Simran Foundation

Simran Foundation is a small, family-run private foundation (EIN 81-4596382) based in Naples, FL, established in 2017 and governed entirely by three unpaid Bhatia family members: Seema Bhatia (President, Secretary, Director), Ariana Bhatia (Vice President), and Raj Bhatia (Treasurer). It has no staff, no program officers, and — critically — its own third-party profiles (Grantmakers.io, Cause IQ) flag it as 'Preselected Only,' meaning it does not accept unsolicited proposals of any kind. Important caveat for applicants: the URL commonly associated with this record, simranfoundation.org, actually belongs to an unrelated India-based NGO in West Delhi (founded by Kuljeet Kaur, focused on sewing/computer training) — do not attempt to apply through that site's 'Donate Now' or volunteer forms, as it will not reach this foundation. There is also a separate, unrelated 'Simran Foundation' entity in Wilmington, DE (EIN 85-3960357) — confirm you have the correct EIN (814596382) before any outreach. Given the closed, invitation-only structure, the realistic strategy is relationship-based rather than proposal-based. Across 42 tracked grants, the foundation shows strong grantee loyalty: Adler Planetarium, American India Foundation, Chicago Scholars, and Arogya World each received support across 3-4 consecutive years, suggesting the board maintains a fixed roster of causes rather than running open competitive cycles. First-time applicants should look for a warm introduction — through a shared board connection, a University of Chicago Booth or Stanford affiliation (both appear as grantees), or an India-focused health/education mission, since that combination (Chicago civic/education institutions plus India-diaspora nonprofits) defines the observed giving identity. Organizations without any of these ties should treat this funder as a long shot and prioritize effort on more accessible peers. If a connection does exist, come prepared with a concise, mission-aligned overview rather than a formal LOI packet — there is no portal or published process to submit one to.

Giving from Simran Foundation is modest and concentrated. Across the 42 grants tracked in our data, total disbursed is $259,421 at an average of $6,177 per grant. The foundation's own typical-grant-size profile (a 9-grant sample) shows a median of $10,000 and average of $7,800, ranging $2,000-$12,000; a broader 16-grant sample from Cause IQ shows a wider range of $500-$58,000 with a $5,000 median — indicating most gifts cluster in the low four figures, with occasional larger outliers (the $58,000 gift is well above anything in our top-grantee list, suggesting variability year to year). By recipient: Adler Planetarium leads at $50,000 across 4 grants, followed by American India Foundation ($46,001/4 grants), Chicago Scholars ($41,000/4 grants), Rosalind Franklin University ("Rfu University", $40,000/3 grants), and Arogya World ($25,000/4 grants) — these five alone account for $202,001, or 78% of tracked giving. Geographically, Illinois dominates with 32 of 42 grants (76%), followed by New York (4), California (2), Texas (2), Alabama (1), and New Jersey (1) — striking given the foundation's Florida address, and consistent with the Chicago-heavy institutional roster. Annual disbursements have trended upward but unevenly: $73,458 (2019) → $85,858 (2020) → $64,274 (2021) → $70,078 (2022) → $115,633 (2023) → $121,500 (2024, per the most recent 990-PF), roughly a 65% increase since 2021. This tracks a near-tripling of assets from $1.34M (2020) to $3.48M (2024), fueled mostly by volatile investment/asset-sale revenue (net revenue swung from -$266,533 in 2022 to +$1,343,415 in 2021 and +$1,367,494 in 2024) rather than steady annual contributions — the corpus is being built opportunistically, and giving capacity should be expected to fluctuate with it.

Simran Foundation sits in a tight cluster of similarly-sized private grantmaking foundations, all clustered near $3.48M in assets and all classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking. None of the five closest asset peers in our data have a listed website or public application information, underscoring that this is a common profile for this asset tier: family-controlled, unstaffed, and closed to outside applicants.

What differentiates Simran Foundation from this peer set is transparency of pattern, not process: its 990-PF grant schedules are public and legible enough to show a consistent, repeat-grantee roster (Adler Planetarium, American India Foundation, Chicago Scholars), while the peer foundations show no public grantee data at all in our records. For a grant seeker, that means Simran Foundation is at least mappable via IRS filings even though it remains closed to unsolicited applications — an advantage over peers where even the giving pattern is opaque.

The most concrete recent activity is financial: the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF (the latest available on ProPublica) reports net assets of $3,481,445, up from $2,258,399 the prior fiscal year — a roughly 54% one-year increase — driven by $1,367,494 in revenue that was 98.4% attributable to asset sales rather than new cash contributions. Expenses were $144,448 and charitable disbursements were $121,500, both up from FY2023's $115,633 in total giving. No leadership changes were found; the board has consisted of the same three Bhatia family members (Seema, Ariana, and Raj) since the foundation's 2017 founding, and officer compensation remains $0 across all filed years. Targeted web searches for 2025-2026 news, press releases, or program announcements returned no results specific to this foundation — searches instead surfaced unrelated entities sharing the "Simran Foundation" name (a Wilmington, DE foundation, EIN 85-3960357, and an India-based NGO at simranfoundation.org), which is itself a useful finding: this funder generates essentially no public-facing news, consistent with its small size, all-volunteer board, and invitation-only structure. In the absence of announced new initiatives, the most reliable signal of the foundation's forward trajectory is the asset growth itself: if the FY2024 jump in net assets is followed by proportional increases in giving, total disbursements could plausibly exceed the FY2024 figure of $121,500 in coming cycles, though the foundation's history shows revenue (and by extension giving capacity) is lumpy rather than steadily increasing.

Because Simran Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, most conventional grant-writing tactics do not apply here — the highest-leverage move is identifying a warm connection, not polishing a cold LOI. First, verify identity: confirm you are targeting EIN 81-4596382 in Naples, FL, and not the similarly-named Wilmington, DE foundation (EIN 85-3960357) or the India-based NGO at simranfoundation.org, which is an entirely different organization and will not route inquiries to this foundation's board. Second, study the affinity pattern rather than a stated mission statement (none is published for this entity specifically): the foundation's real giving identity, based on 42 tracked grants, splits between Chicago-area institutions (Adler Planetarium, Chicago Scholars, Rosalind Franklin University, University of Chicago Booth, Lake Forest Academy, Open Heart Magic, Marillac St Vincent, Covenant House Illinois) and India-diaspora health/education causes (American India Foundation, Arogya World, Gram Seva, The Akshay Patra Foundation). Organizations that fit neither profile have little basis for outreach. Third, if you have any connection — a board member introduction, a shared alumni network (Stanford and University of Chicago Booth both appear as grantees, suggesting personal ties), or an India-focused mission — lead with that relationship explicitly rather than a generic proposal. Fourth, calibrate the ask: typical grants run $500-$12,000 with occasional larger gifts up to roughly $58,000, and the median across available samples is $5,000-$10,000, so requests should be modest and specific rather than for large multi-year commitments. Fifth, expect multi-year continuity once accepted — several top grantees received support across three to four consecutive years, so a first small gift may be the opening of a longer relationship rather than a one-off. Sixth, avoid the common mistake of submitting a formal application packet to any address found online; no such portal exists, and unsolicited materials are, per the foundation's own classification, explicitly not reviewed.