Southpole Foundation Inc.

Southpole Foundation Inc. is a small, closely-held family foundation (~$9.3M in assets as of FY2023) founded in 2003 by David and Kenny Khym, principals of the Southpole apparel brand, and now run day-to-day by the Khym family (Daewon Khym, President; Kwangwon Khym, Secretary; Esther Khym, Treasurer — all uncompensated). It is explicitly a relationship-driven, legacy-community funder rather than an open competitive grantmaker: there is no published RFP, no online portal with deadlines, and its own IRS filing lists the application process simply as "submit a funding request through the online contact form." First-time applicants should treat this as an invited/warm-referral funder — the vast majority of its 57 tracked grants (totaling $879,500, averaging $15,430 each) went to two categories: general 'CHARITABLE GRANT' operating support to community-based nonprofits, and 'SCHOLARSHIP GRANT' funding routed through community college foundations. The typical grant size the Foundation itself reports is $5,000-$85,000, median $10,000, average $14,688 (n=16 in its own disclosure) — this is a foundation of modest individual grant sizes, not transformative single awards. Organizations most likely to break in are: (1) NJ/NY community colleges seeking scholarship-fund partnerships (a proven, repeatable ask with 8+ existing college partners and nearly 1,000 scholarships awarded to date), (2) Korean American and broader Asian immigrant-serving nonprofits in Bergen County NJ and NYC (KAAGNY, KACF, Milal, Korean American Family Service Center are repeat grantees), and (3) Bergen County hospital foundations running health fairs or health-equity programming (Holy Name, St. Francis, Englewood Health, Bergen New Bridge). Newer organizations without a warm connection to the Khym family, a Fort Lee/Bergen County presence, or ties to the Korean American community should expect a long, low-probability path — the trustee list (Sang Hwan Pak, Charles Yoon, Kyung Hee Choi, Harold Lee, Paul Kim, Gene Kang) and advisory board (Youngman Kim, John Lee, Aaron Kwon) are almost entirely Korean-surnamed community figures, reinforcing that personal/community introductions likely matter more than a cold proposal.

FY2023 (most recent filed year): total giving $420,563, grants paid $363,500, on total assets of $9,292,998 — a payout of roughly 4.5% of assets, modestly above the 5% federal minimum distribution requirement trend line. Total revenue was actually negative (-$190,135) that year, driven by market losses offsetting $211,458 in net investment income, meaning the Foundation drew down principal rather than growing it. Longer-term giving has climbed steadily: $225,000-$243,000 paid annually from 2011-2015, $207,000-$281,000 from 2019-2022, up to $363,500 in 2023 — roughly 60% growth in grants paid over the past decade, tracking a slow but real expansion of capacity. Assets swelled from $4.1-4.4M (2011-2020) to $9.3-10.2M (2021-2023) largely on the back of a single $5,076,596 contribution received in FY2021 (a rare, and likely one-time, capital infusion from the Khym family). Within the 57-grant/$879,500 grantee dataset, geography is split almost evenly between New Jersey (27 grants) and New York (27 grants), with a small Pennsylvania presence (3 grants). By dollar amount, the two largest identifiable recipients are Kaagny (Korean American Association of Greater New York) at $105,000 across 2 grants and Flushing YMCA at $80,000 across 3 grants — together roughly 21% of the tracked $879,500. Scholarship grants to community colleges are the most repeatable and evenly-distributed line item: Hudson County Community College ($64,000/3 grants) and then six other community colleges (Union County, Queensborough, BMCC, Bergen, LaGuardia, Kingsborough Foundation, Middlesex County) each receiving $44,000 across 3 grants apiece — a strong signal the Foundation runs a standardized ~$14,667/year, 3-year scholarship commitment per partner college. Below that tier, general charitable grants to health and social-service nonprofits (Kacf, 12 Plus, Bergen Family Center, Cida, Family Touch Inc, Englewood Health Foundation, Holy Name Medical Center, Awca Nj, St. Francis Hospital Foundation, Milal) mostly run $10,000-$30,000, often split across 2-3 grants — reinforcing a pattern of multi-year, modest-dollar renewal relationships rather than one-off large gifts.

Southpole sits in an asset tier ($9.3M) essentially identical to its five closest peer family foundations by asset size, all of which are also generalist "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" private foundations rather than public charities — a common profile for family-run, single-family-controlled funders with no professional program staff. What differentiates Southpole is transparency and specificity: unlike the peer set (none of which disclose focus areas or typical grant size in this dataset), Southpole publishes a mission statement, a public website with grantee examples, and a documented typical grant range ($5K-$85K), making it one of the more approachable funders in this peer tier even without a formal open application. Applicants should not expect Southpole's modest asset base to translate into large single awards — like its peers, it operates as a distributed, relationship-based micro-grantmaker rather than an institutional grantmaking operation with dedicated program staff.

The most concrete recent activity is the February 2026 award of $20,000 in scholarships split among 11 LaGuardia Community College students for the 2025-26 academic year (QNS, February 2026), continuing a pattern of annual, renewed scholarship commitments rather than one-time grants. That follows a September 2024 milestone event at CUNY Central offices where CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez publicly celebrated the Foundation's 20-year partnership with CUNY, marking $972,000 in cumulative scholarships delivered to community college students at BMCC, Kingsborough, LaGuardia, and Queensborough — each of the four CUNY schools currently receiving $20,000 annually. No leadership changes were identified in web research; the Foundation continues to be led by President Daewon Khym, Secretary Kwangwon Khym, and Treasurer Esther Khym per its most recent IRS filing, with founders David and Kenny Khym still listed on the foundation's own leadership page alongside a stable six-person trustee board (Sang Hwan Pak, Charles Yoon, Kyung Hee Choi, Harold Lee, Paul Kim, Gene Kang) and three-person advisory board. The Foundation's own "Our Work" page (last substantively describing programs, undated but referencing 2023 cumulative figures) states $4.3 million in total grants distributed since inception and highlights a research initiative on Korean American senior/healthy-aging needs commissioned across multiple states — the clearest evidence of a newer program direction beyond the legacy scholarship and general-charity model. No major funding cuts, controversies, or negative news were found in this research pass.

There is no public RFP, portal, or published deadline — the Foundation's own IRS disclosure states applicants should "submit a funding request through the online contact form" on southpolefoundation.org, and the site's Contact page (mailing address: c/o Sebit LLP, 1430 Broadway, Suite 600, New York, NY 10018) does not list a dedicated grants email or phone line beyond the Fort Lee office number (201) 242-5900. Given this, the single highest-leverage move for a new applicant is securing a warm introduction: the trustee and advisory board rosters are drawn almost entirely from the Korean American community in the NY/NJ metro area, so an introduction through KAAGNY, a CUNY/NJ community college foundation office, or a Bergen County Korean American civic or religious organization is far more likely to get a response than a cold contact-form submission. Time any outreach around the Foundation's demonstrated annual cadence: scholarship awards to its community college partners appear to run on an academic-year cycle (awards reported each February for that year's cohort), so applications or renewal check-ins are best made in late summer/early fall (August-September) ahead of the academic year, mirroring the September 2024 CUNY announcement timing. Frame any ask using the Foundation's own recurring purpose codes — "CHARITABLE GRANT" for general operating/program support to a community nonprofit serving underserved NY/NJ populations, or "SCHOLARSHIP GRANT" for a structured, renewable community-college partnership — since virtually every one of its 57 tracked grants falls into one of these two buckets; a highly specific capital or project-restricted request is a weaker fit than a general-support or scholarship-fund ask. Common mistakes to avoid: treating this as a large institutional funder that can absorb a six-figure single ask (its own median grant is $10,000 and its largest tracked single relationship, KAAGNY, totals $105,000 across two grants); submitting a proposal with no connection to the Korean American, immigrant, aging, or Bergen County/NYC community-college ecosystem; and expecting a formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline — there is no evidence of a multi-stage review process, site visits, or a published board meeting calendar. Given zero officer compensation reported across all filed years, this is an all-volunteer family operation; keep proposals concise (a one-to-two-page letter plus budget is more appropriate than a lengthy grant application) and expect informal, direct correspondence rather than a bureaucratic review.