Noah Rose Foundation

Noah Rose Foundation is a small, family-run private foundation based in Santa Monica, CA, with just under $6.0M in assets and no paid staff — President Michelle Adams and Treasurer Jesse Adams, both unpaid, appear to be the sole decision-makers. There is no public application portal, RFP page, or grants website (the domain on file, noahrose.org, actually belongs to an unrelated musician and is not the foundation's site). This points to a trustee-directed, relationship-based giving model rather than a competitive open cycle: the foundation selects causes it already has personal exposure to and writes checks directly, largely without soliciting unsolicited proposals.

Grantee history bears this out. The 13 grants recorded in FY2023 (totaling $241,415) span children's health infrastructure, bee/pollinator conservation, animal rescue, underprivileged-youth summer camps, cancer research, climate awareness, social media safety, and local Santa Monica youth programs — a scattershot portfolio typical of a founder's personal interests rather than a defined program area. The one outlier, a $100,000 gift to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a children's infusion center, suggests the trustees are capable of a large, one-time commitment when a cause resonates personally, but this is not a recurring grant size to expect.

For first-time applicants, the practical implication is: do not treat this as an open RFP funder. Instead, look for an organic connection — a Santa Monica/West LA nonprofit, a bee/pollinator or environmental education program, a pediatric health or cancer research cause, or a youth-serving organization (camps, after-school, Boys & Girls Clubs-style programming) is far more likely to align than a cold, generic proposal. Given the unpaid, two-person governance structure, expect any engagement to start informally — a short letter or email introduction to the foundation's registered Santa Monica address (3019 Ocean Park Blvd, Ste 179) is more realistic than a formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline, and there is no evidence of site visits or multi-stage due diligence given the foundation's size and volunteer leadership.

FY2023 IRS data (the most complete grant-level detail available) shows 13 grants totaling $241,415, averaging $18,570 per grant, with a wide range from $1,813 (Little Dolphins By The Sea, preschool scholarships) to $100,000 (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, children's infusion center). Excluding that single outlier, the typical grant clusters much lower — $2,500 to $50,000 — with a median closer to $5,000-$10,000. FY2024 web-sourced data (Grantable/ProPublica) shows 11 grants totaling roughly $168,000, averaging about $15,000, confirming the foundation operates in the same low-five-figure-and-under range in most years.

By cause area, FY2023 dollars break down roughly as: children's/medical health 46% ($110,000, driven by the RWJF infusion-center gift and Mayo Clinic cancer research), animal welfare/conservation 31% ($76,133, Bee Girl + Best Friends Animal Society), youth/camps 12% ($30,169, Happy Trails, Rad Camp, After-School All-Stars, Little Dolphins), and smaller allocations to climate ($5,150), social media safety ($5,000), and disease-specific research ($8,150 combined for Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and Metavivor). In FY2024, the pattern shifts slightly toward local education, with a new $25,000 grant to Santa Monica Education Foundation and continued, larger support for Bee Girl Organization ($50,000) and Happy Trails for Kids (up to $34,100 from $25,000 the prior year) — suggesting Bee Girl and Happy Trails are becoming anchor, multi-year relationships rather than one-off gifts.

Geographically, California received 7 of 13 grants in FY2023 (54% of grant count) and roughly 45% of FY2024 dollars across 9 states total (also touching CT, DC, MD, MN, NJ, OR) — a hometown-weighted but not exclusively local funder. Total giving has grown unevenly since the foundation's 2021 launch: $9,563 (2021) → $54,120 (2022) → $281,104 (2023) → ~$168,000 (2024), against assets that grew from $5.0M (2021) to $5.98M (2024) despite a $523K investment loss in 2022 and a slightly negative revenue year in 2023.

Noah Rose Foundation sits among a cluster of similarly asset-sized ($5.97M-$5.98M) private family foundations nationally classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking. None of these peers, including Noah Rose, appear to run a public application process — this is a common pattern at this asset tier, where foundations are essentially donor-directed vehicles with no program staff.

Noah Rose is distinguishable from this peer set mainly by its transparency: unlike the peers (none of which have public websites in Granted's data), Noah Rose's grant-level detail is visible via its 990-PF filings, giving applicants an actual roadmap of favored causes and dollar ranges — a meaningful edge over peers where even that level of insight is unavailable.

There is no dedicated press or news trail for Noah Rose Foundation — it is a small, unstaffed family foundation that does not appear to issue announcements, and the website listed in public records (noahrose.org) actually belongs to an unrelated musician, not the foundation, so it should not be used for outreach or research. The most current available signal is the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF activity: total assets grew to $5,976,528 (up from $4,655,487 in FY2023) on $2,934,532 in revenue, while charitable disbursements were roughly $167,784-$168,000 across 11 grants, down from $241,415 across 13 grants in FY2023.

The clearest emerging pattern in FY2024 is the addition of Santa Monica Education Foundation as a new $25,000 recipient — a notable pivot toward hyper-local public education funding that wasn't present in the FY2023 grant list — alongside apparent multi-year deepening of support for Bee Girl Organization (steady at $50,000) and Happy Trails for Kids (up from $25,000 to roughly $34,100). No leadership changes have been reported; Michelle Adams (President) and Jesse Adams (Treasurer) remain the only listed officers, both unpaid, consistent with the foundation's status since its 2022 IRS ruling date. Given the lack of any public communications channel, prospective applicants should treat this foundation as operating essentially below the radar, with intelligence limited to what 990 filings reveal one to two years after the fact.

Because Noah Rose Foundation has no public grants website, RFP calendar, or listed contact email, the standard LOI-then-full-proposal playbook does not apply here — treat this as a relationship-first funder. Practical guidance:

• Skip the listed website. noahrose.org is an unrelated musician's personal site; do not submit anything there or reference it in outreach, as it signals you haven't verified the funder.
• Lead with geographic and mission fit. Santa Monica/West LA nonprofits, and organizations working in pediatric health, animal/pollinator conservation, youth summer camps, or local public education, match the strongest and most recurring parts of the grant history (Bee Girl Organization at $50K in both FY2023 and FY2024, Happy Trails for Kids growing from $25K to $34K, Santa Monica Education Foundation newly added at $25K).
• Right-size the ask. Outside the one $100,000 outlier gift (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, FY2023), typical grants run $1,800-$50,000, averaging $15,000-$19,000. Requesting $10K-$25K aligns with the foundation's comfort zone; six-figure asks are the exception, not the rule.
• Approach by mail or warm introduction, not a portal. Address correspondence to the foundation's registered address (3019 Ocean Park Blvd, Ste 179, Santa Monica, CA 90405) and, where possible, route through a personal connection to Michelle or Jesse Adams — small unstaffed family foundations like this one convert almost exclusively through trustee relationships rather than cold applications.
• Time outreach to their fiscal year. Grant totals have varied significantly year to year ($9.6K in 2021 to $281K in 2023 to ~$168K in 2024), suggesting disbursement decisions are made in batches, likely tied to investment performance and personal review rather than a fixed calendar — an early-year inquiry (Q1) gives the best chance of being considered before the year's giving budget is allocated.
• Avoid generic proposals. With no program officer to screen submissions, a proposal that doesn't clearly map to one of the foundation's demonstrated interest areas (children's health, conservation/bees, youth camps, cancer research, local education) is unlikely to get traction — specificity and a clear one-page ask work better than a lengthy formal application.
• Common mistake to avoid: assuming this is a large institutional funder because of the RWJF headline gift. The typical check size is far smaller, and treating it as a major-grants program with formal review stages will misalign expectations.