Shokooh Foundation

Shokooh Foundation is a small, entirely volunteer-run family foundation based in Laguna Beach/Irvine, CA, governed by trustees Farrokh Shokooh and Nikta Shokooh alongside six co-trustees (Nader Khoshniyati, Farhad Arvin, Mohsen H. Hashemi, Majid M. Zarrinkelk, Majid Azartash, Siamak Sedghi) — all of whom report zero compensation across every fiscal year on file. There is no paid staff, no published funding cycle, no LOI portal, and the IRS record's application_instructions field is literally blank, which together point to a relationship- and referral-driven grantmaking style rather than an open-application program (the foundation's own site does list itself as currently accepting inquiries). First-time applicants should treat this as a warm-outreach target: identify a personal or community bridge to the trustees rather than submitting a cold proposal through a general inbox. The clearest bridge in the data is the Iranian-American community in Orange County — the foundation has made three separate grants totaling $40,000 to the Network of Iranian Professionals of Orange County, its only documented repeat grantee, strongly suggesting the trustees are active in that network. Beyond that tie, the foundation favors two grantee profiles: established international humanitarian organizations with strong brand recognition (Mercy Ships $50,000, World Food Program USA $50,000) and smaller community, education, or youth-serving groups (Moms Against Poverty $60,000, LSU Foundation $23,600, Youth Science Center $5,000, IASF $10,000). Applicants should lead with concrete, child- or family-outcome-focused language — the foundation's stated mission is improving quality of life for "needy children of the World, from toddlers to college students" — and should explicitly address low overhead and direct-to-program spending, since the foundation prominently markets its own zero-overhead operating model. Grant sizes to date have been modest (median roughly $26,500, based on 9 tracked awards), so initial asks in the $5,000-$60,000 range are best-calibrated to this funder's demonstrated behavior; requesting a first-time, multi-year commitment at this stage would be out of step with its giving history. Given the all-volunteer board, expect slower response times than a staffed foundation and plan for a single point of contact (info@shokoohfoundation.org) rather than a program officer relationship.

The data bundle captures 9 identified grants totaling $238,600, averaging $26,511 per grant, ranging from $5,000 (Youth Science Center) to $60,000 (Moms Against Poverty). By recipient: Moms Against Poverty $60,000; Mercy Ship $50,000; World Food Program USA $50,000; Network of Iranian Professionals of Orange County $40,000 across 3 grants; LSU Foundation $23,600; IASF $10,000; Youth Science Center $5,000. Geographically, 6 of 9 grants stayed in California (consistent with the trustees' Orange County base), with single grants reaching DC (World Food Program USA), Louisiana (LSU Foundation), and Texas (Mercy Ships' operating HQ). Annual grants-paid figures from Form 990 filings show notable year-to-year volatility rather than a fixed payout formula: $34,600 (2019), $47,400 (2020), $10,000 (2021), $228,600 (2022, the largest disbursement year on record), $73,000 (2023), with 2024 not yet reflected in a filed return. Notably, disbursements do not track contribution timing directly — the foundation received $2.8 million in new contributions in 2021 but paid out only $10,000 that year, and received $5 million in 2023 while paying out just $73,000, suggesting a lag between corpus growth and grantmaking ramp-up or a deliberate strategy of building assets before increasing payout. Total assets have grown from $113,051 (2019) to $9,128,547 (2024), driven almost entirely by two large lump-sum contributions rather than steady annual fundraising. At the current asset base, the IRS-required 5% minimum distribution would imply roughly $450,000 in annual qualifying distributions — well above any year of grantmaking on record — indicating the foundation likely has significant unspent distributable capacity and may be positioned to scale up giving materially in coming fiscal years. No formal program-area breakdown is reported; all listed grant purposes are the generic 990 language "FURTHERANCE OF EXEMPT PURPOSE," so allocation across humanitarian aid, clean water, healthcare, and education (the priorities named on the foundation's website) is not itemized in public filings.

Shokooh sits in a tight cluster of five peer foundations that all report almost identical asset levels (roughly $9.125M-$9.13M), a pattern consistent with foundations near a common IRS filing threshold rather than a meaningful ranking signal. Shokooh is distinguished within this peer set by having a public-facing website with an explicit humanitarian mission statement and a documented, if erratic, grant history — most of these peers show no discoverable website or grant activity in available data, making Shokooh comparatively more approachable despite its still-informal, non-portal application process. Grant seekers should not assume similar asset size implies similar giving capacity or willingness among these peers; Shokooh's actual behavior (sub-$250K annual disbursement against $9.1M in assets) suggests most of this peer cohort likely under-distributes relative to its asset base as well.

No news articles, press releases, or media coverage specifically naming the Shokooh Foundation were found for 2025 or 2026 in web search — this is consistent with the foundation's profile as a small, all-volunteer family foundation with no communications staff or media presence. The most recent verifiable activity is financial: the foundation's FY2024 Form 990 data (assets of $9,128,547, revenue of $588,362) represents its most current filed position, with 2024 grants-paid and total-giving figures not yet reflected in available records as of this report. The foundation's asset base grew substantially in FY2023 on a $5,000,000 contribution combined with $1,181,633 in net investment income, pushing assets from $2,824,558 (2022) to $8,920,425 (2023) and then to $9,128,547 (2024) — the single largest capitalization event in the foundation's six-year filing history (it was tax-exempt as of September 2019). No leadership changes, new program announcements, or large individual grants beyond the $238,600 in cumulative grants captured in this data bundle were identified. Given the lack of a public grants list or annual report on the foundation's own site, grant seekers should rely on the IRS Form 990 (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 81-4663085) as the most current source of grant disclosures, checked annually after each fiscal year's filing.

There is no application portal, LOI form, published deadline, or funding cycle on shokoohfoundation.org — the site's own guidance is simply to reach the foundation "at any moment" via info@shokoohfoundation.org or its Irvine, CA office (5 Oldfield, Irvine, CA 92618). Treat this as an invitation-only, relationship-driven funder rather than a competitive-RFP funder. The strongest documented path in is through the Iranian-American professional and community network in Orange County — the foundation's only repeat grantee, the Network of Iranian Professionals of Orange County, received three separate awards totaling $40,000, a pattern no other grantee shows. If your organization has any tie to that network, or to Southern California humanitarian, education, or child-welfare communities more broadly, lead with it. Because all seven trustees report zero compensation and there is no program staff, expect a longer and less predictable response cycle than a staffed foundation, and do not expect a formal rejection letter or detailed feedback if a proposal doesn't proceed. When you do reach out, keep the initial ask concise (one page) and grounded in the foundation's own language: it explicitly names humanitarian assistance (food, shelter, safety), clean water, renewable energy, healthcare, education/scholarships, and community support centers as its focus areas, and it repeatedly emphasizes "zero overhead" — proposals that quantify your own administrative efficiency and show a high percentage of funds reaching direct beneficiaries will speak the trustees' language. Calibrate the dollar ask to observed behavior: the nine tracked grants range from $5,000 to $60,000, with a $26,511 average, so a first request in the $10,000-$50,000 range is realistic; asking for a large multi-year commitment as a first-time relationship is likely premature. A common mistake to avoid is submitting a generic mass-mailed LOI — with no formal intake process, an unsolicited cold email with no warm connection or Orange County/child-welfare tie-in is the least likely path to a response. Because giving volume swung from $10,000 to $228,600 across adjacent fiscal years, a non-response in one cycle should prompt a respectful follow-up or re-approach in a subsequent year rather than being treated as a permanent decline.