Shayne Foundation

Shayne Foundation is a small, family-run private trust -- not a staffed grantmaking institution. Its four trustees (Joan, David, Elizabeth, and Jonathan Shayne) are unpaid, there is no program staff, and the foundation's registered website (shayne.org) is in fact a personal family photo-sharing site with vacation galleries, not a foundation portal. Every third-party aggregator that has reviewed its filings (Grantable, CauseIQ, Instrumentl) independently confirms the same conclusion: Shayne only funds preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited proposals, despite an IRS 990 checkbox marked 'accepting applications.'

The grantee list shows this is relationship-driven, not cause-driven, philanthropy anchored in two personal networks: a dense cluster of Nashville, TN civic and human-services organizations (Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Meharry Medical College, Second Harvest Food Bank, Room In The Inn, Nashville Public Radio and Television, Nashville Symphony, University School of Nashville, Land Trust for Tennessee), and a major, recurring commitment to LGBTQ+ philanthropy in Vermont via the (now renamed) LGBTQ+ Fund of Vermont -- itself a donor-directed regranting vehicle, not a direct-service charity. A third large recipient, Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, is the family's own donor-advised fund sponsor: money sent there is parked for the family's later, undisclosed regranting rather than distributed to a named charity today.

Taken together, these three intermediaries (Vanguard Charitable, the LGBTQ+ Fund of Vermont, and to a lesser extent California Community Foundation) account for well over 60% of tracked grant dollars, meaning the pool of capital actually reachable through a direct, cold approach to Shayne is smaller than the topline numbers suggest. For the remaining ~40%, nearly every named recipient shows 3-4 grants recorded over the tracked period -- evidence the family renews known partners annually rather than adding new ones. First-time applicants should not expect a proposal process at all; the realistic path in is a warm introduction through the Nashville nonprofit ecosystem, Vermont LGBTQ+ philanthropy circles, or Jewish communal/educational institutions with Los Angeles, Nashville, or Jerusalem ties.

On its most recent Form 990, Shayne reports a typical single-grant size with a median of $6,000, an average of $32,129 (skewed upward by outliers), and a range of $2,500 to $323,800. Across the fuller tracked history (101 grants totaling $2,880,200, averaging $28,517/grant), giving is highly concentrated: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program received $1,049,200 across 4 grants (36% of all tracked dollars) -- the family's own donor-advised fund, not an end-use charity. The (now-renamed) LGBTQ+ Fund of Vermont received $707,100 across 4 grants (25%), itself a donor-directed regranting vehicle. These two intermediaries alone account for 61% of tracked giving. The remaining ~39% ($1.12M) is spread across roughly 30 direct grantees, led by Meharry Medical College ($200,000/2 grants), California Community Foundation ($165,000/2 grants), The Schoolhouse scholarships ($120,350/4 grants), World Education ($100,000/4 grants), and Vanderbilt University Medical Center ($100,000/4 grants), tapering down to a long tail of $2,000-$35,000 grants to Nashville civic and human-services groups, national justice-reform organizations (Equal Justice Initiative $17,500, Southern Poverty Law Center $11,000, Civil Rights Corps $8,500, Legal Aid Society of Middle TN $9,000, The Marshall Project $5,000), and Jewish communal organizations (New Israel Fund $60,000, The Temple-Congregation Ohabai Shalom $47,000, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies $10,000 x2).

Geographically, grant count is led by Tennessee (47 of 101 grants, 47%), followed by New York (17), Massachusetts (12), Vermont (9), Alabama (8, largely tied to the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative), California (5), and DC (3).

Financially, total giving grew from $295,704 in 2011 to $758,288 in 2023 -- a 2.6x increase tracking asset growth from $5.26M to $8.82M over the same period, not a strategic redirection. Grants paid consistently run 95-98% of total giving. FY2023's payout ratio (grants paid $736,100 / total assets $8,822,881 = 8.3%) is comfortably above the federal 5% minimum distribution requirement, indicating a deliberate above-minimum giving posture. Revenue is investment-driven: net investment income ($289,667 in 2023; a peak of $1,500,189 in 2015) dwarfs new contributions received, which swing unpredictably ($15,663 in 2023 vs. $604,682 in 2015).

No peer foundations were returned in Granted's matched-peer index for this record, so the comparison below uses category-level benchmarks for similarly structured funders rather than named institutions, supplemented by the two donor-directed intermediaries Shayne itself funds.

Shayne sits at the small end of the family-foundation spectrum by assets, but its 8.3% payout rate exceeds both the federal floor and what many similarly sized trusts distribute. Unlike a community foundation, it publishes no RFP or deadline, and unlike a program-staffed foundation, over 60% of its outbound dollars move through donor-directed intermediaries (its own Vanguard Charitable account and the LGBTQ+ Fund of Vermont) rather than direct charitable grants -- structurally closer to a family's personal giving vehicle than to an institutional grantmaker.

No 2025 or 2026 news coverage, press releases, or announcements about the Shayne Foundation were found in web search -- consistent with a foundation that has no communications function, no staff, and a listed website that is actually an unrelated family photo-sharing page. Third-party grant aggregators (Instrumentl, Grantable, CauseIQ) show grant data lagging Granted's own records, with some citing 2021 as the last visible grant year; Granted's internal database carries FY2023 financials (grants paid of $736,100) and shows the foundation record was last verified on 2026-08-02, confirming it remains active and current on filings.

Leadership has been stable across every filing on record: the same four trustees -- Joan Shayne, David Shayne, Elizabeth Shayne, and Jonathan Shayne -- appear on each Form 990, all serving without compensation, with David Shayne as the listed contact ("% David Shayne") at the foundation's registered address, 2302 Kenilworth Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90039.

The one concrete, verifiable development is at the recipient level, not the foundation itself: the Gay And Lesbian Fund of Vermont, Shayne's second-largest tracked grantee ($707,100 across 4 grants), has rebranded as the LGBTQ+ Fund of Vermont and continues operating as a donor-directed regranting vehicle supporting 500+ nonprofits. There is no evidence of new program announcements, board changes, or shifts in giving focus from the Shayne Foundation itself in this window -- the most accurate characterization is continuity, not change.

There is no application to submit. Every independent source -- the foundation's own 990 pattern, and aggregators including Grantable, CauseIQ, and Instrumentl -- agrees Shayne funds preselected organizations only. Do not spend time searching shayne.org for a grants page; it is a personal family site with vacation photo galleries and zero foundation content. Do not submit a cold LOI to the 990 contact address or phone number ((323) 663-4118) and expect a response -- there is no published process for handling one.

The realistic path in is relationship-based, and the grantee list points to exactly where those relationships run. First, Nashville, TN civic and human-services organizations -- the foundation supports Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Meharry Medical College, Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle TN, Room In The Inn, Nashville Public Radio and Television, the Nashville Symphony, University School of Nashville, and the Land Trust for Tennessee, all with repeat (typically 3-4 grant) histories, suggesting a trustee is personally embedded in that city's civic life. Second, LGBTQ+ philanthropy connected to Vermont, channeled through the (renamed) LGBTQ+ Fund of Vermont rather than direct grants -- organizations in that space may have better luck cultivating a relationship with that fund's donor base than approaching Shayne directly. Third, Jewish communal and educational organizations (The Temple-Congregation Ohabai Shalom, New Israel Fund, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies) and national justice-reform groups (Equal Justice Initiative, Southern Poverty Law Center, Civil Rights Corps, The Marshall Project), all funded at modest, recurring levels.

If a genuine connection exists -- shared board members, a personal introduction from a current grantee, or overlap with the family's philanthropic circles -- keep any pitch short and modest. The median single-grant size is $6,000 and the average is $32,129; treat the rare $100K+ grants (Meharry, Vanderbilt, California Community Foundation) as reserved for multi-year established partners, not a realistic opening ask. There is no annual deadline or cycle evident in the filings -- giving appears to happen on an ongoing basis as the family reviews it, so timing a request around a fiscal calendar is unlikely to matter as much as securing the introduction itself.