Sharma Foundation

Sharma Foundation (EIN 75-2857275, Dallas, TX) is a small, unstaffed, family-run private foundation with $5.65 million in assets and annual giving of roughly $220,000-$266,000. Its officers — Bianca Sharma (President), Stefan Sharma (Treasurer), and Nathan Sharma (Secretary) — are all unpaid and have held the same roles across every filing year available, meaning there is no program staff to review cold proposals. The foundation's own IRS profile flags it as preselected_only, with no application form, deadline, or grants page on file — a strong signal that its roughly 70 recorded grants arrived through relationships: past-grantee referrals, personal ties, or direct introductions rather than open competition. First-time applicants should not expect an RFP or portal; the realistic path in is a warm introduction, ideally through Hilton Head/Beaufort County, SC nonprofit networks or Dallas civic and philanthropic circles. VIM Volunteers in Medicine's three South Carolina chapters (Hilton Head, Greater Bluffton/Jasper County, and the national office) together account for over $225,000 of tracked giving, hinting at a personal or family connection to the Lowcountry alongside the Dallas base. Grantee data shows two favored profiles: direct-service and crisis-response organizations (World Central Kitchen, Global Empowerment Mission, community emergency-relief funds) receiving larger, one-time gifts of $10,000-$100,000 tied to acute needs like COVID-19 and the Ukraine refugee crisis; and small, recurring internship/scholarship intermediaries in North Texas (Girl Scouts of North Texas, NABA-ACAP, Cybersecurity Game Changers, Stand 4 Sisterhood, Bryan's House) receiving modest repeat grants of $800-$4,000 that appear to renew year after year rather than being re-competed. There is no LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit progression here — the median tracked award is just $1,600 (range $800-$75,000, average $9,645 across 22 recently recorded grants), so most awards function as modest, lightly restricted checks rather than multi-year program grants. Organizations should treat a first gift as a foothold to build the kind of sustained relationship VIM Volunteers in Medicine and World Central Kitchen have achieved, not as a one-time transaction, and should calibrate their ask to this funder's real scale rather than pitching a flagship six-figure program.

Total giving has held steady in a narrow band: $236,175 (FY2019), $237,663 (FY2020), $235,381 (FY2021), $266,057 (FY2022), $247,859 (FY2023), and an estimated ~$244,000 in FY2025 (91.1% of $267,904 in total expenses, per the most recent Form 990-PF). Grants paid track closely behind, running $205,500-$240,000 across the same years. Net assets have fluctuated between $3.9 million and $5.65 million since 2011 and stood at $5,648,057 as of the FY2025 filing — near the top of that historical range. The foundation receives no direct contributions; all revenue comes from investment income (dividends 37.4%, asset sales 62.6% in FY2025), so grantmaking capacity floats with portfolio performance rather than fundraising campaigns. Across the 70 tracked historical grants totaling $692,200, the average award is $9,889, but that figure is skewed by a small number of large recipients: World Central Kitchen ($100,000 across 3 grants), VIM Volunteers in Medicine's three chapters (combined roughly $225,000), God's Love We Deliver ($40,000), and The Community Foundation ($40,000) together account for a disproportionate share, while the majority of the remaining ~60 grants cluster between $800 and $5,600. The most recently tracked typical-grant-size cohort (22 awards) shows a median of just $1,600 against a $9,645 average and a $75,000 ceiling — a heavily bottom-loaded distribution weighted toward small, repeat gifts. Geographically, grantee data skews Texas (42 of 70 grants, roughly 60%) and South Carolina (9 grants, roughly 13%), matching the foundation's own listed geographic_focus of TX/SC — almost certainly reflecting the Dallas headquarters plus a family or board tie to South Carolina's Lowcountry (Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Jasper County clinics and a Habitat for Humanity chapter). The remainder is scattered opportunistically — Florida (4), Colorado (7), DC (3), New Jersey (3), New York (2) — consistent with occasional national causes (Ukraine relief, COVID-19 response) rather than a defined multi-state program. By purpose, community health and clinic access (VIM's three chapters, Mercy Hospital Foundation, St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy) and crisis/disaster response (World Central Kitchen, Global Empowerment Mission, COVID-19 relief funds) are the largest categories by dollar volume, together exceeding $300,000 of the $692,200 tracked. Youth internship and scholarship pipelines form the largest category by grant count — at least a dozen unique recipients — but the smallest by dollars, averaging under $2,500 per award.

All five peer foundations sit within roughly $1,500 of Sharma Foundation's $5.65 million asset base, forming a tightly size-matched cohort within the same NTEE "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" category. Notably, none of the five peers maintain a public website (website field is null across the board in the underlying data), reinforcing that at this $5-6 million asset tier, formal grant portals, published guidelines, and staffed program offices are the exception rather than the rule. Sharma Foundation's invitation-only, relationship-driven giving pattern is therefore standard for its peer set, not an anomaly — applicants targeting any foundation in this cohort should expect to need a warm introduction rather than a cold application, and should not be discouraged by the absence of published guidance.

No distinguishable 2025-2026 news coverage was found specific to Sharma Foundation, EIN 75-2857275, Dallas, TX. Web searches returned results dominated by unrelated organizations that share the "Sharma Foundation" name — including an Alpharetta, GA environmental nonprofit focused on plant donations and lake cleanups (which, notably, appears to be incorrectly linked as this foundation's website in current records — see application_tips), a Canada-based Samit & Reshma Sharma Foundation issuing university scholarships, India's Shraman Foundation scholarship program, and the newly launched ShivaniSharma Foundation (August 2026) — none of which are this Dallas foundation. This absence of press is itself consistent with the foundation's profile: it is a small, unstaffed, family-operated private foundation with no communications function, so it generates no press releases, grant-cycle announcements, or media coverage in the ordinary course. The most current verified data point comes from its FY2025 Form 990-PF via ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, filed under continuity of the same three unpaid officers — Bianca Sharma (President), Stefan Sharma (Treasurer), and Nathan Sharma (Secretary) — who have held these positions across every year of available records, indicating no recent leadership turnover. Net assets stood at $5,648,057 as of the FY2025 filing, near the top of the foundation's 2011-2025 range ($3.9M-$5.65M), and charitable disbursements represented 91.1% of total expenses that year ($267,904), a payout ratio consistent with — if slightly above — its historical giving pattern. Grant seekers should not expect to find this foundation in trade press or philanthropy news outlets; the annually filed Form 990-PF remains the single most reliable source of "recent activity" for this funder.

Important caution: the website on file for this foundation (sharma-foundation.org) actually resolves to an unrelated organization in Alpharetta, GA focused on plant donations and lake cleanups, with a different mission, location, and contact email entirely. This is very likely a data-matching error, not this foundation's actual site — do not use that domain for outreach. Instead, rely on the address and phone number from the foundation's own IRS filings: PO Box 802090, Dallas, TX 75380-2090, (972) 383-5700. Given no application_form_url, no deadline, and application_instructions on file marked as none — combined with the preselected_only flag — treat this strictly as a relationship-first, invitation-only funder. Sending a cold LOI or general proposal packet is unlikely to be read, since there is no staff to process one. Concrete tips: (1) Identify a current or recent grantee as a connector — VIM Volunteers in Medicine (all three SC chapters), World Central Kitchen, Habitat for Humanity's La Plata County, CO or Hilton Head, SC chapters, or Bonton Farms in Dallas — staff or board members at these organizations may have a direct line to the Sharma family officers. (2) Match your geography to theirs: roughly 60% of tracked grant dollars go to Texas (mostly Dallas-area) and 13% to South Carolina's Lowcountry (Hilton Head/Bluffton/Jasper County) — organizations outside these two footprints face materially longer odds absent a strong personal introduction. (3) Calibrate your ask to their real check size: the median award is $1,600 and the average is under $10,000; only a handful of grants (World Central Kitchen, VIM chapters) have cleared $25,000, and the largest single grant on record is $75,000 — requesting six-figure general support is a mismatch, while a specific $2,000-$5,000 ask (e.g., a named internship or scholarship slot, matching the Girl Scouts of North Texas or NABA-ACAP pattern) is a realistic entry point. (4) Time crisis-response appeals opportunistically — the foundation has moved quickly on acute needs before (COVID-19 restaurant relief, Ukraine refugee response), and a timely, specific ask tied to a live crisis has historically outperformed general operating requests. (5) Avoid treating this as a staffed institutional funder — elaborate multi-year proposal packages or formal site-visit requests are unlikely to get traction with a three-person unpaid family board; a concise, personally addressed letter referencing a shared connection will travel further than a polished RFP response.