Silverleaf Foundation Inc.

Silverleaf Foundation Inc. is a small, unpaid-board family foundation (president Mayree Clark, VP/secretary Jeffrey Williams, directors Kit Devereaux and Laura Saverin, all listed at $0 compensation) run out of a New Canaan, CT PO box with a thin public web presence. The single most important strategic fact: the foundation's own data flags it as preselected_only, and independent aggregators (Cause IQ, PitchBook's LP profile) corroborate that it funds organizations the trustees already know rather than reviewing unsolicited proposals. There is no LOI form, portal, or published guidelines on silverleaffoundation.org — only a general inbox (info@silverleaffoundation.org) and a New York phone number. For grant seekers, this means the standard cold-application playbook will likely fail; the realistic path in is a warm introduction through a shared board member, a New Canaan/Fairfield County civic connection, or an existing relationship with one of the four trustees. Mayree Clark's own affiliations are informative: she sits on the board of the Tricycle Foundation (a Silverleaf grantee, $55,000 across 3 grants) and is a Stanford MBA alumna (Stanford University received $85,000 across 3 grants) — a pattern indicating personal trustee ties drive a meaningful share of giving. The grantee list otherwise clusters around two types of organizations: (1) hyper-local Fairfield County/lower-CT human-services and community nonprofits (New Canaan Community Foundation, Open Door Shelter, Domestic Violence Crisis Center, Kids In Crisis, Building One Community, All Our Kin) and (2) national or elite-institution names (Stanford, Wikimedia Foundation, Asia Society, USC, UNICEF) that likely trace to trustee personal interests rather than a competitive process. First-time applicants without a connection to the board should treat Silverleaf as a low-probability, relationship-first target — not a proposal-writing exercise.

Silverleaf's total giving has grown from $216,614 in FY2019 to $400,826 in FY2023, roughly doubling over four years, tracking a jump in net investment income (from $198,816 to $404,927) rather than new outside contributions — the foundation received $0 in contributions in most recent filed years. Total assets have been essentially flat at $3.5-3.8M for a decade (FY2012: $3,096,552; FY2024: $3,814,383), meaning Silverleaf is distributing from investment returns on a static corpus, not scaling through new fundraising. Grants paid by year: $122,300 (2012), $191,000 (2014), $175,270 (2019), $303,000 (2020), $309,755 (2021), $309,800 (2022), $352,200 (2023) — a steady climb since 2019 with no year-over-year contraction. Across the tracked grantee history (70 grants, $922,600 total, $13,180 average), the typical single check is small: median grant size $10,000, average $13,468, with a floor of $107 and a ceiling of $51,898 — this is a foundation of five-figure gifts, not six-figure transformational grants. All 70 tracked grants are coded simply "GENERAL" purpose (unrestricted operating support), and roughly two-thirds of recipients received the same grant amount across 2-3 consecutive years (e.g., New Canaan Community Foundation: 3 grants totaling $151,000; Open Door Shelter, Building One Community, and Domestic Violence Crisis Center: 3 grants each at $70,000, $70,000, and $60,000 respectively) — indicating Silverleaf favors renewing multi-year commitments over one-off gifts. Geographically, 74% of grants (52 of 70) went to Connecticut (27) and New York (25) recipients, with small, likely trustee-driven outliers in CA (7, including Stanford and USC), FL (3), MO (2), PA (2), and single grants in MA, TX, VA, and VT.

Silverleaf's algorithmic peer set consists of five other Philanthropy & Grantmaking-classified private foundations matched almost exactly on asset size (~$3.81M each) — a coincidence of the IRS BMF snapshot rather than a meaningful strategic cohort, since none of these peers maintain a public website or disclosed application process either:

Silverleaf is the only foundation in this peer group with any public web presence (a live site, a named mission statement, and press-visible trustees), which itself is a meaningful differentiator — most similarly-sized family foundations in this cohort are fully dark to outside grant seekers. That relative transparency, combined with a named mission and identifiable trustees, makes Silverleaf marginally more approachable than its peers even though it shares their closed, invitation-driven funding model.

No foundation-specific news, press release, or grant announcement dated 2025 or 2026 could be located for Silverleaf Foundation Inc. — it does not appear to issue public statements about its giving. The most current financial data available is a partial FY2024 filing showing total revenue of $656,658 and total assets of $3,814,383, with grants-paid and total-giving figures for FY2024 not yet publicly reported (likely pending 990-PF processing lag). The last fully reported grant year is FY2023 ($352,200 paid, $400,826 total giving), which was itself an increase over FY2022 ($309,800 paid). The only recent, verifiable activity tied to the foundation is indirect: President and Chair Mayree Clark appeared as a named speaker at Stanford Law School's 29th Annual Directors' College in 2024, and public profiles (Wikidata, Wikipedia) describe her as a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a director of the Tricycle Foundation — a Silverleaf grantee. No leadership changes were identified; the same four trustees (Clark, Devereaux, Williams, Saverin) recur across all filing years reviewed, all serving unpaid. Absent contrary evidence, grant seekers should assume Silverleaf's giving pattern is continuing on its steady, incremental trajectory of the last five years rather than undergoing any strategic pivot.

Do not lead with a formal LOI or grant proposal — there is no application portal, downloadable guidelines, or published deadline anywhere on silverleaffoundation.org, and the foundation is flagged in our data and by third-party grant databases as funding preselected organizations rather than reviewing open submissions. The single highest-leverage move is securing a warm introduction: look for a shared connection to President Mayree Clark (Stanford MBA '81, Council on Foreign Relations, Tricycle Foundation board), VP/Secretary Jeffrey Williams, or directors Kit Devereaux and Laura Saverin, or a board/donor tie to an existing grantee such as New Canaan Community Foundation, Tricycle Foundation, or Achievement First — Silverleaf's grant list shows real affinity for organizations connected to its trustees' personal and professional networks. If a direct approach is unavoidable, keep the initial outreach to a brief, personalized email to info@silverleaffoundation.org (or a call to (212) 897-9618) rather than a full packet — this is a relationship-first funder, not a paperwork-first one. Anchor any ask in general operating support: 100% of tracked grants were coded "GENERAL," so proposals built around unrestricted funding for core mission work will fit the foundation's actual giving pattern far better than a project-restricted pitch. Size the ask realistically: the median historical grant is $10,000 and the ceiling observed is under $52,000 — requesting six-figure sums is out of pattern and likely to be declined outright. Emphasize geographic and thematic fit: roughly three-quarters of grants go to Connecticut and New York organizations working in education, women's issues, health, or equity, with a visible soft spot for Fairfield County human-services nonprofits (Open Door Shelter, Domestic Violence Crisis Center, Kids In Crisis, Building One Community). A common mistake to avoid: treating this like a competitive open RFP funder and investing in a polished cold proposal — the evidence strongly suggests unsolicited applications, however well-written, are unlikely to be reviewed at all without a relationship behind them. Once funded, the data shows Silverleaf renews reliably for 2-3 consecutive years at a consistent dollar amount, so the better long-term strategy for an already-funded grantee is quiet stewardship (a short annual impact update) rather than a fresh re-application each cycle.