Nikoh Foundation

Nikoh Foundation is a small, closely-held family foundation run out of Northbrook, Illinois by the Hokin family (Debra, Joseph, Gary and Samuel Hokin) alongside Treasurer Eugene B. Levin — all five officers draw an identical $8,000 stipend, a hallmark of a hands-on family board rather than a staffed institution. The foundation's own website is unambiguous: it accepts applications by invitation only, and there is no public LOI portal, RFP, or grants-page URL in its IRS or web profile. This means unsolicited outreach is almost certainly futile; the realistic path in is a warm introduction through the family's existing network in Chicago-area Jewish philanthropy or cancer research. The grantee list bears this out — of 88 grants totaling $1,176,194, virtually every recipient is either a nationally recognized cancer-research institution (Memorial Sloan Kettering, Israel Cancer Research Fund, American Technion Society, Leukemia Research Foundation) or a Jewish communal/religious organization (Jewish United Fund, Jewish National Fund, Mishkan Chicago, Vanderbilt Hillel, 18Doors). First-time applicants should not expect a competitive open cycle; instead, they should understand this as relationship-driven, legacy-honoring giving — the foundation was established in 2013 explicitly to 'honor' the donor's legacy, and its giving pattern (repeat multi-year support to the same ~40 organizations, per the grantee stats showing most recipients received grants across 2 filing years) confirms it renews relationships rather than seeking new grantees through open competition. Board composition (all Hokin/Levin family) suggests decisions are made informally at the family level rather than through a formal program-officer review process. Organizations already serving cancer patients/research or Jewish community life in Illinois, New York, or the broader network cities (Atlanta, Nashville) have the best fit; groups outside those two verticals, or without an existing relationship to a board member, should not prioritize this funder.

Nikoh Foundation's grantee data shows 88 recorded grants totaling $1,176,194 at an average of $13,366 per grant, while the foundation's own typical-grant-size metadata (25 grants analyzed) shows a median of $15,000, a mean of $22,250, and a range from $500 to $55,000 — indicating a small number of larger five-figure lead gifts alongside many sub-$1,000 token or program-restricted gifts. The largest known grantees are Jewish National Fund ($113,600 across 2 grants, for medical-center construction), Israel Cancer Research Fund ($110,371), and three organizations tied at $100,000 each — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Leukemia Research Foundation, and American Friends of Hebrew University — all for cancer research. By cause, cancer/medical research accounts for roughly $475,000+ (about 40%) of tracked grantee dollars, with Jewish religious/communal organizations (Jewish United Fund, Mishkan Chicago, Chicago Chesed Fund, Jewish Fertility Foundation, Bbyo, 18Doors) representing another large share. Geographically, Illinois dominates recipient count (37 of 88 grants), followed by Georgia (19) and New York (10), reflecting the board's Chicago base plus an apparent Atlanta-area family or philanthropic connection. Total annual giving has been remarkably stable: $625,343 (FY2020), $668,691 (FY2021), $681,867 (FY2022), $633,608 (FY2023), against total assets holding steady near $8.7-9.8M across the same period — this is a foundation distributing income (investment returns of $267K-$807K/year) rather than drawing down principal or growing rapidly. Officer compensation has held flat at $40,000/year (split five ways, $8,000 each) for over a decade, another sign of a stable, low-overhead family operation rather than an expanding institution.

Nikoh sits in a tightly clustered peer set of small, single-family private foundations all holding almost exactly $9.47-9.48M in assets — likely a data-source artifact of foundations near the same asset-reporting threshold rather than true financial similarity, but it usefully illustrates that Nikoh's scale is typical of a first- or second-generation family foundation rather than an institutional grantmaker. Unlike most of its peers, which have no public website or application information on record, Nikoh has published an explicit invitation-only policy, making it marginally more transparent about process even though it is equally closed to cold outreach. Grant seekers should treat all six of these as low-probability, relationship-dependent targets rather than open-competition funders.

The most recent verifiable filing is Nikoh Foundation's Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2024, filed November 18, 2025, per ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. It reported total revenue of $1,225,222 (largely investment gains: $901,167 from asset sales and $287,282 in dividends) against expenses of $671,634, with charitable disbursements making up 92.3% of that spending. Total assets stood at $9,477,325, up slightly from $8,740,000 the prior year, driven by strong investment performance rather than new contributions (the foundation has received $0 in outside contributions every year since 2015, per its financial history, and its last major contribution was a one-time $10,000,000 gift in 2014 that established the fund's current asset base). No leadership changes were found — the same five family officers (Debra M. Hokin, Joseph A. Hokin, Gary S. Hokin, Samuel C. Hokin, and Eugene B. Levin) have held their roles at flat $8,000 compensation across all years of available data. No new program announcements, press releases, or named initiatives were found on the foundation's website or in general web search — this remains a low-public-profile, invitation-only family foundation with no marketing or communications presence beyond its single-page website and a general contact email (hello@nikohfoundation.org). Grant seekers should not expect a news cycle or annual report to monitor; the 990-PF filing (typically filed in the fall for the prior fiscal year) is the only reliable public signal of activity.

Because Nikoh Foundation's website states outright that it 'only accepts applications by invitation,' the single most important tip is: do not submit a cold LOI, cover letter, or full proposal — it will not be reviewed and may mark an organization as not understanding the funder's process. There is no listed grants portal, RFP calendar, or application-instructions field (the database record for application_instructions is explicitly empty), confirming there is no formal published cycle to time a submission around. The realistic path to funding is relationship-based: organizations serving cancer research/patient support or Jewish communal/religious life — especially those with a presence in Chicago's North Shore (where the foundation is based), Atlanta, or the broader Jewish federation network — should seek warm introductions through board members, shared donors, or peer organizations already on the grantee list (e.g., Jewish United Fund, American Technion Society, Vanderbilt Hillel). When an introduction does lead to a conversation, use alignment language that mirrors the grantee purposes on file — phrases like 'cancer research,' 'assistance for individuals with disabilities,' 'Jewish leadership development,' and 'social services' recur across the recipient list, suggesting the family responds to concrete, mission-specific asks rather than broad operating-support pitches. A common mistake would be treating this like a competitive institutional funder with published criteria; instead, treat it as personal philanthropy channeled through a private foundation vehicle, where trust and prior relationship carry more weight than a polished grant application. Given the foundation's modest, stable giving level (~$620K-$680K/year spread across dozens of grants, many under $1,000), first asks should be modest and specific — a $5,000-$25,000 program-restricted request is far more consistent with observed grant sizes than a large capital campaign ask, unless the organization can point to precedent like the Jewish National Fund's $113,600 medical-center gift. Because five family members share identical $8,000 compensation and no professional program staff appear in the 990 data, any correspondence should go to a named family member or the general inbox (hello@nikohfoundation.org) rather than a 'grants department,' and should be concise, given the likely absence of dedicated grant-review staff to read lengthy materials.