Saga Foundation

Saga Foundation is a small, founder-legacy private foundation (EIN 38-3097160) based in Kalamazoo, MI, operating on roughly $12.6M in assets and giving in the $1.8M-$2.7M range annually. It was established after 9/11 by William P. "Bill" Laughlin, co-founder of the Saga Corporation food-service business, initially to address unsecured highly-enriched uranium, and broadened in 2018 to four pillars: Leadership, The Underserved, Safety & Security, and Global Peace. President David J. Bartoshuk has run the foundation since 2006 and draws roughly $150,000-$174,000 in annual compensation, indicating a lean, professionally managed operation rather than a large staffed program office. Critically, the foundation's own data flags it as preselected_only — it does not run an open competitive application process, and its website has no grants portal, RFP, LOI form, or deadline calendar, only a general support email. This means the realistic path in is relationship-building, not cold-form submission. The grantee list reinforces this: many organizations (Jobtrain, First Tee of Silicon Valley, Positive Coaching Alliance, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley) received grants across 4-5 consecutive years, suggesting the foundation identifies a handful of trusted partners and renews them steadily rather than rotating through a large or changing portfolio — the average grantee received 3.5 grants across the observed data. First-time applicants should understand that Saga favors organizations already demonstrating an "entrepreneurial spirit," collaborative posture, and measurable outcomes over polished packaging — the founder was explicitly described as valuing substance over self-promotion. Geographically, the foundation's real footprint (San Mateo County/Silicon Valley, CA; Washington, DC policy institutions; and Kalamazoo, MI) is narrower than its stated global-peace ambitions suggest, so alignment with one of those three hubs materially improves odds. Nearly all identifiable grants in the data are coded "OPERATING SUPPORT" rather than restricted project funding, meaning the foundation trusts grantees to deploy general funds — a strong signal it wants to be a durable operating partner, not a project-by-project funder.

Saga Foundation's own reported typical-grant-size statistics (from the most recent 990-PF grant schedule, n=28 grants) show a median grant of $43,500, an average of $47,589, and a range from $10,000 to $135,000 — a foundation writing solidly mid-five-figure checks, not micro-grants and not seven-figure mega-gifts. Across the fuller multi-year grantee history in the data (174 total grants to roughly 50 distinct organizations, totaling $9.58M), the average grant-relationship size (summed across all years for a given recipient) is $55,080, and the largest cumulative relationships are Jobtrain Inc. ($1,112,000 across 5 grants), Henry L. Stimson Center ($925,000 across 5 grants), PGA Tour First Tee Foundation ($670,000 across 3 grants), First Tee of Silicon Valley ($660,000 across 4 grants), and Redwood City Police Activities League ($503,000 across 5 grants). Geographically, California dominates with 117 of 174 grants (67%), followed by New York (12), Washington DC (8), Michigan (7), and smaller counts in Arizona, Illinois, Vermont, Florida, and Minnesota — confirming the foundation's Silicon Valley/Bay Area and DC concentration despite a nationally-worded mission. By program theme, youth development and leadership-through-sport dominate the largest checks (First Tee affiliates, Positive Coaching Alliance, Boys & Girls Clubs in three states), workforce/underserved services form the single largest relationship (Jobtrain, a Bay Area job-training nonprofit), and safety/security-adjacent policy institutions (Stimson Center, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Global Security Institute, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Democracy Works) represent the clearest through-line back to the foundation's nuclear-security origins. On finances, total giving has trended down from $2.75M (FY2022) to $2.27M (FY2023), tracking a decline in total assets from $17.77M (FY2021) to $13.93M (FY2023) and, per the current record, roughly $12.6M today — a foundation modestly contracting rather than expanding its giving capacity, which argues for realistic ask sizes in the $10,000-$135,000 band rather than assuming room for outsized new commitments.

Saga Foundation sits in a cluster of small, similarly-capitalized private foundations (all classified Philanthropy & Grantmaking, all in the $12.5M-$12.6M asset band per this platform's peer matching), though public data on peer giving levels and application posture is sparse — a common feature of small family/founder foundations that don't publish detailed guidelines.

What differentiates Saga within this peer set is transparency and public footprint: it is the only one of the six with a live public website describing mission pillars, a named president, and a documented multi-year grantee history, while its five closest asset-matched peers show no public website content in this platform's data (only A&J Kay and J L Williams even have listed sites, and J L Williams' is the one other peer with a working URL). For grant seekers, this makes Saga comparatively easier to research and warm up to relative to its peer cluster, even though its application process is just as closed — the practical difference is that outreach to Saga can be grounded in specific, sourced program language (Leadership, The Underserved, Safety & Security, Global Peace; the 'Convene, Collaborate, Create' framework) rather than guesswork.

Public news coverage of Saga Foundation is thin, consistent with a foundation that does not issue press releases or maintain a news section on its own site. The most substantive recent event on record is the ~$1.1 million grant to Kalamazoo College, announced March 22, 2022, which funded SAGA Foundation scholarships for juniors and seniors, a Bill Laughlin Endowed Internship program providing stipends for students working at nonprofits, and an annual Bill Laughlin Leadership Award for two students demonstrating leadership and community commitment — explicitly framed as honoring founder Bill Laughlin and tying directly to the foundation's Leadership pillar. No 2025 or 2026 grant announcements, staffing changes, or new program launches for the philanthropic Saga Foundation surfaced in web search; search results for "Saga Foundation" news are dominated by unrelated organizations sharing the name (Spokane Arts' SAGA grant program, Saga Diagnostics' 2026 acquisition by Roche/Foundation Medicine, Saga Communications press releases, and the UK travel company Saga plc), underscoring that this funder keeps a deliberately low public profile. Internally, the financial trend worth flagging to applicants is a multi-year asset decline — from $17.77M in FY2021 to $13.93M in FY2023, alongside grants paid falling from $2.27M (FY2022) to $1.82M (FY2023) — which suggests the foundation may be in a period of tightened or flat giving capacity rather than growth. President David J. Bartoshuk has led the organization continuously since 2006, and the leadership/trustee roster (Sherie Berger, Julie A. Johnson, James C. Melvin, Bradley E. Weller, Loyal A. Eldridge III) has been stable across the most recent filings, with several trustees serving without compensation — indicating governance continuity rather than any recent leadership transition.

Saga Foundation is coded preselected_only in available data, has no visible grants portal, LOI form, RFP, or deadline anywhere on sagafoundation.org, and lists no application instructions on file — treat it as a relationship-first, largely by-invitation funder rather than one that reviews open submissions on a cycle. The single documented public contact point is Support@SAGAFoundation.org, so the realistic opening move is a short, specific email — not a full proposal — introducing your organization, stating explicit alignment with one of the four named pillars (Leadership, The Underserved, Safety & Security, or Global Peace), and asking whether the foundation is currently open to new conversations. Because grantee history shows heavy renewal (many organizations funded 4-5 consecutive years, e.g., Jobtrain, First Tee of Silicon Valley, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Positive Coaching Alliance), organizations with an existing local reputation or a warm introduction through a current grantee, trustee, or Kalamazoo College network will have meaningfully better odds than pure cold outreach. Geographic fit is a real filter in practice, even though the mission language is universal: San Mateo County/Silicon Valley, CA and Washington, DC policy institutions receive the large majority of dollars, with Kalamazoo, MI as the founder's home-region exception — organizations far outside those hubs should lead with an unusually strong thematic fit to compensate. On sizing, anchor asks to the documented range: median $43,500, average $47,589, ceiling around $135,000 for a single grant — proposals well above that range are unlikely to match the foundation's typical check size given its ~$1.8M-$2.7M annual giving total. Nearly every identifiable grant purpose in the data is coded OPERATING SUPPORT, so leading with a general-operating ask (framed around organizational capacity and sustained impact) is likely to land better than a narrowly restricted project budget. Reference the foundation's own "Convene, Collaborate, Create" language explicitly in outreach — it wants partners who set aside ego, embrace an entrepreneurial and collaborative posture, and are willing to learn from failure, per its own site — and avoid self-promotional framing, since the founder was specifically described as valuing substance and measurable outcomes over boasting. Common mistake to avoid: submitting an unsolicited formal grant application or proposal document cold — there is no evidence the foundation reviews these outside of its existing relationship pipeline.