The Rauch Family Foundation

The Rauch Family Foundation operates on an invitation-only model rooted in a dual mandate established by founders Dudley and Ceci Rauch: alleviating global poverty through rigorous, evidence-based interventions, and strengthening the Inland Empire communities of San Bernardino and Riverside counties in Southern California where the Rauch family built their lives. Organizations cannot submit unsolicited proposals — the path to funding begins with demonstrated alignment via the foundation's contact form, followed by an invitation to submit a full proposal.

The foundation's giving philosophy reflects strong effective altruism influences. Their long-standing partnership with GiveWell — including a $5M emergency allocation in Q1 2025 and at least $1.8M in prior tracked grants to GiveWell-designated programs — signals institutional comfort with rigorous impact measurement, third-party vetting, and cost-per-outcome frameworks. For global health applicants, this is the single most important framing consideration.

For first-time applicants, the critical insight is that no open grant cycle exists. The Board of the Rauch Family Foundation meets regularly throughout the year to review proposals from invited organizations, and the foundation aims to provide 'fair and reasonable turnaround times for applicants invited to submit proposals.' The published contact form is the designated first point of contact.

Two categories of organizations are most competitive: (1) internationally-focused health nonprofits using measurable interventions targeting malaria, trachoma, child malnutrition, and clean water access — particularly those with GiveWell or comparable third-party endorsement; and (2) Inland Empire organizations addressing health equity, housing, food security, and social services in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Arts organizations connected to the Los Angeles or Inland Empire cultural ecology (the LA Opera and LA Philharmonic's YOLA program appear in the grantee record) may qualify for discretionary gifts, but these appear relationship-driven.

The foundation's FY2021 giving spike ($33.85M versus a typical $8–11M) reflects the $30M pledge to Duke University School of Medicine for needs-based scholarships in honor of the founders — a one-time transformational commitment. This illustrates the foundation's capacity for deep institutional commitments when alignment is long-standing, but this type of legacy gift is unlikely to recur in the near term.

Based on IRS filings, the Rauch Family Foundation's annual giving has stabilized in the $8.9M–$10.7M range: $8.86M (FY2022), $10.68M (FY2023), with FY2024 data still pending. Total assets of ~$107.7M (FY2024) and net investment income of $8.64M (FY2023) underpin this giving level. The anomalous FY2021 total of $33.85M reflects the one-time $30M Duke University pledge and should not be used as a baseline.

Across 83 tracked grants totaling $10.4M, the average grant is $125,655. However, the distribution is highly concentrated. The top 5 recipients account for approximately $4.15M (40% of all tracked giving): GiveWell/Malaria Consortium ($1.3M), World Food Program USA ($850K), The Clear Fund Against Malaria ($750K), Children's Hospital Los Angeles ($654K over 4 grants), and The Carter Center ($600K). At the other end, 10+ grants fall below $30K, including $10K gifts to community organizations and religious institutions.

The database records a typical grant size with a median of approximately $30,000 and average of $947,156 — the wide gap confirms the skewed distribution caused by a small number of very large grants alongside many smaller community gifts.

Geographically, California dominates with 63 of 83 grants (76%), primarily in San Bernardino and Riverside counties with additional Los Angeles-area giving. New York accounts for 5 grants (UNICEF, Duke University-adjacent), Georgia for 4 (Carter Center), and remaining grants are distributed across DC, NC, PA, HI, WA, and DE.

The 60/40 split confirmed in the 2023 Annual Letter means roughly $6M annually targets global health and $4M targets Inland Empire programs and arts. Global health grants cluster between $100K and $1.3M with recurring multi-year relationships. Inland Empire grants tend to range from $25K to $500K, with housing and health organizations in the $150K–$500K range and smaller community organizations in the $10K–$95K range.

The table below compares the Rauch Family Foundation to four peers across the health-focused and Southern California philanthropic landscape:

The Rauch Family Foundation occupies a distinctive niche. It is smaller than the major Southern California philanthropies (Hilton, Weingart) but philosophically aligned with the effective altruism movement, placing it closer to Open Philanthropy in grantmaking ethos than to traditional place-based community foundations. Unlike Weingart, which operates an open LOI process, the Rauch foundation is fully invitation-only — making relationship cultivation the central strategic challenge. Its specific Inland Empire geographic focus (San Bernardino and Riverside counties) is uncommon among major California health funders, most of whom concentrate on Los Angeles County proper, creating less competitive access for well-positioned Inland Empire organizations.

The foundation's most significant 2025 activity was a rapid emergency response to the January 20, 2025 executive order freezing US foreign aid. Within Q1 2025, the foundation deployed $6.25M in emergency grants: $5M to GiveWell for urgent high-impact global health program gaps, $1M to Doctors Without Borders for armed conflict regions, and $250K to GlobalGiving's Community Aid Fund for grassroots health programming. This single-quarter deployment likely exceeded the foundation's typical annual global health allocation, signaling that geopolitical disruption to aid pipelines has elevated the foundation's sense of urgency.

The foundation publicly committed to developing an 'internal framework for further strategic response' by May 2025, with a Q2 2025 progress update — suggesting additional 2025 grants beyond the Q1 emergency response are likely.

In September 2025, Hope through Housing Foundation named the Rauch Family Foundation its 2025 Community Partner of the Year, recognizing sustained Inland Empire investment. Hope through Housing has received at least $400K in tracked grants (recorded as 'UNRESTRICTED ANNUAL GIVING' across two grants).

No major leadership changes have been publicly reported. Samuel Salen continues as President, compensated $138,600 in FY2023 (up from $126K in FY2022 and $120K in FY2021). The board includes Heather Watkins (Secretary/VP), Jesse Salen, Olivia Watkins, and Peter Obbard — indicating a family-governed foundation with professional management.

Because the Rauch Family Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, the conventional application playbook does not apply. Treat this as relationship development, not grant writing.

Lead with evidence, not narrative. The foundation's repeated GiveWell grants and their stated preference for 'transformational, evidence-based, and cost-effective' programs means cost-per-outcome data is more valuable than beneficiary stories. If your malaria or nutrition program has been vetted by GiveWell, J-PAL, or Cochrane, this should be the first sentence of your outreach, not buried in an appendix.

Mirror the foundation's language exactly. Terms woven throughout their published materials: 'transformational,' 'evidence-based,' 'cost-effective,' 'culturally competent,' 'social determinants of health,' 'pay it forward,' 'locally sustainable.' Using this vocabulary demonstrates genuine familiarity rather than template-driven outreach.

For global health applicants: Frame your geographic target as filling gaps left by USAID funding freezes. In 2025, the foundation demonstrated heightened sensitivity to disruptions in established global health aid pipelines. Malaria, trachoma, nutrition (vitamin A), and clean water access are explicitly named focus areas — these are not just examples but the actual program categories the foundation funds.

For Inland Empire applicants: Be hyper-specific to San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Document local unmet need with county-level statistics (per capita income, health outcome gaps) using the same framing the foundation uses in their 2023 Annual Letter. Mobile or accessible clinics, healthcare workforce development, and social determinants programs (housing, food security, child welfare) are the highest-probability fit.

Timing: The board meets throughout the year, so there is no single optimal application window. However, the Q1 emergency response pattern suggests January–March may be particularly active for global health decisions. Build in 2–4 months after contact form submission before expecting a response.

Avoid: Framing as a greater Los Angeles organization (narrow to the Inland Empire specifically); requesting project-restricted funding (virtually all grants are 'unrestricted annual giving'); submitting generic impact metrics without outcome rigor; and reaching out cold to individual board members.