Mcadam Family Foundation

The McAdam Family Foundation is a closed, single-family grantmaking vehicle, not an open-application program. It is governed by four uncompensated officers who are all McAdam family members — Lowell C. McAdam (President), Jennifer E. McAdam (Secretary), Ryan J. McAdam (Treasurer), and Deborah J. McAdam (Director) — and its own IRS filing states plainly that "the foundation is not involved in any charitable activities" and exists solely to make contributions to other 501(c)(3) organizations. Administration runs through The Ayco Company LP, a Goldman Sachs-affiliated executive financial-planning subsidiary, which is the arrangement typical of a wealthy individual's personal foundation rather than a staffed grantmaking institution. Lowell McAdam is the former Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications (retired 2018), and the foundation's giving pattern reads as personally directed rather than programmatically strategic: a $2,000,000 capital gift to Eastlake Community Church for an education wing, $750,000 to the Lustgarten Foundation for pancreatic cancer research, $750,000 to Water Mission for refugee water access in Malawi, and $300,000 to Montefiore Medical Center. These causes are geographically scattered (NY, VA, SC, NC) and thematically varied (faith, medical research, international relief, hospital giving), which is the hallmark of a founder's personal-network foundation rather than a foundation with a published focus area. The foundation's own record flags "preselected_only" status with no application instructions on file, and its website (mcadam.org) is presently a placeholder "under reconstruction" page. First-time, unconnected applicants should expect very low odds from a cold approach. The highest-probability path in is an indirect one: a board, staff, or donor connection to one of the four confirmed grantees (Lustgarten Foundation, Water Mission, Eastlake Community Church, Montefiore Medical Center), or to McAdam's other governance roles — he is a Cornell University trustee who chairs the Cornell Tech Board of Overseers, and a director of the National Academy Foundation, an education-focused nonprofit. Organizations in health research, international WASH/relief, faith-based education, or Cornell/National Academy Foundation's network should prioritize relationship-building — a personal introduction, shared board member, or existing grantee's referral — well before attempting any written proposal.

Total assets have held in a narrow $8.0-$9.0 million band across the five years of financial data reviewed: $8,992,103 (2019), $8,603,979 (2020), $8,936,147 (2021), $8,300,545 (2022), and $8,049,036 (2023), with $8,281,133 in the most recent record. The foundation is funded almost entirely by investment returns rather than new outside contributions — net investment income of $198,756 to $983,768 per year — while contributions received were $3,982,987 in 2019 (evidently an initial funding infusion), $0 in 2020 and 2021, $703,500 in 2022, and just $3,500 in 2023. Grants paid have swung sharply year to year with no steady payout formula: $1,775,000 (2019), $600,000 (2020), $650,000 (2021), $1,600,000 (2022), $925,000 (2023), roughly $800,000 (2024 per aggregator data), and $0 disbursed in the most recent reviewed filing year against $406,080 in revenue — evidence of lumpy, discretionary giving rather than a fixed annual payout rate. Recipient concentration is high: just five named organizations account for $4,450,000 across 10 recorded grants, an average of $445,000 per grant. Eastlake Community Church received the largest share by far — $2,000,000 across 2 grants (roughly $1,000,000 each) earmarked for an "education wing," reading as a signature capital commitment rather than a routine annual grant. The Lustgarten Foundation (pancreatic cancer research) and Water Mission (clean water for refugees and displaced people in Malawi) each received $750,000 across 3 grants apiece — installments of roughly $250,000, consistent with multi-year pledges. Montefiore Medical Center received a single $300,000 general-purpose gift, and an unnamed "See Attached List" recipient absorbed $650,000 in one filing year, indicating at least one year's disbursements were spread across smaller organizations not individually itemized in this dataset. Separately, the foundation's typical_grant_size metadata shows a median of $150,000, an average of $200,000, and a range of $150,000-$300,000 across a more recent 3-grant sample — notably smaller than the historic Eastlake capital gift, suggesting recent check sizes have normalized downward. Geographically, recorded grants cluster in New York (5), South Carolina (2), Virginia (2), and North Carolina (1); none of the recorded giving is local to the foundation's Incline Village, Nevada domicile, which functions as a tax/residency address rather than a signal of local giving priorities.

Peers were matched purely by asset size — all five sit within about $6,000 of McAdam's $8,281,133 in total assets, an unusually tight cluster that reflects an algorithmic asset-tier match rather than a curated set of mission-similar funders. All five carry the same "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification as McAdam, but detailed giving and application data for the peers were not available in the source data, so the table below reflects what could be confirmed (assets, state, and website presence) alongside reasonable inference for focus and application posture.

Despite near-identical asset bases, public accessibility varies sharply across this tier: only Walker Foundation maintains a live, functioning website, while McAdam's own site is a placeholder under reconstruction and four of five peers show no website at all in the available data. That pattern reinforces that closed, relationship-driven grantmaking is the norm — not the exception — for family foundations of this size, and grant seekers should budget relationship-building time across this entire peer set, not just McAdam.

No foundation-specific news, press releases, or media coverage for 2025-2026 could be located; searches surfaced only unrelated results — a similarly named but distinct "McAdams Charitable Foundation" (EIN 05-0468638, a Providence, RI medical-needs charity for children), the Village of McAdam, New Brunswick municipal news, and rankings for an unrelated financial advisory firm called McAdam. The foundation appears to have no dedicated communications presence. Its own website, mcadam.org, currently displays only a placeholder message that the site "is being reconstructed" with no program updates, staff changes, or grant announcements. The most recent financial activity on record shows a decline in giving: roughly $800,000 disbursed in 2024 (down from $1,600,000 in 2022), and $0 in charitable disbursements in the most recently reviewed filing year (2025) against $406,080 in revenue and $27,518 in expenses — worth flagging to prospective applicants as a possible pause, though the 2019-2023 history shows an established pattern of alternating high and low giving years ($1,775,000; $600,000; $650,000; $1,600,000; $925,000) rather than a steady annual cadence, so a single low or zero year is not necessarily a change in course. Leadership has remained stable across the filings reviewed: Lowell C. McAdam (President/Director), Jennifer E. McAdam (Secretary/Director), Ryan J. McAdam (Treasurer), and Deborah J. McAdam (Director), all uncompensated. Outside the foundation, Lowell McAdam's most recent confirmed public activity is his ongoing role as a Cornell University trustee chairing the Cornell Tech Board of Overseers, and as a director of the National Academy Foundation — both plausible, though unconfirmed, indirect entry points for education-focused organizations, since neither is documented as routing funding through this specific foundation.

This is a closed, invitation-driven family foundation, and the data confirms it explicitly: the foundation record is flagged "preselected only," application_instructions is blank, and there is no published LOI process, portal, deadline, or review committee. Do not treat this like a typical open-application foundation — the return on investment for a cold, unsolicited proposal appears very low given no evidence of any unsolicited grant in the available history. The listed contact is "% The Ayco Company LP – NTG," Goldman Sachs' executive financial-planning subsidiary; this is a wealth-management back office handling the family's administrative and tax filings, not a program office staffed to evaluate proposals, so a cold letter sent there is unlikely to reach Lowell, Jennifer, Ryan, or Deborah McAdam directly. The single highest-leverage move available to an outside organization is securing a warm introduction rather than writing a stronger proposal. Concretely: (1) map your board, staff, and major donors for any existing tie to the McAdam family, to Verizon or the Verizon Foundation's alumni network, to Cornell University or Cornell Tech (where Lowell McAdam chairs the Board of Overseers), or to the National Academy Foundation, where he serves as a director; (2) if your mission is pancreatic cancer research, international water/refugee relief, congregational education, or academic medical center care, look for a connection to the foundation's four confirmed grantees — Lustgarten Foundation, Water Mission, Eastlake Community Church, and Montefiore Medical Center — since an introduction through an existing grantee is generally the most credible channel for a closed family foundation at this asset tier; (3) hold off on drafting a formal proposal packet until a relationship exists — there is no evidence a written LOI format or standard application is used at all. A common mistake to avoid is over-investing in polished collateral for a funder with no visible submission mechanism; that effort is better spent identifying and cultivating the personal connection first. On timing, giving has ranged from $0 to $1,775,000 per year with no discernible seasonal or fiscal-year pattern, so there is no confirmed "best time to apply" — outreach should be relationship-paced rather than deadline-driven.