foundation maintained assets of $5.3M–$6.5M, funded by $300,000–$500,000 in annual contributions and $185,000–$315,000 in net investment income.

Beginning in FY2019, the foundation entered a higher-capacity era: grants jumped to $3,697,608. FY2021 brought $6,164,149 in contributions received — likely a large estate gift or trust transfer — pushing assets to $8.8M and grants to $2,718,679. FY2022 saw an anomalous dip to just $220,100 in grants as the foundation consolidated. By FY2024 (ending July 2024), assets had grown to $19,613,874 — a 3.2x increase from FY2022 — and disbursements reached $5,486,749, the foundation's largest grantmaking year on record.

Grant size data across the documented grantee history (80 total grants, $7,333,030 cumulative): median grant $17,500, average $91,663 (heavily skewed by anchor gifts), range $300 (Sowers International) to $3,311,497 (Garrett's Space, FY2024). The foundation makes 13 grants per year in recent cycles.

Program area breakdown by cumulative documented giving: - Children's health and cancer research (~52%): St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ($3,557,079 cumulative, 3 grants), Le Bonheur Children's Hospital ($203,000), Make-A-Wish Foundation ($90,000), Penrickton Center for Blind Children ($15,000) - Jewish community services (~33%): Jewish Federation-Tamarack Camps ($1,069,651), Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy ($1,000,000), JCC Detroit across three programs ($144,000), Jewish Fed-Annual ($105,000), Congregation Beth Ahm School ($45,000), Jewish Fed-Ukraine ($40,000) - Disability and adult day services (~11%): Living & Learning Enrichment Center ($800,000+ cumulative) - Mental health, food security, arts, and other (~4%): Garrett's Space ($100,000 in DB; $3,311,497 in FY2024 alone per most recent 990), Gleaners Food Bank ($20,000), Forgotten Harvest ($20,000)

The FY2024 data represents a visible portfolio shift: Garrett's Space alone captured approximately 60% of that year's total giving, with St. Jude estimated at $1.66M and Living & Learning at $1.54M in the same period.

Note: Fisher, Berman, and comparable private family foundation figures are approximate estimates derived from public IRS 990 filings; exact current figures may vary.

Manat punches above its weight in annual giving-to-assets ratio — disbursing approximately 28% of total assets in FY2024, far above the 5% minimum required of private foundations, suggesting an accelerated grantmaking period tied to the foundation's rapid asset growth. Unlike the Skillman Foundation or Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Manat maintains no staff, no grants portal, no open RFP cycles, and no public-facing application mechanism — placing it squarely in the tradition of intimate family philanthropy. Compared to larger Michigan Jewish family foundations like the Fisher Foundation, Manat is distinguished by the extraordinary concentration of its giving: a single $3.3M grant to one Ann Arbor mental health organization in FY2024 represents a level of focused personal commitment rarely seen at this asset tier.

The defining development in Manat Foundation's recent history is its $3,311,497 grant to Garrett's Space in the fiscal year ending July 2024, confirmed in IRS Form 990-PF filings and independently verified through CauseIQ grantee records. Garrett's Space, founded in 2018 and based in Ann Arbor, provides peer-based wellness programming for young adults aged 18–28 experiencing mental health challenges — creating a safe space for vulnerability, shared experience, and hope. This grant represents the largest single disbursement in the foundation's documented history and signals a deeply personal philanthropic commitment consistent with how family foundations prioritize causes of direct meaning to trustees.

Also in FY2024, American Friends Magen David Adom — the U.S. fundraising arm of Israel's national emergency medical service — received $465,000, a notable new major grantee reflecting heightened attention to Israeli and Jewish global relief in the post-October 2023 landscape. This extends a pattern that also includes Jewish Fed-Ukraine ($40,000 across two grants).

In Fall 2025, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research's institutional newsletter identified the Manat Foundation as a Centennial Founder's Circle donor, confirming the foundation's active charitable engagement into fiscal year 2026 and its connection to Jewish cultural and historical preservation on a national scale.

Assets have grown from $6.2M (FY2022) to $19.6M (FY2024), a 3.2x increase over two fiscal years attributable to investment appreciation and likely follow-on capital contributions after the $6.16M in contributions received in FY2021. All three officer positions — Rebecca Hankin (President), Susan Henkin (Secretary), Jack M. Schultz (Treasurer) — remain unchanged, indicating governance stability.

The foundational reality of pursuing Manat Foundation support is that there is no application process to navigate — only a relationship to cultivate. The foundation has explicitly designated itself as funding only preselected organizations, a classification that is not procedural but reflects the family-centric philosophy at the core of its grantmaking. No portal, LOI template, online form, or publicly listed contact email exists. The phone number (734-476-1690) is the sole public contact point.

For organizations with genuine programmatic alignment, the most viable pathways to relationship entry are:

• Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit: As a multi-cycle Manat grantee with annual operating support plus specialized gifts for Ukraine relief and the Kennedy program, the Federation is the natural introduction channel for Jewish community organizations seeking a warm referral.
• JCC Detroit: Manat funds JCC Detroit's Charach Gallery, Pillars program, and Berman Center — three distinct program areas over four grant cycles — making JCC leadership a logical network entry point.
• Tamarack Camps: Cumulative support of $1,069,651 over four grants makes this another high-trust network node with direct trustee access.
• Ann Arbor civic and professional networks: Rebecca Hankin's Ann Arbor base means local professional, philanthropic, and social networks may yield an organic trustee introduction.

Alignment language that resonates with Manat's documented giving: Jewish community continuity, care for individuals with cognitive or physical disabilities, wellness and peer support for young adults in mental health crisis, children with life-threatening illness, and global Jewish resilience. The foundation consistently funds direct-service delivery organizations — not advocacy groups, think tanks, or policy organizations.

Geographic fit matters enormously: Michigan-based organizations with strong local roots receive ~79% of all grants. Out-of-state applicants need nationally recognized reputations to overcome this preference. Optimal timing is unknown since no public grant cycle exists; treat relationship-building as a 12–24 month process. Demonstrate organizational stability and impact over time before requesting an introduction. Sustaining a referral relationship matters more than any written document.