Medserve Foundation Inc.

Medserve Foundation Inc. is a small, closely-held family private foundation based in Takoma Park, MD, run by President & CEO Isfundyar Choudry alongside directors Mubashar A. Choudry (listed as the foundation's contact, "% Mubashar Choudry MD") and Minahill Meelu. With $8.9M in total assets (FY2024) and roughly $700,768 distributed across 65 tracked grants historically, this is a mid-size family foundation, not an institutional grantmaker with program staff — decisions likely run through the Choudry family directly rather than a review committee with multiple program officers. The grantee list reveals a clear giving identity: the foundation strongly favors organizations connected to the Pakistani-American and Ahmadiyya Muslim community, both domestically (Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, $125,290 across 6 grants; Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent, $120,000 across 6 grants; Montgomery County Muslim Foundation, $21,735) and internationally (Imran Khan Cancer Appeal/Shaukat Khanum-linked giving, $88,000; Friends of Indus Hospital, $42,058; Human Development Foundation, $24,000; Namal University and King Edward Medical College in Pakistan). First-time applicants without any connection to this community or to the healthcare/medical-education space should calibrate expectations: 27 of 65 tracked grants (41.5%) went to Maryland organizations and 18 (27.7%) to Illinois organizations — Zion, IL is a historic U.S. hub for the Ahmadiyya community, and this geographic concentration is not incidental. That said, the foundation also funds mainstream institutions (Johns Hopkins Medicine, $75,000 across 5 grants; Mount Sinai Health System, $25,000; Alzheimer's Association; Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy), so alignment with healthcare/medical research or education missions matters more than any single community affiliation. The relationship progression for repeat grantees (Ahmadiyya Movement, APPNA, Montgomery County Muslim Foundation) suggests the foundation prefers renewing relationships with known organizations over one-off giving — most top recipients received 2-6 grants over multiple years rather than a single large check. First-time applicants should expect a modest initial award (in the $5,000-$10,000 typical range) as a way of building trust before larger, repeated support follows.

Across 65 tracked grants, Medserve Foundation distributed $700,768 total, averaging $10,781 per grant, with individual grants ranging from $320 (BSA Troop) to $25,000 (a single grant to Mount Sinai Health System); cumulative multi-year relationships with top grantees reached as high as $125,290 (Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, 6 grants) and $120,000 (Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent, 6 grants). The foundation's own stated typical grant size is $5,000-$10,000, consistent with the median of the dataset. By program area, health/medical-focused recipients (APPNA $120,000, Johns Hopkins Medicine $75,000, Friends of Indus Hospital $42,058, Mount Sinai $25,000, National Health Forum $20,000, CDRS $17,304) account for roughly $299,000, or about 43% of total tracked giving — confirming healthcare/science as the dominant program area over education or general charitable causes. Geographically, Maryland (27 grants) and Illinois (18 grants) together account for 69% of grant volume, with the remainder scattered across CT (4), NY (3), CA (3), DC (2), MO (2), NJ (2), FL (1), and VA (1) — reflecting the foundation's stated "no geographic restriction" policy in practice skewing heavily toward community-connected states. On the finance side, total assets have been volatile: $5.13M (FY2019) grew to $9.09M (FY2021) on a $520,617 net investment gain, then fell to $6.04M (FY2022) amid a -$936,110 total revenue year (investment losses), before recovering to $7.57M (FY2023) and $8.91M (FY2024). Annual giving has nonetheless trended upward independent of asset swings: total giving rose from $99,648 (FY2019) to $464,295 (FY2023), while the narrower "grants paid" line (direct grant checks under Part XV) rose from $45,136 to $125,381 (FY2022) before dipping slightly to $111,238 (FY2023). Notably, officer compensation for the President & CEO grew from $0 (FY2019) to $186,238, $224,538, $275,000, and $320,000 by FY2023 — by FY2023, CEO compensation ($320,000) exceeded direct grants paid ($111,238), a ratio applicants should factor into expectations about the size of the discretionary grantmaking pool in any given year.

Medserve Foundation sits in the middle of its International-focus peer set by asset size, but distinguishes itself with an open, formalized online application (most small family foundations in this cohort are invitation-only or provide minimal public application infrastructure).

Medserve's $8.9M asset base places it at the smaller end of this five-foundation peer group, all of which cluster in the $8.2M-$10.6M range and share the same "International" NTEE classification. Unlike its peers — none of which have public grantee data readily available in this dataset — Medserve publishes a structured online application (Gravity Forms) with clearly defined fields, giving grant seekers a more accessible on-ramp than is typical for foundations of this size, most of which rely on referral or invitation-only relationships.

No independent news coverage, press releases, or third-party reporting on Medserve Foundation was identified for 2025 or 2026 — searches surfaced only the foundation's own website, a CauseIQ nonprofit database listing, and unrelated organizations with similar names (Medica Foundation's provider grant program, the Medfield Foundation Legacy Fund in Massachusetts). This is consistent with the foundation's profile as a small, family-operated private foundation without a communications program, dedicated PR presence, or public annual report. The most recent verifiable activity comes from the foundation's own IRS Form 990-PF filings reflected in this database: total assets grew from $7.57M (FY2023) to $8.91M (FY2024), and the foundation's last-verified database record is dated 2026-07-25, with prior web enrichment recorded 2026-02-22. Leadership has remained stable across the available filing history — Isfundyar Choudry has served as President & CEO throughout FY2019-2023, with Mubashar A. Choudry (M.D., listed as the foundation's administrative contact) and Minahill Meelu continuing as unpaid directors. Grant seekers should not expect a public-facing news cycle from this funder; direct outreach via phone (301-434-0050 ext. 606) or email (medservefoundation@gmail.com) remains the most reliable way to confirm current priorities, since no recent programmatic announcements, new initiatives, or leadership changes surfaced in this research.

Medserve Foundation's own site lists an application deadline of April 30 in its structured application data, while its funding-cycle description separately references "one annual funding cycle with a June deadline" — this inconsistency means applicants MUST call (301-434-0050 ext. 606) or email (medservefoundation@gmail.com) to confirm the exact current-year deadline before assuming either date; do not rely on a cached deadline. The online application (built on Gravity Forms at medservefoundation.org/apply-for-grant/) requires an IRS 501(c)(3) Determination Letter upload as a hard prerequisite — organizations without this document, or fiscal-sponsorship applicants without a signed letter from their sponsor confirming willingness to act in that role, will not be considered. The form asks applicants to select a support type (Project, General Operating, Capacity Building, Technical Assistance, or Emergency) — given that the foundation's tracked grant history shows a strong pattern of renewing relationships with the same organizations over multiple years (Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, 6 grants; APPNA, 6 grants; Montgomery County Muslim Foundation, 5 grants), applicants should frame first-time requests as Project or Capacity Building asks in the $5,000-$10,000 typical range rather than large General Operating requests, and explicitly signal interest in a multi-year relationship. The application also collects board meeting frequency and staffing levels, indicating the foundation screens for organizational maturity and governance — smaller or newer nonprofits should proactively address this in their narrative rather than leaving it to the numbers alone. Given the foundation's demonstrated affinity for healthcare/medical and Pakistani-American/Ahmadiyya community-connected organizations (43% of tracked giving to health/medical recipients; 69% of grants to Maryland and Illinois organizations), applicants whose mission touches healthcare access, medical research, or serves South Asian/Muslim-American communities should make that alignment explicit and early in the narrative — it is the single strongest predictor of fit in the available grantee data. A common mistake to avoid: submitting a large ($50,000+) unrestricted operating request as a first ask: outside of a small number of major institutional grantees (Johns Hopkins Medicine at $75,000 cumulative, Mount Sinai at $25,000 single grant), the foundation's typical check size is modest, and oversized first requests are unlikely to match its demonstrated giving pattern.