Martin J Gross Family Foundation Inc.

Martin J Gross Family Foundation Inc. is a closely held, trustee-directed family foundation run out of Livingston, New Jersey by three trustees — Martin J Gross, Sharon Altman, and Michael S Lewis (associated with the Meisel Tuteur law firm) — none of whom draw compensation. There is no program staff, no public request-for-proposals process, and as of this research (July 2026) the foundation's own website displays only a "Coming Soon" placeholder despite the foundation being fully active with $9.46 million in assets. This is the profile of a classic "family and friends" giving vehicle: grants flow almost entirely to organizations already connected to the trustees' personal, religious, professional, and educational networks rather than through a competitive proposal process.

The grantee list makes the favored categories clear. Jewish communal and Israel-related organizations dominate — National Library of Israel, American Israel Education Foundation, American Friends of the Hebrew University, Jewish Theological Seminary, Central Fund of Israel, Congregation Emanu-El, and Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy (a day school near the foundation's own Livingston address). A second cluster is elite educational and cultural institutions — The Juilliard School ($92,000), New York Historical Society ($125,000 across two grants), Success Academy Charter Schools, and the single largest gift on record, $856,376 across two grants to Americans For Oxford Inc, almost certainly tied to a personal Oxford University connection within the Gross family. A third cluster is center-right foreign-policy and free-inquiry think tanks — Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, and Heterodox Academy — signaling a specific ideological orientation among the trustees.

For an organization with no existing relationship to the trustees, the realistic path in is a warm introduction through the Livingston/Essex County New Jersey Jewish community, the Meisel Tuteur law firm network, or shared board/alumni ties to the specific institutions above — not a cold letter of inquiry. Applicants who do not fit the Jewish/Israel, elite education, or foreign-policy-think-tank profile should expect a very low probability of success regardless of proposal quality.

The foundation's own reported typical grant size (based on 21 grants) shows a median of $10,000, an average of $39,318, and a range of $1,000 to $404,981. Across the fuller 47-grant history in the grantee data (totaling $1,883,431, average $40,073), the figures are skewed hard by one outlier: the $856,376 combined gift to Americans For Oxford Inc. Strip that out and the remaining 45 grants total roughly $1,027,055, averaging about $22,824 — a more realistic expectation for an unconnected applicant, with the bulk of individual checks clustering between $2,500 and $30,000 (e.g., Central Fund of Israel $17,025, Tivkah Fund $15,000, American Friends of IDC $14,000, Lupus Research Alliance $10,000, Foundation for Defense of Democracies $10,000).

Geographically, New York dominates with 28 of 47 grants (60%), New Jersey follows with 8 (17%), and the remainder is scattered across DC (4), Florida and Maryland (2 each), and single grants in Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio — closely matching the foundation's own stated geographic_focus tags of NY and NJ. By cause, roughly 45% of grant count is Jewish communal/Israel-related, about 20% is education (Juilliard, Success Academy, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, Hillsdale College, University of Chicago Law School), around 15% is foreign-policy/ideas think tanks, and the balance is health and local New Jersey community organizations (Foundation for Morristown Medical Center, GlassRoots, Baltimore Squashwise). All 990-PF filings classify every grant simply as "CHARITY," so there is no formal program-area breakdown published by the foundation itself.

Annual giving has been volatile rather than trending in one direction: total_giving was $926,496 (2019), $1,296,856 (2020), $1,116,636 (2021), $1,604,308 (2022), and $1,197,400 (2023) — a pattern that tracks net investment income (which itself swung from $99,225 to $377,428) and contributions received (from $870,000 to $2.72 million per year) more than any strategic shift in priorities. Total assets rose steadily from $7.37 million (2019) to $9.46 million (2024), showing the family continues to fund the foundation rather than wind it down.

All five peer foundations sit within roughly $10,000 of Martin J Gross Family Foundation Inc.'s $9,459,528 in assets and share the same NTEE "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" classification, but none publish a website, application portal, or public giving process, mirroring this foundation's own "Coming Soon" site. That pattern is typical at this asset tier ($9–10M): these are single-family vehicles administered by a trustee or attorney, not staffed grantmaking institutions, so applicants should expect the same relationship-driven access model across the entire peer set rather than treating Martin J Gross Family Foundation Inc. as unusually closed.

Public reporting on this foundation is sparse. The most concrete recent data point is that its Form 990-PF was filed on November 10, 2025, covering fiscal year 2024 activity (total assets $9,459,528, total revenue $4,136,519) — but no grants_paid or total_giving figure for 2024 has yet propagated to public databases at the time of this research (July 23, 2026), and no press release, program launch, or leadership change accompanied the filing. The foundation's own website (martinjgrossfamilyfoundation.org) has displayed only a "Coming Soon" placeholder throughout the research period, with no mission statement, grants page, or contact form published.

No news coverage, award announcements, or social media activity for the foundation or its trustees (Martin J Gross, Sharon Altman, Michael S Lewis) surfaced in web searches covering 2025–2026. The most recent substantive activity on record is the FY2023 filing showing $742,341 in grants paid against $1,197,400 in total giving, funded in part by $972,000 in contributions received that year. Absent new public information, applicants should treat the foundation's giving pattern as continuous with its 2019–2023 behavior — steady, relationship-based support concentrated in Jewish/Israel causes, elite education, and foreign-policy think tanks — rather than assume any new initiative or shift is underway.

There is no published letter-of-inquiry process, online portal, deadline, or grant guidelines for this foundation — the DB record's application_instructions field is explicitly blank and the foundation's website is not yet live. Treat any claim of a formal open process with skepticism; the only documented contact points are the phone line (973) 233-8800 and the mailing address, 1 Sandalwood Drive, Livingston, NJ 07039-1408, addressed to "% Martin J Gross."

Given the grantee pattern, the highest-leverage strategy is not proposal-writing but relationship-building: identify any board, alumni, congregational, or professional connection between your organization and Martin J Gross, Sharon Altman, or the Meisel Tuteur law firm (Michael S Lewis) before reaching out. Organizations with ties to the Livingston/Essex County NJ Jewish community, Israel-advocacy and Israel-education causes, elite performing-arts or history institutions (Juilliard, NY Historical Society), or center-right foreign-policy think tanks (FDD, Washington Institute, CFR, Heterodox Academy) fit the demonstrated profile most closely.

Common mistakes to avoid: submitting a cold, generic proposal through a web form (none exists); assuming a large ask is off-limits — the foundation has made single gifts as large as $856,376 when the connection and cause fit, though most awards are far smaller ($1,000–$30,000); and framing a request in terms unrelated to the foundation's evident priorities (broad social-services or environmental asks with no Jewish, educational, or foreign-policy angle are unlikely to land, based on 47 recorded grants with zero examples in those categories).

If you do have a legitimate connection, lead with it explicitly in any outreach, keep the initial ask concise (a one-page letter rather than a full proposal packet, since there is no formal RFP to respond to), and expect the trustees — not program staff — to personally review and decide, since none of the three draws compensation and there is no evidence of paid administrative staff.