Menemsha Family Fund

The Menemsha Family Fund is a tightly held, family-governed private foundation founded in 1999 and led entirely by the Schlozman-Lehman family. President Kay Lehman Schlozman — a prominent political scientist at Boston College — anchors the foundation's intellectual orientation toward civic participation, legal rights, and social equity. All officers and directors serve without compensation, and the fund operates with no paid staff. This means every decision flows directly through family consensus, making relationship alignment, not proposal volume, the key variable.

The foundation is explicit about its selection logic: prospective grantees must demonstrate a clear relationship to existing funded organizations. Reviewing the current grantee PDF on their website before any outreach is not optional — it is the prerequisite the foundation itself mandates. Organizations working in reproductive rights, civil liberties, economic policy, legal advocacy, early childhood education, or Boston-area human services will find the strongest portfolio anchors. Key existing grantees include the National Abortion Federation, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Brennan Center for Justice, Economic Policy Institute, National Employment Law Project, and Greater Boston Legal Services — a clear ideological constellation around progressive legal and policy work.

First-time applicants should send a brief email to menemshafamilyfund@gmail.com that does three things: identifies one or two specific existing grantees whose work parallels your own, explains the programmatic or strategic connection, and describes your organization's track record concisely. A two-paragraph note is more likely to succeed than a detailed letter of inquiry. The fund will respond if interested.

The foundation does not accept unsolicited full proposals and has no formal grant cycle or application portal. It is not a foundation where you submit and wait — it is a relationship-forward funder where the initial outreach signals your sophistication. National organizations with established credibility in progressive policy or legal advocacy have received the largest grants (up to $100,000 for Wellesley College Scholarship Fund), while Boston-area direct-service organizations cluster in the $5,000–$20,000 range.

Menemsha Family Fund has grown its annual grantmaking substantially over the past decade. Grants paid rose from $240,250 in 2011 to $460,000 in 2019, $629,500 in 2021, and $828,000 in 2023 — a 244% increase over twelve years. Total giving (including non-grant charitable expenditures) reached $936,802 in 2023, up from $313,648 in 2015.

Across the 69 documented grants in the most recent available grantee data, total distributions were approximately $1,407,000 with an average grant of $20,391 and a median of roughly $10,000. The range is wide: grants begin as low as $5,000 (Breaktime, Nurtury, UTEC, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and extend to $100,000 (Wellesley College Scholarship Fund) and a single bundled payment of $579,000 to an attached grants schedule — suggesting a mix of small recurring gifts and larger institutional commitments.

Geographically, Massachusetts dominates with 37 of 69 grants (54%), concentrated in Greater Boston. New York accounts for 10 grants (14%), Washington DC for 8 (12%), and Maryland for 6 (9%) — reflecting the Baltimore-area giving track. Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, Minnesota, and Texas receive the remainder.

By program area, the portfolio clusters around five themes: reproductive rights and women's health (National Abortion Federation $25,000; Planned Parenthood of MA $17,500; Planned Parenthood of America $12,500; Center for Reproductive Rights $15,000; Eastern Mass Abortion Fund $15,000; Guttmacher Institute $15,000); civil liberties and legal advocacy (NAACP Legal Defense Fund $15,000; ACLU-MA $10,000; ACLU-MD $10,000; Brennan Center $6,000; Center for Constitutional Rights $6,000; Greater Boston Legal Services $30,000); economic and labor policy (Economic Policy Institute $20,000; National Employment Law Project $17,500; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities $50,000; Roosevelt Institute $10,000); higher education (Wellesley College Scholarship Fund $100,000; Wellesley College $10,000); and Boston-area human services (United Way $25,000; Greater Boston Food Bank $25,000; West End House Boys & Girls Club $20,000; Pine Street Inn $6,000).

The foundation's assets have grown from $9.96M in 2019 to $16.3M in 2023, and net investment income of $627,233 in 2023 provides a stable funding floor for continued grantmaking.

The Menemsha Family Fund occupies the mid-tier of private family foundations with assets around $16–17 million. The following peer foundations share similar asset size and NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking, T21):

What distinguishes Menemsha from most of its asset-class peers is the unusually clear public articulation of its funding priorities and the direct email pathway for inquiry. Many family foundations of this size are entirely invitation-only with no public application pathway; Menemsha's website and email contact represent a meaningful degree of openness. Its $828,000 in 2023 grants paid reflects a payout rate of approximately 5.1% on $16.3M in assets — consistent with the IRS minimum distribution requirement — suggesting disciplined but not expansive grantmaking. The progressive ideological coherence of the portfolio (reproductive rights, civil liberties, economic justice) is unusually explicit for a foundation that does not publish a formal mission statement, making alignment assessment straightforward for prospective applicants.

No major leadership changes or new program announcements have been identified in 2025–2026 web searches. The Schlozman-Lehman family board has been stable for multiple years, with Kay Schlozman as President, Stanley Schlozman as VP and Treasurer, Paul A. Lehman as Vice President, and Daniel A. Schlozman and Julia E. Schlozman as Directors — reflecting a multigenerational family governance structure.

The most recent 990 data available (fiscal year 2023) shows grants paid of $828,000, the highest in the foundation's documented history, with total assets of $16,304,714 and net investment income of $627,233. This marks continued growth from $579,000 in grants paid in 2022 and $629,500 in 2021.

GrantStation's 2024 profile data indicates the fund recently supported the Boston Children's Museum ($104,000), American Jewish World Service ($20,000), ACLU Foundation of Maryland ($12,500), ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts ($10,000), and Boston Public Library Fund ($5,500). The Boston Children's Museum amount is notably large relative to typical grants, suggesting either a capital or endowment gift rather than a standard program grant.

The foundation's website remains active at menemshafamilyfund.org with a current grantee PDF and email contact. No press releases, new initiative announcements, or staff changes were found in public sources for 2025–2026. The fund appears to operate with consistent, relationship-driven grantmaking without announcing new funding priorities or accepting media attention.

Lead with grantee alignment, not organizational pitch. The foundation's website is explicit: the single most important thing you can do is demonstrate a clear relationship between your work and existing grantees. Name two or three specific current grantees and explain concretely — in one or two sentences — why your programs are complementary or adjacent. Generic descriptions of your mission will not open this door.

Use the brief email as your LOI equivalent. Send a note of 200–300 words to menemshafamilyfund@gmail.com. Include: (1) your organization's name and primary work in one sentence, (2) the specific Menemsha grantees whose work parallels yours, (3) the geographic focus of your programs (Boston, Baltimore, national), and (4) a general sense of the funding scale you are seeking. Do not attach a proposal, budget, or annual report to the initial email.

Match your ask to historical giving ranges. Boston-area direct service organizations should calibrate asks in the $5,000–$20,000 range. Boston-area legal and advocacy organizations can reasonably request $15,000–$30,000. National policy and advocacy organizations with strong track records may inquire about $25,000–$50,000. The $100,000 Wellesley College grant and similar outliers appear to reflect institutional or personal family connections, not typical program grants.

Timing is flexible but be strategic. No deadline exists; applications are rolling. However, because family foundations of this size often review grants on an informal annual or semi-annual basis, reaching out in September–October or January–February aligns with common year-end and mid-year giving cycles and may improve responsiveness.

Emphasize IRS 170(c) eligibility explicitly. The foundation's stated restriction is that recipient organizations must be IRS Section 170(c) qualified. Mentioning this in your outreach — even briefly — signals familiarity with their requirements.

Prioritize Boston and Baltimore geography for local asks. The fund draws a geographic distinction between local grants (Boston, Baltimore, Martha's Vineyard) and national grants. If your work is local, name the community explicitly and cite Boston-area grantees as your anchor comparisons. If your work is national, frame it in terms of national policy impact and cite national-scope grantees like the Economic Policy Institute, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, or National Employment Law Project.