Stone Steps Foundation

Stone Steps Foundation is a small, closely-held family foundation (EIN 85-2108142) run by two officers — President/Director Karen Paterson and Secretary/Treasurer/Director Daniel Neukomm, both unpaid — out of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA. Its own website (stonesteps.org) states plainly that it 'does not accept unsolicited proposals,' and the Granted database flags it as preselected-only. This is a foundation that finds its grantees, not one that reviews inbound applications; the database's accepting_applications flag should be read as 'technically a grantmaker,' not 'has an open portal.' The mission — 'advancing economic and social justice through innovative and sustainable solutions to the problems of poverty' — points to a deliberate, thesis-driven portfolio built around scalable anti-poverty innovation rather than broad community philanthropy. Its top grantee, Acumen (three grants totaling $830,000, roughly 82% of all tracked giving), is itself an impact-investing intermediary that deploys patient capital to enterprises serving the poor — a strong signal that Stone Steps prefers funding proven intermediaries and platforms over direct one-off local charities. Other repeat grantees (Street Business School, Global Communities, Whizzkids, all funded across 3 separate grants each) reinforce a pattern of multi-year, relationship-based commitments to a tight roster of 6-8 organizations rather than a rotating grant cycle. For an organization without an existing relationship, the realistic path in is indirect: build visibility with Acumen's network and portfolio, engage with poverty-alleviation/impact-investing convenings where Paterson or Neukomm might appear, or pursue warm introductions through shared board or funder connections. A cold application is very unlikely to be reviewed. Organizations working in social-enterprise poverty solutions, workforce/livelihoods training (per Street Business School and Whizzkids), or emergency humanitarian response (per the Ukraine-related JDC grants) are the closest thematic fits.

Across the 17 tracked grants totaling $1,013,000, the average grant is $59,588, but the distribution is extremely top-heavy: Acumen alone absorbed $830,000 across 3 grants (82% of tracked dollars, ~$276,667 per grant), while every other grantee received far smaller amounts — Street Business School $65,000/3 grants (~$21,667 avg), American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee $50,000/2 grants ($25,000 avg, Ukraine-designated), Global Communities $30,000/3 grants ($10,000 avg), Whizzkids $22,000/3 grants (~$7,333 avg), and single grants to Uncharted ($10,000), Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties ($5,000), and Elizabeth Stone House ($1,000). The foundation's own reported typical_grant_size (median $10,000, average $44,429, range $1,000-$250,000, across 7 grants counted) confirms this pattern: a small number of very large anchor grants (largely to Acumen) alongside a longer tail of $1,000-$30,000 grants. Annual grants_paid has held in a narrow band: $311,000 (2021), $351,000 (2022), $300,000 (2023), and $305,500 (2024 per Instrumentl), while total_giving (which includes non-grant disbursements) ran higher at $376,585-$441,202 in those same years — implying roughly $50,000-$90,000/year in non-grant program or administrative spending. Geographically, grantees cluster in NY (5), CO (4), TX (3), MD (3), CA (1), and MA (1) — a national footprint with no strong home-state (CA) bias, consistent with funding intermediaries with national/international reach rather than local San Diego-area nonprofits. Total assets have declined steadily from $6,283,520 (2021) to $5,482,085 (2024), a roughly 13% drawdown, while investment income has been volatile ($1,237,750 in 2021 vs. $153,597 in 2023), suggesting giving is funded more by a stable payout policy than by fluctuating market returns.

Stone Steps sits within a cohort of similarly-sized (~$5.5M asset) Philanthropy & Grantmaking-classified private foundations, all of which are closely-held, preselected-giving vehicles rather than open grant programs.

All six foundations in this peer set land within roughly $10,000 of each other in total assets ($5.48M-$5.49M), which is a strong indicator they were sourced by asset-band rather than mission similarity — none of the five peers publish a discoverable website or grant program, making Stone Steps comparatively more transparent (it has a live site and a stated mission) even though it, too, does not accept unsolicited applications. Grant seekers should not expect any of these peers to offer an easier or more open entry point; the entire cohort operates on a relationship/preselection model typical of small single-family or closely-held foundations at this asset scale.

No dedicated press coverage, leadership announcements, or public news releases from Stone Steps Foundation were found in web search for 2025 or 2026 — this is expected for a two-person, no-staff family foundation that does not run a public communications program. The most current verifiable activity is financial: third-party 990 aggregators (Instrumentl) show data updated as of December 8, 2025, reporting FY2024 grants_paid of $305,500 across 9 grantees, roughly flat versus FY2023's $300,000. Leadership has been stable across the tracked filings, with Karen Paterson (President/Director) and Daniel Neukomm (Secretary/Treasurer/Director) as the sole officers in every year of data reviewed, both uncompensated. The Granted database record was last enriched on 2026-08-22 and web-verified via Claude enrichment on 2026-03-24, with no new grants_page_url, opportunities_url, or application_form_url discovered — reinforcing that this foundation has not stood up any new public-facing application infrastructure recently. One notable recent-activity signal from the grantee data is the presence of Ukraine-designated emergency response giving to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a response-driven allocation that stands out from the foundation's otherwise steady core portfolio (Acumen, Street Business School, Global Communities, Whizzkids) and suggests the foundation retains flexibility for time-sensitive humanitarian grants outside its normal cycle.

Because Stone Steps Foundation explicitly states on stonesteps.org that it 'does not accept unsolicited proposals,' the single most important tip is: do not submit a cold LOI or application — it will not be reviewed, and the foundation has no listed grants_page_url, application_form_url, or application_deadline in either its own site or third-party databases (Instrumentl/Zeffy both show 0 live opportunities). Instead, focus on relationship-building: (1) Identify and engage with the foundation's existing grantee network — Acumen, Street Business School, Global Communities, and Whizzkids are all established players in poverty-alleviation and impact investing, and warm introductions through this network are far more likely to succeed than a direct approach. (2) Position any outreach around the foundation's stated thesis of 'innovative and sustainable solutions to the problems of poverty' — generic social-service framing will not resonate; lead with scalability, evidence of impact, and alignment with market-based or intermediary-driven poverty solutions, mirroring Acumen's own patient-capital model. (3) Given the foundation's small size (two unpaid officers, no program staff), expect any engagement to go directly through Karen Paterson or Daniel Neukomm rather than a program officer — a personal, specific, low-volume approach (e.g., a direct email referencing a mutual connection or shared funder) will outperform a mass-mailed proposal. (4) Watch for opportunistic/responsive giving: the Ukraine Emergency Response grants to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee show the foundation will move quickly on urgent humanitarian needs when motivated, so organizations with a credible emergency-response angle tied to poverty or displacement could have a secondary opening. (5) Common mistake to avoid: treating the `accepting_applications: true` database flag as an invitation — it reflects legal eligibility to receive 501(c)(3) grants, not an open call. (6) Given the modest and slightly declining asset base ($6.28M in 2021 to $5.48M in 2024), do not expect this foundation to be scaling up its giving — pitch a right-sized ask in the $5,000-$30,000 range unless you can credibly compete for an anchor-level commitment akin to the $250,000-$276,000 average given to Acumen.