Mozaik Philanthropy Inc.

The single most important fact for any grant seeker: MOZAIK Philanthropy Inc. (EIN 20-8104037) has publicly announced a strategic pause to its grantmaking and states on its own website and contact page that it is 'no longer accepting grant solicitations or communication requests at this time.' Its Submittable application portal (mozaikphilanthropy.submittable.com/submit) currently returns a 404. Nothing below should be read as an active application pathway — it is a strategy guide for if and when the foundation reopens.

When active (2020-2024, and earlier as the Neda Nobari Foundation before that), MOZAIK's giving philosophy centered on 'democratizing arts philanthropy' through participatory, community-nominated grantmaking rather than a conventional competitive-RFP model. The foundation, led by President/Director/Secretary Neda Nobari (unpaid, $0 reported compensation across all filed years) with Treasurer Daria Mashouf ($50,000-$54,167/year), favored individual working artists and small, artist-led organizations over large institutions. Of 340 logged grants totaling $884,625, the bulk were modest Artist Relief Awards in the $5,000-$16,000 cumulative range paid in $1,000-$5,000 installments to named individuals (e.g., J Moore at $16,000 across 5 grants, K He at $12,000 across 4 grants) — evidence the foundation built ongoing, multi-grant relationships with individual artists rather than one-time awards.

A smaller number of organizations received substantially larger, sustained support: Sima Studios ($84,375 across 2 grants, including 'NEW ECONOMY Flow Fund' support) and Cinema Without Borders Foundation ($80,000 across 4 grants) stand out as anchor relationships. First-time applicants historically entered through themed open calls (the Future Art Awards, with rotating themes like 'Woman. Life. Freedom' and 'Ecosystem X') rather than a rolling LOI-to-proposal pipeline; there is no evidence of formal site visits. Organizations and artists whose work aligns with participatory, disruptive, or catalytic framing — and who can point to community or peer nomination — fit the model best. Until the pause lifts, the only actionable step is monitoring the foundation's channels for a reopening signal.

MOZAIK's total giving has declined and become more volatile over the past decade, based on IRS Form 990-PF data. Total giving (which includes program and administrative costs alongside grants) ran $708,960-$892,584/year from 2012-2015, peaked near $927,500 in 2019, then dropped sharply to $562,208-$703,039/year from 2020-2023 as the foundation transitioned into its current MOZAIK identity. Grants paid specifically (the narrower, disbursement-only figure) fell even further: $681,521 (2019) to $195,125 (2021), recovering only modestly to $228,000-$230,750 in 2022-2023. The FY2024 filing extract shows no reported grants-paid or total-giving figure at all — consistent with the announced pause — even as total assets held roughly flat at $7,998,754 (2024) versus $7,780,218 (2023), and total revenue was $547,533.

Across the 340 grants captured in this dataset (aggregate $884,625, average $2,602/grant), typical recent awards skewed small: the foundation's own reported typical-grant-size figures show a median of $1,000, an average of $2,243, and a range of $750-$20,000 across 87 recent grants — squarely an Artist Relief Award-style micro-grant range. Layered on top of that base were a handful of much larger, multi-year commitments (Sima Studios $84,375; Cinema Without Borders Foundation $80,000; Film Forum Inc $20,000 for 'COUP 53' production costs; Choose Love Inc $20,000; Iranian American Women Foundation $20,000), indicating a genuine barbell strategy rather than a single grant tier.

Geographically, giving is heavily California-weighted: 126 of 340 grantees (37%) are in CA, versus 45 in NY (13%), and single digits to low teens in FL (13), MA (12), PA (10), MD (8), TX (8), NJ (7), OH (6), and OR (6) — consistent with the foundation's stated 'California and National (United States)' geographic focus and its Bay Area/Nobari-family roots. Program areas cluster almost entirely around the arts: Future Art Awards, Flow Grants for artists/creative practitioners, New Economy grants, and e-zine/publication support, aligning with its NTEE classification (T20, Philanthropy & Grantmaking) and self-described focus areas of Arts, Creative Expression, and Artistic Expression.

MOZAIK sits among a cluster of similarly-sized (~$8M asset) grantmaking foundations, though most peers in this dataset lack published websites or disclosed giving levels, making direct comparison partial. The table below uses available IRS-derived figures.

MOZAIK is the only foundation in this peer set with a public web presence, a named application portal (Submittable), and disclosed program structure — its peers appear to be smaller family or single-donor vehicles without public-facing grant programs, which is typical for foundations in the generic 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE bucket rather than a dedicated program-area code. That transparency is itself notable: even paused, MOZAIK is more accessible to outside applicants than four of its five closest asset-matched peers, none of which show any evidence of open, unsolicited applications.

The clearest recent development is negative for applicants: MOZAIK's own website confirms a strategic pause, with the foundation stating it is reflecting on its 2020-2024 body of work and 'no longer accepting grant solicitations or communication requests at this time.' The Submittable application portal (mozaikphilanthropy.submittable.com/submit) currently 404s, reinforcing that the intake pipeline is offline rather than merely between cycles. Web search turned up no 2025 or 2026 press coverage, grant announcements, or new program launches — the most recent substantive coverage found (PR Newswire, 'MOZAIK Philanthropy's Ode To Democratizing Art') dates to mid-2021, describing the Future Art Awards and participatory model.

The most recent activity of record is the foundation's own '5-Year Impact Report' covering 2020-2024, which it now directs website visitors to in place of a live grants program — summarizing exposure and funding for over 500 global artists during that window. IRS data shows the foundation still filed a return for FY2024 (total assets $7,998,754, total revenue $547,533) but did not report a grants-paid or total-giving figure, consistent with reduced or paused disbursement activity that fiscal year.

Leadership appears unchanged: Neda Nobari continues as President/Director/Secretary (unpaid) and Daria Mashouf as Treasurer (~$50,000/year), the same officer structure reported in prior years' filings. No leadership transition, program relaunch, or reopening date was found in any source reviewed. Grant seekers should treat MOZAIK as dormant rather than simply slow-moving until direct evidence of reopening appears.

The overriding tip is procedural, not stylistic: do not submit an unsolicited proposal, LOI, or cold email to MOZAIK right now. The foundation states directly that it is not accepting grant solicitations or communication requests, and its Submittable portal is offline (404). Sending materials during an explicit pause will not be read and risks marking a contact as ignoring stated guidelines if the foundation reopens and later reviews outreach history.

The productive use of time now is positioning for a reopening: monitor mozaikphilanthropy.org (particularly the /featured/ and /community/ pages, which have historically announced open calls) and the foundation's LinkedIn and Facebook pages, both of which post programmatic updates faster than the website has in the past. Do not rely on a single check — set a recurring quarterly reminder, since the foundation gave no timeline for when or whether the pause will lift.

When the program was last active, MOZAIK ran two distinct tracks that applicants should prepare for separately. The Future Art Awards were themed, open-call competitions (past themes: 'Woman. Life. Freedom,' 'The Digital Awakening,' 'Ecosystem X,' 'Re-imagining Democracy') aimed at individual artists and writers responding to a specific prompt — competitive applicants tailored new or adaptable work directly to the announced theme rather than submitting generic portfolios. The Flow Grants / Artist Relief Award track functioned more like ongoing direct support to individual creative practitioners, with many recipients (e.g., J Moore, K He, S Queen) receiving multiple awards of $1,000-$5,000 over successive grant cycles — suggesting relationship continuity mattered more than one-off applications.

For organizations rather than individuals, the anchor relationships in the data (Sima Studios, Cinema Without Borders Foundation) both involved multi-grant, multi-year support tied to specific productions or general operating need, and both are explicitly framed around the foundation's 'New Economy' and participatory-governance language — proposals that spoke to disruptive, catalytic, or community-directed models of philanthropy (rather than conventional program grants) appear to have resonated. Any future application should mirror that language and emphasize community nomination or peer endorsement, which is core to MOZAIK's stated participatory-grantmaking identity.