Rice Family Foundation

The Rice Family Foundation, founded in 1989 by the Hart Rice family, is a classic relationship-driven private foundation that operates on a strict invitation-only basis. Co-Presidents Edward Hart Rice — a Virginia-based stockbroker and financier — and Eve Hart Rice — a Westchester County psychiatrist and author — lead the foundation alongside Vice Presidents Timothy Mattison and Nancy A. Rice. All four officers serve without compensation, underscoring the foundation's character as a family-directed giving vehicle rather than a professionalized grantmaking institution.

The foundation's operating philosophy centers on selectivity and sustained commitment. Of the 275 grants tracked, the overwhelming majority went to organizations that received multiple grants across multiple years. WETA received 5 grants totaling $2.05M; Planned Parenthood Federation of America received 4 grants totaling $1.6M; Center for Reproductive Rights received 5 grants totaling $1.5M. This is not a foundation that frequently experiments with new grantees.

Organizations the foundation favors share several identifiable characteristics: they are established, often nationally prominent nonprofits with proven track records; they work in areas aligned with the board's documented personal and professional values — reproductive rights, civil liberties, environmental protection, arts and cultural institutions, public media, and civic education; and they are primarily based in New York, Virginia, or Washington DC, the geographies where board members live and maintain professional networks.

First-time applicants should understand the operational reality plainly. There is no public-facing application portal, no published grant cycle, and no LOI process. The foundation's website (rice.org) is not publicly accessible to grant seekers. The contact address routes through an accounting firm — c/o Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC, 100 Jericho Quadrangle, Suite 342, Jericho, NY 11753 — rather than a dedicated grants staff office. This architecture means the path to a grant runs through authentic board relationships, not a standard submission pipeline.

The most realistic entry strategy for an organization not yet in the portfolio is to establish genuine connections with one or more board members through shared professional networks, board service at existing grantees, or relevant convenings in reproductive rights, civil liberties, or environmental advocacy. Organizations working in these three areas, based in New York or the Virginia-DC corridor, with track records at peer institutions already in the portfolio, are best positioned for eventual consideration.

Annual grants paid ranged from $2.39M (2012) to $4.70M (2019) across the available fiscal years, with an average of approximately $3.9M per year for 2011-2023. In fiscal year 2023, the foundation paid $4.05M in grants across approximately 95 awards. Total giving — which includes administrative disbursements beyond pure grants — has run $4.6-5.6M annually in recent years.

Asset growth has been dramatic and consequential. Total assets stood at $27-30M through the early 2010s, then jumped to $66.9M by fiscal year 2020 from $26.4M in fiscal year 2019 — a doubling in a single year. Assets have held at $63-67M through 2023, enabling a sustained giving floor of $4M+ annually. Net investment income was $1.35M in 2023, down from $2.46-2.81M in 2020-2021, reflecting broader market conditions.

The average grant across 275 tracked awards is $68,736. However, this figure is skewed by a small number of very large, multi-year commitments. In practice, grants to smaller community organizations run $10,000-25,000, while mid-range grants to established regional nonprofits fall in the $40,000-100,000 per-year range, and flagship grantees receive $200,000-600,000+ per individual award.

By thematic area (estimated from top 50 grantees, $18.9M total): - Reproductive rights and women's health: ~25% (Planned Parenthood x3 chapters $2.5M, Center for Reproductive Rights $1.5M, Women's Health Research at Yale $325K, Yale School of Nursing $100K) - Civil rights, democracy, and justice: ~20% (ACLU $500K, NAACP Legal Defense Fund $400K, Brennan Center $500K, Lawyers' Committee $500K, FCNL Education Fund $500K, Southern Coalition for Social Justice $100K) - Arts, culture, and museums: ~18% (American Museum of Natural History $1.09M, Metropolitan Museum $490K, NY Botanical Gardens $250K, NY Historical Society $325K, NY Public Library $165K, Historic Hudson Valley $75K) - Public media and journalism: ~14% (WETA $2.05M, WNET $400K, NY Public Radio $225K, Committee to Protect Journalists $270K, ProPublica $80K) - Environment and conservation: ~9% (NRDC $135K, Wildlife Conservation Society $145K, Earthjustice $80K, Westchester Land Trust $81K, Mianus River Gorge $60K) - Education: ~8% (Westchester Community College $560K, Yale programs x3 $275K, NYU $100K, Radford University $110K, George Mason University $100K) - Humanitarian: ~4% (Doctors Without Borders $1.35M, Americares $220K, World Central Kitchen $100K) - Local Westchester community: ~4% (Northern Westchester Hospital Foundation $212K, Mt Kisco Day Care $210K, Westchester Libraries $132K)

Geographically: New York dominates at 64% (176 of 275 grants), Virginia and DC each at ~10% (27 grants each), with Massachusetts, Washington State, North Carolina, and Georgia rounding out the portfolio.

The Rice Family Foundation sits within a cohort of mid-sized New York-area private foundations with progressive priorities and relationship-driven grantmaking. The table below compares it to four foundations with similar asset scale and giving philosophies (peer figures are approximate based on publicly available 990 and directory data).

Rice Family Foundation occupies a middle position within this cohort — large enough to make meaningful multi-year commitments ($200K-$500K+ per year to core grantees), but not so large that it operates with professional program staff or formal grant cycles. This makes it more relationship-dependent and less accessible than foundations like Hazen or Scherman, which at least offer a structured LOI entry point.

What most distinguishes Rice from many peers is its concentration in reproductive rights. While similar foundations spread giving more evenly across progressive causes, Rice has consistently directed approximately 25% of its portfolio to reproductive health and rights organizations — a sharper focus than most peers of this asset size. Its heavy investment in public media (WETA, WNET, NY Public Radio totaling ~$2.7M) also stands out as a more prominent category than seen among comparable funders.

No public press releases, announcements, or news coverage specific to the NY-based Rice Family Foundation (EIN 133542090) were found for 2025 or 2026. This is consistent with the foundation's documented posture: Inside Philanthropy's profile notes the foundation 'keeps a low profile' and does not maintain a publicly accessible website. The rice.org domain is protected by Cloudflare security and does not serve accessible public content.

The most recent verifiable financial data comes from fiscal year 2023: $4.05M in grants paid across approximately 95 awards, $5.26M in total giving, $63.8M in total assets, and $1.35M in net investment income.

No leadership changes have been publicly reported. All four officers — Edward Hart Rice (Co-President/Secretary), Eve Hart Rice (Co-President/Treasurer), Timothy Mattison (Vice President), and Nancy A. Rice (Vice President) — appear consistently across multiple years of IRS filings, suggesting governance stability. All serve without compensation.

The last significant structural change to the portfolio was the apparent doubling of foundation assets between fiscal year 2019 ($26.4M) and fiscal year 2020 ($66.9M), which materially increased the foundation's annual giving capacity. This event — likely an estate transfer or major gift — has not been publicly explained.

Grant seekers should note: 2025 search results for 'Rice Family Foundation' almost exclusively surface a different entity based in Hanover, PA (EIN 814690325, Utz Snacks family). That foundation's 2025 announcement of grants to 70 nonprofits is unrelated to the NY-based Rice Family Foundation covered in this report.

The single most important application tip for the Rice Family Foundation is that there is no application process available to organizations not already in the portfolio. The foundation's own documentation states it 'does not accept unsolicited applications' and 'operates on an invitation-only basis with a preselected network of grantees.' Any organization submitting a cold proposal by mail or email is unlikely to receive a response.

For organizations that are genuinely suited to this funder and seek eventual entry, the realistic approach requires board-level relationship development over an extended timeline:

• Identify shared networks: Edward Hart Rice maintains professional relationships in Virginia's financial community. Eve Hart Rice has documented connections to Yale, Westchester County nonprofits, and the psychiatric and bioethics community (The Hastings Center is a longtime grantee). Any authentic overlap with these networks is the starting point for a relationship.

• Cultivate connections through current grantees: Several portfolio organizations are themselves well-networked — Yale, WETA, American Museum of Natural History, Brennan Center for Justice, Westchester Community College, Northern Westchester Hospital Foundation. Shared board service, collaborative programming, or referrals from senior staff at these organizations carry real weight.

• Lead with general operating support framing: Every single tracked grant is coded 'GENERAL' or 'GENERAL SUPPORT.' Project-specific or restricted proposals have no precedent in this portfolio. If you receive an invitation, frame your request entirely around organizational capacity and mission — not a discrete program or deliverable.

• Do not mention the PA foundation: Given the name overlap, explicitly clarify which Rice Family Foundation you are addressing to avoid any confusion that could undermine credibility.

• Align language precisely: Use terminology consistent with the portfolio — 'reproductive justice,' 'civil rights,' 'conservation,' 'free press,' 'democratic institutions.' Organizations whose natural language maps to existing grantee descriptions are more likely to resonate.

• Budget for a long cultivation timeline: 12-24 months of genuine relationship development is a realistic minimum before any funding conversation is appropriate. This is a family foundation — rushing signals misalignment with how the foundation operates.