Sharing Foundation

Sharing Foundation is a small, closed, family-governed private foundation, not an institution with program staff or a competitive proposal process. Its board — Barbara D Angie-Rottler, Steven Rottler, Andrew C Rottler, and D Edson Clark — serves entirely uncompensated, and the foundation's own record flags grantees as "preselected only," meaning the board curates who receives funding rather than reviewing open applications. There is no grants page URL, no application form URL, no published funding cycle, and the application_instructions field on file is explicitly empty — all consistent with a foundation that gives almost exclusively to organizations it already knows.

The grantee data bears this out: of 24 tracked grants totaling $514,000, roughly seven recipients — Crisis Connections, Eastside Academy, West Seattle Food Bank, North Cascades Institute, Sound Experience, Byrd Barr Place, and Renton Technical College — each received the exact same grant three years running, indicating standing, renewed relationships rather than a rotating applicant pool. A smaller group of one-time grants ($14,000–$20,000, to Page Ahead, University District Food Bank, and Methow Valley Education Foundation) suggests a narrower door for new organizations, likely entering at a lower dollar level before any relationship deepens into multi-year support.

For a first-time applicant, the realistic strategy is relationship-building, not form-filling: identify a warm connection to the board (Eastside/Redmond-area civic, corporate, or community networks are the most plausible path given the family's local footprint), or make a direct, low-pressure introduction by phone or mail to the foundation's contact of record, D Edson Clark, at its Redmond PO Box. Because virtually every recorded grant purpose reads "to assist org in its purpose," proposals should be pitched as general operating support requests tied to organizational mission, not narrowly scoped project asks — this funder does not appear to fund line-item programs so much as it backs organizations wholesale. Expect a long runway: with no published cycle or staff, response times will be slow, and initial asks should be modest relative to the $28,000-per-year average the foundation pays its longest-tenured partners.

Sharing Foundation's giving has scaled roughly in step with a fast-growing asset base. Total assets rose from $561,531 (fiscal 2019) to $2,212,544 (fiscal 2021) to $3,221,119 (fiscal 2022) to $6,332,388 (fiscal 2023, per internal records) and reached $6,952,216 in the foundation's most recent Form 990-PF, covering the fiscal year ending August 2025 — roughly a twelvefold increase in assets over six years, fueled by large contributions received (including $3,181,747 in fiscal 2023 alone) rather than investment gains. Grants paid tracked this growth: $60,000 (2019) to $74,000 (2021) to $140,000 (2022) to $234,000 (fiscal year ending August 2024) to $485,000 in the most recent filing (fiscal year ending August 2025) — an eightfold increase in annual giving since 2019, and the payout rate reached roughly 7% of assets in the latest year, comfortably above the 5% federal minimum distribution requirement.

Across the 24 individually tracked grants (totaling $514,000), the average award is $21,417, but the distribution is uneven: recurring partners receiving three consecutive annual grants averaged closer to $28,000/year (e.g., Crisis Connections, Eastside Academy, and West Seattle Food Bank each received $85,000 cumulative over three grants), while newer or one-time recipients received $14,000–$20,000 (Methow Valley Education Foundation at $14,000, University District Food Bank at $15,000, Page Ahead at $20,000). All 24 tracked grants went to Washington-based organizations — 100% state concentration, consistent with a local, Puget Sound/Eastside-focused giving footprint despite no formal "geographic focus" being recorded in filings.

By cause area, the top-10 grantee list splits roughly evenly between human services (Crisis Connections, West Seattle Food Bank, Byrd Barr Place, University District Food Bank — food security and crisis response) and education (Eastside Academy, Renton Technical College, Page Ahead, Methow Valley Education Foundation — alternative, technical, literacy, and rural education), with a smaller outdoor/environmental-education slice (North Cascades Institute, Sound Experience). Virtually every grant carries the same stated purpose, "to assist org in its purpose," confirming this is general operating support rather than restricted project funding.

All five peers sit within roughly $6.95M in total assets — this is a matched cohort of similarly-sized family/private foundations, none of which have a public website on record, which is itself informative: foundations in this asset bracket overwhelmingly operate as closed, relationship-driven funders rather than publicly competitive grantmakers. Sharing Foundation is distinguished within this peer set by having verifiable, itemized giving data (24 tracked grants, $514,000 total) and a documented payout rate (~7% of assets in its latest fiscal year) well above the required minimum, suggesting an unusually active board relative to peers of similar size where giving levels are unknown.

The most concrete recent data point is the foundation's Form 990-PF for the fiscal year ending August 2025, which shows charitable disbursements of $485,000 against total assets of $6,952,216 — more than double the $234,000 given in the prior fiscal year, and the largest annual payout in the foundation's available filing history. Net investment income that year was modestly negative (-$16,822), meaning the increased giving was funded by the foundation's contribution base and asset growth rather than investment returns. No board or leadership changes were identified; the same four individuals — Barbara D Angie-Rottler, Steven Rottler, Andrew C Rottler, and D Edson Clark — continue to serve as uncompensated directors across all filings reviewed.

No press releases, news coverage, or public announcements from the foundation itself were found in web searches covering 2025–2026. This is consistent with the foundation's profile as a small, family-run private foundation with no communications staff and no confirmed public website. Notably, the URL commonly listed for this foundation in nonprofit databases, sharingfoundation.org, was verified during this research to belong to a different, unrelated organization — "The Sharing Foundation," a 501(c)(3) providing direct services (education, health, and orphan care) to children in Cambodia. That organization has no connection to this Redmond, WA family foundation beyond the coincidental name, and applicants should disregard it as a source of information or contact for this funder. No independently verified official web presence for EIN 91-1747663 was located.

This foundation has no public application portal, published deadline, or funding cycle — the practical playbook is direct, personal outreach rather than a formal submission. Do not use sharingfoundation.org; that domain belongs to an unrelated Cambodia-focused nonprofit and any inquiry sent there will not reach this funder. Instead, direct a brief, personalized letter or phone call to the foundation's contact of record, D Edson Clark, at PO Box 2633, Redmond, WA 98073-2633, or by phone at (425) 861-8500 — call first to ask whether the foundation is open to unsolicited inquiries before investing time in a full proposal.

Geography is a hard filter in practice: all 24 tracked grants went to Washington-based organizations, with several recipients clustered in the Eastside/Seattle metro area (West Seattle Food Bank, Byrd Barr Place, University District Food Bank, Renton Technical College) alongside a few statewide/rural grantees (North Cascades Institute, Methow Valley Education Foundation). Organizations outside Washington are very unlikely to be a fit regardless of mission alignment.

Because nearly every recorded grant purpose is simply "to assist org in its purpose," this funder backs organizational missions broadly rather than discrete projects — lead with your organization's overall impact and financial health rather than a narrowly scoped program budget. Common mistakes to avoid: pitching a restricted, single-program grant request (misreads this funder's general-support pattern); requesting amounts near the $28,000/year level reserved for multi-year incumbent partners on a first ask (start closer to the $14,000–$20,000 range seen among newer/one-time recipients); and submitting cold through a generic online form, since none exists.

Relationship-building matters more than proposal polish here. The board's composition (the Rottler family plus D Edson Clark) and its consistent multi-year renewal of the same seven core partners suggest that visibility through Eastside/Redmond civic, business, or philanthropic networks is the most realistic way to enter consideration. Once funded, plan to steward the relationship actively — repeat grantees were funded at identical amounts for three consecutive years, indicating loyalty to known partners is the norm and reapplication (formal or informal) is expected annually.