Newman Family Foundation

The Newman Family Foundation is a small, unstaffed, family-directed private foundation run entirely by Jonathan S. Newman (Executive Director/Director) and Naomi Newman (Director) from a Mercer Island, WA home address, with zero officer compensation reported in any filing year on record. Public disclosures and the foundation's own data flag it as 'preselected only' — it does not accept unsolicited applications, and no LOI process, portal, deadline, or application form exists. This is not a funder that responds to cold proposals; it is a funder that responds to relationships.

The grantee history makes the giving philosophy legible even without a published mission statement: of 99 tracked grants worth $1.61 million, the overwhelming majority support Jewish communal life, Jewish education, Holocaust remembrance, and Israel solidarity, concentrated in the Newmans' home community. Sixty-three of roughly 95 state-tagged grants went to Washington recipients (the Seattle/Mercer Island Jewish community specifically — Island Synagogue, Seattle Hebrew Academy, Hillel at the University of Washington, the Jewish Federation, the Stroum JCC), with a secondary cluster of 16 grants to New York-based national Jewish institutions (American Society for Technion, Hadassah, Jewish National Fund).

The typical relationship is recurring general support, not project funding: most top recipients show three or four grants apiece, consistent with annual renewal over consecutive years rather than one-time gifts. First-time applicants should understand that entry into this portfolio almost certainly runs through personal or communal introduction — a rabbi, a Federation contact, a shared board seat, or a mutual acquaintance — rather than a grant-writing process. Organizations serving the Seattle-area Jewish community, or national Jewish/Israel-focused institutions with a Pacific Northwest or New York presence, fit the existing pattern most closely. Given that the asset base grew roughly five-fold between 2022 and 2023-2024, the foundation's future giving capacity may expand even as its closed, relationship-driven approach stays the same, making a patient, low-pressure introduction worth pursuing well before any funding ask.

Across the matched grant dataset (n=20), typical grant size ranges from $500 to $50,000 with a median of $5,000 and an average of $12,395 — but the fuller 99-grant grantee history (spanning multiple tax years and totaling $1,614,765, average $16,311 per grant) reveals a two-tier pattern. A concentrated core of roughly ten relationships accounts for the large majority of dollars: American Society for Technion leads at $292,500 across 3 grants (~$97,500 average), followed by Island Synagogue at $250,000/3 grants, Seattle Hebrew Academy at $230,000/4 grants (~$57,500 average), Brothers For Life at $106,000/4 grants, Hillel at the University of Washington at $105,000/4 grants, and the Holocaust Center for Humanity at $78,600/4 grants. Below this core sits a long tail of roughly 20 smaller, recurring 'loyalty' gifts of $500-$8,000 (Anti-Defamation League, National MS Society, Friendship Circle, and similar organizations), most also paid annually across 2-4 tracked years.

Geographically, Washington State dominates with 63 of ~95 state-tagged grants (about two-thirds), followed by New York (16), Oregon (5), Pennsylvania (5), California (4), and Michigan (2) — a footprint that mirrors the Seattle Jewish community plus national Jewish institutions headquartered on the East Coast.

On total giving trend, Form 990-PF data shows a clear growth trajectory: $202,106 (FY2019), $158,600 (FY2020, pandemic dip), $250,370 (FY2021), $443,203 (FY2022), $525,162 (FY2023), and $457,258 (FY2024, most recent available). Giving more than doubled between 2021 and 2023, tracking a parallel surge in net assets from roughly $1.8 million (2022) to $10.3-$11.1 million (2023-2024) — most plausibly a major one-time contribution or estate transfer into the corpus rather than organic investment growth alone. Virtually every grant purpose recorded is 'GENERAL SUPPORT,' occasionally paired with a specific initiative label (e.g., 'NATIONAL BOARD MATCHING CAMPAIGN' for Technion, 'SUPPORT JEWISH STUDENT LIFE' for Hillel), confirming a strong and consistent preference for unrestricted operating support over restricted program grants.

These five peers were surfaced purely on asset proximity (all within about $15,000 of Newman's $11.06M total across the peer set) and share the same broad 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, but none has public grantee, financial-trend, or application-process detail in the available data — a pattern typical of small, unstaffed private family foundations, which as a category rarely publish giving guidelines. What sets Newman apart within this asset band is transparency of intent by proxy: its 99-grant public grantee history gives outside researchers an unusually clear read on both its cause focus (Jewish communal and Israel-related giving) and its geographic footprint (WA/NY), something none of the five peers currently allow through public filings alone. Given the shared 'preselected only' norm across this foundation size class, grant seekers should expect similarly closed processes at the peer organizations unless direct outreach reveals otherwise.

No news specific to the Mercer Island, WA Newman Family Foundation (EIN 91-2003900) surfaced in 2025-2026 web searches; the organization has no active social media presence, no press office, and its own website (newmanfamilyfoundation.org) returned HTTP 403 to automated access on both its homepage and About page during this research pass, so no fresh statements could be pulled directly from the funder. Search results were instead dominated by unrelated, larger organizations with similar names — Newman's Own Foundation (Westport, CT), which in 2025-2026 launched the Indigenous Tomorrows Fund and grew its Food Justice for Kids Prize to $1.4 million, and the Robert and Judi Newman Family Foundation (Denver, CO), which gave $323,000 in 2025 — neither of which is affiliated with this funder.

The most current verifiable activity comes from the foundation's own Form 990-PF data: for the fiscal year ending in 2024, the foundation reported $210,867 in revenue (driven by dividends and asset sales), $470,850 in total expenses, and $457,258 in charitable disbursements (97.1% of expenses), against net assets of $11,060,533. This follows a FY2023 filing showing $525,162 in total giving against $10,289,446 in assets — together indicating that the foundation's giving has stabilized in the $450K-$525K range following its 2022-2023 asset surge, rather than continuing to climb. No leadership changes are evident; Jonathan S. Newman and Naomi Newman have held the same director/executive director roles across every filing year in the historical record, with no compensation reported in any year, consistent with a purely family-run operation.

This is a closed, preselected-only funder — the single most important tip is to not treat it like a standard grant prospect. There is no online application, LOI form, published deadline, program officer, or grants email in any public record (contact_email is blank; the only listed channels are a Mercer Island mailing address and the phone number 425-681-3083), and independent grant databases explicitly confirm the foundation 'does not accept unsolicited requests for funds.' Sending a cold, formal proposal packet is very unlikely to be read, let alone funded.

Instead, focus on relationship access. The grantee list shows the Newmans give almost exclusively to organizations already connected to the Seattle-area Jewish community (Island Synagogue, Seattle Hebrew Academy, Hillel at UW, the Jewish Federation, the Stroum JCC) or to national/international Jewish and Israel-related institutions with a New York anchor (American Society for Technion, Hadassah, Jewish National Fund). If your organization works in Jewish education, Holocaust remembrance, Israel solidarity, or general Jewish communal services — and especially if you have any presence in Washington State or New York — you are the closest fit to their existing pattern. Look for a warm path in: a rabbi, a Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle contact, a shared board member, or a donor who already has standing with the Newmans.

If no warm introduction is available, a short, personal, non-transactional letter mailed to Jonathan S. Newman, Executive Director, at 9097 N Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA 98040 — introducing the mission and inviting a conversation, without an attached formal proposal or a specific dollar ask — is a more appropriate first move than a standard application. Because every tracked grant purpose is labeled 'GENERAL SUPPORT,' any eventual funding conversation should be framed around unrestricted operating support rather than a specific program or capital request. Expect renewal-based, multi-year support once a relationship is established (most top grantees show 3-4 consecutive years of gifts), but also expect a long runway to first funding, since the foundation shows no pattern of adding new, unconnected organizations to its roster in the available grant history. Given the asset base's roughly five-fold growth between 2022 and 2023-2024, patience may be rewarded with a larger giving program in future years even though the access model itself is unlikely to change.