Ploughshares Foundation

The Ploughshares Foundation (EIN: 36-3739577) is a private family foundation established in June 1991 and governed by three members of the Ephraim family: Donald M. Ephraim (North Palm Beach, FL), David M. Ephraim (Chicago, IL), and Eliot S. Ephraim (Chicago, IL). All three serve as Officers and Directors with zero compensation; the Northern Trust Company manages the investment portfolio. With $70.8 million in assets and $3.5 million in annual giving distributed across roughly 367 grants, this is a mid-sized private foundation operating without dedicated program staff or a public-facing website.

Critical naming alert: Do not confuse this foundation with Ploughshares Fund (EIN: 94-2764520), a San Francisco-based nuclear disarmament organization whose website is ploughshares.org. The two organizations are entirely unrelated — different missions, different sectors, different leadership, different states. Most web searches for 'Ploughshares Foundation' return information about Ploughshares Fund. Any applicant who submits to ploughshares.org is applying to the wrong organization.

The giving philosophy reflects an engaged family philanthropy with strong humanitarian instincts and deep Boston-area community roots. Despite the Chicago mailing address, approximately 44% of all tracked grants flow to Massachusetts organizations — particularly in Cambridge, Brookline, and greater Boston — with a secondary concentration in coastal Maine. This geographic pattern strongly suggests that at least some family members have significant personal and civic ties to the greater Boston region.

Grant recipients cluster into three tiers: (1) major global humanitarian organizations — Partners in Health, Doctors Without Borders, IRC, Mercy Corps, Direct Relief — that receive the largest multi-year gifts; (2) national social justice and advocacy organizations — AFSC, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Planned Parenthood, Equal Justice Initiative — that receive mid-tier consistent support; and (3) local Boston-area community organizations — Greater Boston Food Bank, Cambridge Community Foundation, Greater Boston Legal Services, WBUR Radio, First Parish Cambridge — that receive smaller but highly reliable annual grants.

The foundation is demonstrably crisis-responsive: grantee purpose language over the 3-year tracked period reveals consistent engagement with Gaza/Israel, Ukraine, Haiti, Turkey/Syria earthquake, and US-Mexico border humanitarian needs. Alignment with active humanitarian emergencies — especially those already in the foundation's giving record — is a strong differentiator. First-time applicants should prioritize obtaining a warm introduction. With zero administrative staff and family decision-making, relationship pathways through the Lenny Zakim Fund network, Cambridge civic leadership, Unitarian/Quaker organizations, or Jewish philanthropic circles are far more effective than cold applications.

The Ploughshares Foundation awarded $3,508,899 across approximately 367 grants in fiscal year 2024, the highest annual total in the foundation's recorded history. Annual giving has grown steadily over more than a decade: from $2.28M (2011) to $2.35M (2012), $2.69M (2015), $3.13M (2019), $3.24M (2021), $3.37M (2022), $3.45M (2023), and $3.51M (2024) — a 54% increase over 13 years. Assets track investment markets, ranging from $45M (2011) to a 2021 peak of $72.7M, dipping to $55.5M in the 2022 downturn, and recovering to $70.8M by 2024. Revenue is entirely investment-based — no contributions or donations are received — meaning giving levels are structurally tied to portfolio performance.

Grant size analysis reveals a strongly right-skewed distribution: the average grant is $9,125 while the median is approximately $5,000, indicating a small number of large strategic gifts sitting above a high volume of community grants in the $1,000-$10,000 range. The documented range is $500 to $100,000.

Top-tier annual gifts (estimated from 3-year aggregate totals): - Partners in Health: ~$100,000/year (highest single recipient) - Doctors Without Borders: ~$97,000/year - Lenny Zakim Fund (Boston): ~$75,000/year - International Rescue Committee: ~$70,000/year - Boston Foundation: ~$67,000/year - Direct Relief International: ~$63,000/year - Unitarian Universalist Service Committee: ~$60,000/year - Earlham College: ~$60,000/year

Estimated program area breakdown by dollar value: - International humanitarian and disaster relief: ~35% - Boston/local community organizations: ~20% - Social justice, human rights, civil liberties: ~15% - Environment and conservation (esp. New England): ~10% - Education and scholarships: ~10% - Arts and culture: ~5% - Reproductive rights and healthcare: ~5%

Geographic distribution by grant count (1,117 total tracked): - Massachusetts: 490 grants (44%) — concentrated in Cambridge, Brookline, greater Boston - New York: 126 (11%) — primarily national organizations headquartered in NYC - Washington, DC: 110 (10%) — national advocacy organizations with DC offices - California: 102 (9%) - Maine: 71 (6%) — land trusts and coastal conservation - Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Maryland: remaining grants

Every tracked top-50 grantee shows exactly 3 grants over the 3-year period, indicating annual grant cycles with strong preference for repeat multi-year partnerships. Breaking into this portfolio requires patient relationship-building followed by a disciplined multi-year stewardship strategy.

The table below compares the Ploughshares Foundation (Ephraim family, Chicago) to four peer private foundations of comparable size and overlapping focus areas. Asset and giving figures for peer foundations are drawn from publicly filed 990 data where available.

The Ploughshares Foundation occupies a middle tier among Boston-area private foundations by asset size, with the Barr Foundation — its closest geographic peer — having roughly five times the assets and far more structured program infrastructure with formal LOI requirements. What distinguishes Ploughshares from its peer set is the combination of a high volume of small community grants (median $5,000) alongside a concentrated set of large strategic humanitarian relationships (top grantees at $60,000-$100,000/year). The Hyams Foundation offers the closest analog in terms of Greater Boston community focus, but is narrower geographically and doesn't have Ploughshares' international humanitarian footprint. Organizations that are simultaneously funded by Hyams (Boston social justice) and IRC or Partners in Health (international relief) are likely natural fits for Ploughshares given its blended portfolio. The entirely written, no-portal application process is more typical of smaller family foundations, suggesting the Ephraim family exercises highly personal discretion despite the foundation's $70M asset base.

The Ploughshares Foundation operates without any public communications infrastructure — no press releases, no website, no annual reports, no newsletter. Recent activity must therefore be reconstructed entirely from IRS 990-PF filings and grantee purpose statement language.

2023-2024 Gaza crisis response: The most significant documented recent activity was a substantial humanitarian response to the Gaza and Israel conflict. Grantee purpose language in the 2023 990 shows restricted grants specifically for Gaza and Israel work: Doctors Without Borders received $75,000 'for humanitarian programs for refugees and IDPs including aid to Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel'; AFSC received $30,000 'for relief/aid to Israel and Gaza and peace initiatives in Israel/Gaza'; Amnesty International received funding to 'protect human rights in Gaza and to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia'; and Mercy Corps, IRC, and World Central Kitchen also received Gaza-designated grants. This represents one of the largest single-crisis response waves in the tracked grant record.

2022-2023 Ukraine response: The foundation maintained active Ukraine aid giving across multiple grantees — IRC, Americares, GlobalGiving, World Central Kitchen, and Catholic Relief Services all received grants designated for Ukrainian family relief.

Financial recovery: After assets dipped to $55.5M in fiscal year 2022 (reflecting market conditions), the portfolio recovered to $63.3M in 2023 and $70.8M in 2024. Annual giving remained stable through the downturn, suggesting the Ephraim family does not make dramatic adjustments to grant volume based on short-term portfolio performance.

Leadership stability: No leadership changes were identified. All three Ephraim family members remain as Officers and Directors, all with zero compensation. The Northern Trust Company continues as investment manager. The foundation's giving patterns show no indication of generational transition or strategic restructuring.

The single most important tip: Do not submit to ploughshares.org. That website belongs to Ploughshares Fund (EIN: 94-2764520), a nuclear disarmament organization in San Francisco with no connection to this foundation. The Ploughshares Foundation (EIN: 36-3739577) has no public website and no online portal. Applications are submitted by mail only.

Confirmed application requirements (from foundation's official instructions on file): - Written narrative describing your organization - Specific grant amount requested and detailed description of intended use - Copy of your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter - Copy of your most recently filed IRS Form 990 - Mail to: Ploughshares Foundation, 108 W Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60654-5206 | Phone: (312) 321-9700

Optimal mission alignment. Your proposal has the strongest success probability if it falls into at least one of these categories, ranked by giving volume: (1) international humanitarian relief in active crisis zones — Gaza, Middle East, Haiti, Central America, Ukraine, Afghanistan all documented; (2) established Boston/Cambridge community service organizations serving food security, legal aid, domestic violence, or economic opportunity; (3) Maine coastal conservation and environmental land protection; (4) Quaker, Unitarian Universalist, or Jewish communal organizations with social justice programming; (5) student scholarships at small liberal arts colleges (Earlham College and Mills College are top-ranked grantees).

Grant ask sizing. Request between $15,000 and $50,000 for a first-time application. Partners in Health and Doctors Without Borders receive ~$100,000/year but those relationships span decades. A specific project request at $25,000 is a strategic entry point — it matches the median range for mid-tier grantees and signals realistic expectations without leaving money on the table.

Timing. No formal grant cycles or deadlines are published. As a private family foundation, decisions likely occur at annual or semi-annual board meetings. Submit in early fall (September-October) or early spring (January-February) to align with typical private foundation review rhythms.

What disqualifies an application: Overhead-only funding requests, academic institution indirect costs, book or dissertation research, one-time events, or purely artistic projects without social justice framing are all unlikely to succeed based on the grantee record.