Richard And Susan Smith Family Foundation

The Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation operates as an engaged, multigenerational family philanthropic institution with a predominantly relationship-driven grantmaking model. Founded in 1970 by Richard A. and Susan F. Smith — who built their wealth through Harcourt General (formerly General Cinema) and the Neiman Marcus portfolio — the foundation has distributed over $276 million since 2004 across five defined program areas: Health, Medical Research, Education, Community Giving, and Jewish Giving. With $318 million in assets and annual giving of approximately $29 million as of fiscal year 2023, it ranks among New England's most significant family foundations.

Critically, four of five giving areas — Education, Health, Medical Research, and Jewish Giving — are invitation-only. The foundation conducts proactive research and builds relationships to identify organizations aligned with its strategic priorities; it does not wait for unsolicited proposals in these categories. For organizations working in healthcare access, biomedical research, education-to-employment pathways, or Jewish community services, the appropriate approach is to make the foundation aware of your work via a brief introduction through the Contact Us form at rssff.org and allow the relationship to develop organically.

The exception is Community Giving, which includes two open-application programs: Small Capital Grants ($25,000–$100,000) and Community Capital Grants ($250,000–$3 million). Small Capital Grants serve as the primary entry point for organizations new to the foundation. Applicants must serve Greater Boston (within Route 128) or one of seven Gateway Cities — Brockton, Chelsea, Fall River, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, or New Bedford — and carry annual operating budgets between $250,000 and $5 million, with preference for organizations under $3 million.

Pre-application consultation is not optional in practice — it is expected. Program staff explicitly encourages prospective applicants to schedule a 15-minute introductory call before submitting anything formal. This is cultural: the foundation wants to know who it is funding before a formal application arrives.

Trustees include members of the Smith, Berylson, Knez, and Block families — a second-generation family governance model that keeps grantmaking deeply personal. Executive Director Lynne Doblin leads the professional staff, supported by Senior Program Officers Shanna Shulman and Marjorie Ringrose. Susan Smith's legacy is honored through the Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers at Dana-Farber, which underscores the deep institutional ties that define this foundation's identity.

The foundation's total giving has grown substantially over the past decade, rising from $15.8 million in fiscal year 2012 to $29.4 million in fiscal year 2023 — an 86% increase. Grants paid (cash disbursements, distinct from pledges) track slightly lower due to multi-year commitments: $13.9 million in FY2018, $14.8 million in FY2020, $15.2 million in FY2021, and $18.3 million in FY2022. Assets grew from $228 million in FY2012 to $318 million in FY2023, with net investment income averaging $18–20 million annually.

Across 627 tracked grants totaling $63.6 million, the average award is approximately $101,400. However, grant size varies dramatically by program area:

• Small Capital Grants: $25,000–$100,000 for one-time capital expenses. Recent examples include $82,000 for a Catie's Closet distribution van, $36,028 for Boston Debate League technology and furniture, and $27,210 for Boston Youth Symphony equipment upgrades.
• Community Capital Grants: $250,000–$3 million for transformative capital projects. Only 2–3 awarded annually from 40+ LOIs. The $5 million Esplanade Association grant in 2023 and $2 million YMCA Cape Cod pledge in 2025 sit at the upper end of this capacity.
• Medical Research Excellence Awards: Five $400,000 three-year grants ($1.2 million per recipient) annually for junior faculty. Since 1992, 202 scientists have received a total of $46.1 million through this program, administered by Health Resources in Action.
• Education: Multi-year commitments ranging from $340,000 (Lawrence Public Schools, 1 grant) to $3.5 million across 22 grants to Harvard, $1.09 million to Milton Academy, and $817,904 to Bunker Hill Community College.
• Health: Boston Medical Center leads at $3.18 million across 8 grants; Brigham and Women's Hospital at $2.55 million (5 grants); Brockton Neighborhood Health Center at $1.5 million (4 grants); and South Boston Community Health Center at $967,500 (4 grants).
• Jewish Giving: Combined Jewish Philanthropies received $6.44 million across 12 grants — the single largest recipient relationship in the foundation's tracked history. Temple Israel received $369,800 across 15 grants.

Geographically, 91% of tracked grants (570 of 627) flow to Massachusetts-based organizations. Connecticut accounts for 18 grants — primarily multi-year research commitments to Yale University — with Rhode Island (9 grants), New York (6 grants), and Pennsylvania (6 grants) as smaller recipients. The foundation's I/O is almost entirely regional.

The Smith Family Foundation occupies a strategically distinct position among Boston-area philanthropies. It is large enough — $318 million in assets, $29 million in annual giving — to write $2–5 million transformative capital grants, yet maintains an accessible Small Capital Grants program for nonprofits with budgets as small as $250,000. This dual-track model is uncommon at this asset level.

Unlike Barr Foundation, which concentrates on climate transition and operates at 4x the asset scale, Smith's five-area model provides multiple thematic pathways into the same funder relationship. Compared to Cummings Foundation — which runs a structured, fully open competitive cycle broadly across Greater Boston — Smith rewards prior relationship-building and strategic alignment over volume of applicants. New Balance Foundation shares health-education overlap but focuses exclusively on childhood obesity and serves a more national portfolio. For Massachusetts nonprofits working in health equity, community capital projects, or biomedical research at Boston-area academic medical centers, the Smith Family Foundation is among the highest-priority regional funders to cultivate over a multi-year horizon.

In April 2025, the foundation made a high-profile $2 million pledge to the YMCA Cape Cod campaign — one of its more geographically expansive recent gifts — pushing total fundraising past $28 million toward a $35 million goal for a new Upper Cape facility. This signals that compelling capital projects in Eastern Massachusetts can attract Smith attention even outside the strict Gateway Cities framework.

In 2024, the foundation committed $4.5 million to TEAM UP for Children, funding statewide scale for a model that embeds social workers in pediatric primary care practices serving low-income families. This is one of the largest health program investments in recent years and reflects the Health team's interest in integrated, systems-level interventions rather than traditional clinic grants. The foundation also awarded the 2024 Richard A. Smith Prize to Dr. Andrew Kruse, continuing its annual tradition of honoring outstanding biomedical researchers.

In 2023, the Esplanade Association received a $5 million grant for the Charlesbank Landing project, one of the largest single grants in the foundation's recent history and a rare Cultural Vitality investment. Father Bill's & MainSpring received $1 million for homelessness services, and Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell received $1 million for a new teen center — both in the Community Giving category. The foundation also mourned the passing of trustee John G. Berylson (1953–2023), underscoring the deeply family-governed nature of the institution.

A 2025 structural change — consolidating Small Capital Grants to a single annual deadline and raising the maximum award amount — reflects ongoing institutional attention to program accessibility and efficiency.

The most important thing prospective applicants can do before anything else: contact the foundation directly. Every program page instructs applicants to reach out before submitting. For Small Capital Grants, schedule a 15-minute call with Faouzi Talabi via the Contact Us form at rssff.org. For Community Capital Grants, request consultation with Program Officer Amy Hampe ($146,000 compensation, indicating her senior operational role). This is not a formality — staff use these calls to screen for eligibility and fit before applications are drafted, saving time on both sides.

For Small Capital Grants, the January 28, 2026 deadline (5:00 p.m. ET) is firm and annual. The program received 100–200 applications in recent cycles, with approximately 10–15% selected. Since 2004, more than $13.2 million has been awarded to 285+ organizations — an average of about $46,000 per award. This suggests that mid-range requests ($40,000–$75,000) fit comfortably within the program's historic sweet spot.

Focus sharply on capital — the foundation is explicit that program support, website redesigns, database implementation, and recurring software costs are ineligible. Frame your ask around a specific, durable asset: a vehicle with mileage projections, equipment with a useful life estimate, or a specific facility improvement. Show that the capital item directly enables service delivery to economically disadvantaged populations in Greater Boston or a Gateway City.

Use the foundation's grants database at rssff.org/grants as a competitive intelligence tool before writing. Identify organizations similar to yours that have been funded, and study the alignment between their stated purposes and the foundation's five program areas. If your work is in human services, youth development, or economic mobility, emphasize those terms explicitly — they align with the foundation's Community Giving priority language.

For Community Capital Grants (LOI first, fall 2026), only 2–3 awards are made from 40+ inquiries. Your LOI must make an unmistakable case that this is a transformative, once-in-a-generation capital need — not an incremental facility upgrade. The foundation favors organizations operating for at least 5 years with budgets over $1 million. Schools, daycares, hospitals, and health centers are explicitly excluded from this track.

For invitation-only programs (Education, Health, Jewish Giving, Medical Research), the appropriate action is a brief, professional introduction via the Contact Us form describing your organization's work and its alignment with Smith's stated strategies. Do not pitch; inform. The Medical Research Excellence Awards, administered separately through HRiA, are openly competitive for eligible junior faculty — contact SmithExcellence@hria.org directly.