Reissa Foundation

The Reissa Foundation operates as a high-trust, invitation-only family foundation that selects grantees through relationship-driven discovery rather than competitive applications. Born in 2016 from the legacy of the RGK Foundation — which awarded $133 million across 3,500+ grants over 50 years — Reissa is governed by the Kozmetsky grandchildren (the Scott family: Laila Scott as Board Chair, M. Jordan Scott as President, Suzanne Scott as Secretary/Treasurer, and directors Caitlin Scott and Bethany Herwegh). No officer draws compensation, reflecting the deeply personal, mission-driven character of this foundation.

The foundation's grantmaking philosophy centers on three principles: collaborative community engagement (working through established funder networks rather than independently scouting grantees); catalytic early-stage funding (seeding pilots, emerging programs, and advocacy infrastructure); and trust-based philanthropy (reducing administrative burden on grantees and committing to multi-year relationships). All grantees are identified through the foundation's own community scanning and network participation — not through proposals.

Reissa organizes its giving around four programs: LA County Community Well-Being (underprivileged and foster children in LA County, with a strong systems-change orientation); LA County Dual System Youth (crossover youth caught between child welfare and juvenile justice systems); Reissa Texas (currently focused on affordable housing as an upstream prevention strategy in Austin/Travis County); and Urgent Community Needs (occasional emergency grants nationwide).

For organizations seeking Reissa support, the pathway is not a proposal — it is a relationship. The foundation is a member of Southern California Grantmakers (SCG), which is also its second-largest grantee ($1.11M cumulative). SCG convenings and collaborative structures like Home for Good LA and Invest in Kids LA are where Reissa's board engages with the nonprofit ecosystem. In Texas, Reissa's board members are embedded in Austin's child welfare and housing coalitions.

Grantee relationships are typically multi-year: among the top 50 grantees in the database, the average grant count per recipient is 3.6, and 34 of 50 received four or more separate grants. The foundation invests in long-term partnerships, not one-time awards. First engagements almost universally emerge from network visibility, not cold contact.

The Reissa Foundation has distributed between $3.41M and $4.35M annually in total giving over FY2019–FY2023. Grants paid (direct cash disbursements) ranged from $2.50M (FY2019) to $3.26M (FY2022), with FY2023 showing $3.05M in grants paid and $3.99M in total giving. FY2024 financials show $66.4M in assets and $1.89M in total revenue, but grants paid have not yet been reported. Assets have declined modestly from a FY2021 peak of $75.1M, reflecting distribution of principal; net investment income has ranged from $1.38M (FY2022) to $13.6M (FY2021, an anomalous year).

Database analysis of 407 recorded grants yields an average grant of $31,085 and a median typical grant size of $20,000. However, the distribution is wide and right-skewed: the single largest relationship is $1.19M (Chicago Community Foundation, Re: Charitable Fund); the top five cumulative grantees have each received over $250,000. At the other end, routine event sponsorships and one-time emergency grants fall in the $2,500–$10,000 range.

By geography: California accounts for 255 of 407 grants (63%), concentrated in Los Angeles County. Texas accounts for 117 grants (29%), primarily in Austin. The remaining 35 grants span New York (9), Washington DC (8), Illinois (3), Virginia (3), Georgia (2), Nevada (2), and Pennsylvania (2). This 63/29 CA/TX split precisely mirrors the foundation's two named geographic programs.

By program area: Child welfare and foster care dominate, comprising roughly 70% of grantmaking by dollar volume. Sub-themes include: crossover/dual-system youth, reentry and post-conviction justice (USC's Post Conviction Justice Project, $729,900; Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent, $170,000), African American maternal and infant mortality ($340,000+ across multiple grantees), rapid rehousing and affordable housing, gun violence prevention (Everytown, $574,000), and civic journalism (Texas Tribune, $100,000).

Grant size tends to grow with relationship depth: top grantees that received four or more grants average higher per-grant amounts than those receiving one or two. First-time entry points typically fall in the $20,000–$75,000 range.

The Reissa Foundation is compared below to five peers with comparable asset bases (all approximately $66.1M–$66.5M), all classified under NTEE category T20 (Philanthropy & Grantmaking). Asset data is drawn from the most recent available year per foundation.

Among this peer set, Reissa is the most programmatically transparent and geographically specific. Its four peer foundations without websites — Renwick, Laloo Vision, Westmeath, and Janes Trust — maintain minimal public profiles, with no disclosed program areas or grantmaking breakdowns available in public databases. The Crimson Lion Foundation (crimsonlion.org) is the only peer with a public website and maintains an invitation-based process similar to Reissa's. At $66.4M in assets and $3–$4.4M in annual giving, Reissa deploys a payout ratio of roughly 4.5–6.5% annually, in line with the federal minimum excise tax for private foundations. Its commitment to named geographic programs and funder collaborative membership makes it considerably more accessible — at least in principle — than its more opaque peers in this asset tier.

No major press releases or public announcements have been identified for 2025 or 2026. The foundation does not issue press releases and maintains a low media profile consistent with its character as a private family foundation.

The most significant recent development is the Reissa Texas strategic pivot: the program's website now describes affordable housing as its primary prevention strategy for reducing child welfare involvement, organized around three pillars — Advocacy, Development and Financing, and Supportive Services. This represents a narrowing from broader foster care services toward upstream housing interventions, and is the clearest signal of a priority shift available in the foundation's public record.

Recent grantees disclosed on the foundation's program pages include: Youth and Family Alliance ($200,000 through December 2024, Works III Initiative); Upbring ($30,000 through October 2025, BeReal Program); Travis County Parks Foundation ($25,000 through August 2025, Ranchland to Parkland Sponsorship); Southern California Grantmakers ($25,000 through August 2025, Center for Strategic Partnerships); Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches ($25,000 through December 2024, African American Infant and Maternal Mortality Project); and Southern California Grantmakers ($2,500 through December 2024, Family Philanthropy Conference).

The board remains stable: Laila Scott serves as Board Chair, M. Jordan Scott as President/Director, and Suzanne Scott as Secretary/Treasurer — all unpaid. The InfluenceWatch profile was last updated November 2025, confirming active operations. No leadership transitions have been publicly reported.

The most important thing to understand about the Reissa Foundation is that the term 'application' does not apply in the conventional sense. The foundation explicitly states it does not accept unsolicited grant proposals — there is no portal, no LOI template, no deadline. The contact page on reissa.org restates this without ambiguity: 'At this time, Reissa Foundation is not accepting unsolicited grant requests.' A cold proposal or email inquiry is unlikely to yield results and risks signaling organizational misalignment.

Primary access strategy — California: Join Southern California Grantmakers (SCG) as a member organization and participate actively in SCG convenings, especially events hosted through the Center for Strategic Partnerships and the Family Philanthropy Conference. Reissa is a dues-paying SCG member and has directed $1.11M to SCG programs, making this the single most credible network channel to foundation visibility. Similarly, visibility within the Home for Good LA and Invest in Kids LA funders collaboratives positions organizations where Reissa's board is known to scan the field.

Primary access strategy — Texas: For Austin-based organizations, the entry point is Travis County child welfare, housing, and youth justice coalitions. Reissa Texas board members Laila Scott and Jordan Scott operate in Austin and identify grantees through local network presence. Active participation in coalitions that intersect with the foundation's three housing pillars — advocacy, development/financing, and supportive services — is the most practical pathway.

Alignment language: Use Reissa's own vocabulary when describing your work: 'crossover youth,' 'dual-system youth,' 'systems change,' 'catalytic funding,' 'community-based grantmaking,' 'upstream prevention,' and 'racial equity.' The Texas program explicitly frames affordable housing as a 'prevention strategy for child welfare involvement' — this upstream, root-cause framing is consistent across both programs and should be mirrored in any eventual narrative.

Grant size calibration: First-time engagements in the database typically appear in the $20,000–$75,000 range. Multi-year relationships grow to $100,000–$225,000. Infrastructure-level intermediaries ($500,000+) are reserved for established intermediary vehicles. Set expectations accordingly.

Timing: There is no known public review cycle or fiscal deadline. The invitation-only model means timing is driven entirely by the foundation's internal calendar. Focus all energy on network presence and credibility-building rather than deadline tracking.