Samuel Rubin Foundation Inc.

Samuel Rubin Foundation Inc. is a small, family-governed private foundation (EIN 13-6164671, based in Cambridge, MA, administered through Loring Wolcott & Coolidge) with roughly $8.2M in assets and about $560,000-$750,000 in annual grants. It is directed by the Weiss family — Judith Weiss (President), Daniel Weiss (Chair/Treasurer), Tamara Weiss (Vice President), Peter Weiss and Cora Weiss (Directors) — carrying forward founder Samuel Rubin's mission of peace, justice, and equitable resource allocation. Critically, as of 2025 the foundation no longer accepts unsolicited applications and has removed its application guidelines and grants directory from its website; its own guidance states it is 'a very small foundation with many recurring commitments to our current grantees' and that 'very few, if any, grants are made to new applicants each year.' This makes it fundamentally a relationship-driven funder, not an open RFP. The grantee list (78 grants, $1.16M analyzed, averaging $14,841 per grant) shows the foundation renews the same core partners nearly every cycle — Center for Constitutional Rights ($110,000 across 2 grants), Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy ($100,000), Downtown Community Television ($100,000), and Global Network of Women Peacebuilders ($100,000) top the list. First-time applicants should not expect a cold-outreach path to succeed; instead, the realistic strategy is to build visible alignment with the foundation's existing grantee ecosystem (peace/disarmament coalitions, human rights litigation networks, social-justice media collectives) and secure a warm introduction from a current grantee, allied funder, or a board member's known network — Cora Weiss in particular has deep, decades-long ties to peace and disarmament organizing. Organizations without an existing relationship or credible referral should deprioritize this funder in favor of foundations with open application cycles, and instead monitor it opportunistically for board/staff overlap with their own network.

Total giving has been remarkably stable but slowly declining in real terms: $875,718 (2013), $723,037 (2019), $767,821 (2020), $803,149 (2021), $758,957 (2022), down to $752,261 (2023) — a roughly flat-to-modestly-declining pattern as the asset base has shrunk from $11.45M (2013) to $8.23M (2024), reflecting payout exceeding investment returns in several years (2022 saw total revenue of -$351,792). Grants paid specifically ran $600,500 (2012) down to $565,500 (2023), tracking a slow contraction consistent with declining principal. Per the foundation's own typical-grant-size data: median $10,000, average $14,240, range $1,000-$50,000 across 42 tracked grants; the analyzed grantee dataset (78 grants, $1,157,600 total) shows an average of $14,841 with the largest recurring commitments capped near $50,000-$60,000 per grant (two-grant totals push some relationships to $100,000-$110,000 cumulative). By program: nuclear disarmament/global security and international peace efforts (Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, Grassroots International, Nautilus Institute, Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security) form the largest thematic cluster; human rights/legal advocacy (Center for Constitutional Rights, Center for Justice & Accountability, Reprieve US, T'Ruah) is the second-largest; Israeli-Palestinian peace work (Americans for Peace Now, New Israel Fund, American Friends of Combatants for Peace, American Friends of the Parents Circle) is a distinct, consistently funded niche; and social-justice media (Democracy Now, Downtown Community Television, Maysles Documentary Center, The Ground Truth Project) rounds out a fourth pillar. Geographically, funding concentrates in NY (29 of 78 grants), MA (14), CA (13), and DC (9), with smaller footprints in AZ, CO, LA, MI, MN and TX — reflecting grantee headquarters rather than a formal geographic restriction, since the foundation states it does not limit by geography (international grantees need a U.S. fiscal sponsor).

Samuel Rubin Foundation sits at the small end of peace/human-rights funders, both in asset base and typical grant size, and is now unusual among peers for having fully closed off unsolicited applications rather than merely running invitation-only alongside a stated LOI window.

Relative to these peers, Samuel Rubin's per-grant sizes ($1,000-$60,000) are markedly smaller than Ploughshares or Colombe, positioning it as a niche, supplementary funder rather than an anchor funder for any single grantee's budget. Its closed-door posture is the most restrictive on this list — most peers still run some form of LOI or referral vetting process, whereas Rubin has removed all public application infrastructure.

The single most consequential recent development is procedural rather than programmatic: as of 2025 the foundation discontinued accepting unsolicited proposals entirely and stripped its website of application guidelines and its grants directory, formalizing what had long been an effectively closed, relationship-based process. No specific 2025-2026 grant announcements, new initiatives, or leadership changes surfaced in public searches beyond this policy shift — the foundation does not issue press releases or maintain an active news/announcements page. The most recent documented large grant in secondary sources is approximately $60,000 to Downtown Community Television Center for youth media education, consistent with its historical top-grantee status ($100,000 across two grants in the DB dataset). The board has seen at least one loss in recent years — director Alison R. Bernstein, a longtime gender-and-social-justice activist who joined in November 2007 — though the exact date of her passing was not pinpointed in available sources. Governance otherwise appears stable, with the Weiss family (Judith as President, Daniel as Chair/Treasurer, Tamara as VP, Peter and Cora as Directors) continuing in the same roles reflected in the last several years of Form 990 filings. Financially, FY2024 shows total assets of $8,232,139 (down from $8,675,777 in FY2023) and total revenue of $410,526, with grants-paid figures for FY2024 not yet available in the dataset; the FY2023 filing shows $565,500 paid out against $752,261 in total giving and $37,212 in officer compensation to Judith Weiss.

The most important tip is procedural, not stylistic: as of 2025 this foundation does not accept unsolicited applications, has no LOI portal, and has removed its application guidelines from its website — submitting a cold proposal (by mail, email, or through its former online process) will not be reviewed and wastes fundraising staff time better spent elsewhere. The foundation's own stated rationale is candid: it is 'a very small foundation with many recurring commitments,' so 'very few, if any, grants are made to new applicants each year' given how low the odds are for unsolicited proposals. For organizations that still want to pursue this funder, the only credible path is relationship-based: secure an introduction from a current grantee (the DB dataset shows Center for Constitutional Rights, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Downtown Community Television, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, Americans for Peace Now, Democracy Now, and Institute for Policy Studies among its most consistent, multi-year partners), from an allied peace/human-rights funder who co-funds these same organizations, or from a board member's professional network — Cora Weiss in particular has a decades-long footprint in the international peace and disarmament movement, and Daniel, Tamara, and Peter Weiss round out a close-knit family board with long institutional memory of the foundation's grantee relationships. When an introduction is secured, framing should mirror the foundation's four core pillars precisely: nuclear disarmament/global security, human rights and legal advocacy (especially litigation-based accountability work), Israeli-Palestinian peace-building, and social-justice-oriented media/documentary work — proposals outside these four lanes (e.g., general health, capital campaigns, or scholarships) are explicitly out of scope, since the foundation's restrictions bar grants to individuals or for capital acquisition, endowment, or scholarships. Expect modest award sizes: budget for $1,000-$20,000 as the realistic range for a new relationship, since the $50,000-$60,000+ grants in the dataset almost all go to decades-long partners. Applications, when solicited, should emphasize general operating support framing (a notable share of top grantees receive unrestricted funds) over narrowly scoped project asks, and should be timed around the foundation's historical board meeting cadence — first Wednesday of January, May, and September — even though the intake itself is now invitation-driven rather than open-cycle.