The Renaissance Foundation

The Renaissance Foundation is a Portland, Oregon trust run by three unpaid trustees — Irving J. Levin (Chair), Diana Hoff (President/Secretary), and Stephanie Fowler (Director) — with zero officer compensation reported across every available filing year. Its identity is dominated by one signature initiative: the Renaissance Scholars Program (RSP), launched in 2005, which provides first-generation, low-income college students a renewable scholarship of up to $5,000/year ($20,000 over four years). This shapes the Foundation's real funding behavior more than its NTEE code ("Philanthropy & Grantmaking") suggests — most of its 900 recorded grants and $15.7M in cumulative giving flow to universities as scholarship disbursements on behalf of named students, not to nonprofits pursuing open project grants. Lewis & Clark College ($2.6M across 7 grants), Portland State University ($1.4M/5 grants), and University of Oregon ($929K/4 grants) top the grantee list precisely because they enroll large cohorts of Renaissance Scholars. Alongside RSP, a secondary and much smaller track funds Portland-area general-operating grants to nonprofits such as Oregon Food Bank ($213K/5 grants), Stand For Children ($940K combined), Portland Rescue Mission, and Union Gospel Mission — organizations that appear repeatedly (4-5 grants each) rather than as one-off awards, indicating the Foundation renews relationships rather than seeking new grantees each cycle. First-time organizational applicants should understand there is no public RFP or online portal for this track; the Foundation's own 990 instructions (project narrative, anticipated outcomes, board roster, and budget) function more like what's requested once a relationship is already underway than an open call. Individual students, by contrast, have a fully public, portal-based application with hard February 1 and May 1 deadlines. Given the trustee-directed, closely-held structure and near-total absence of new contributions since 2019, expect a funder that favors continuity with known institutions and community organizations in Oregon, Illinois, and California over cold outreach from unfamiliar nonprofits.

Across the Foundation's available 990 grant history (900 grants, $15.7M cumulative), the average grant is $17,446, but the typical_grant_size field — likely reflecting a cleaner recent-year sample of 252 grants — shows a median of just $4,510 against an average of $16,385, with a range from $250 to $833,334. That gap between median and average confirms a bimodal pattern: a high volume of small, ~$4,000-5,000 individual scholarship disbursements alongside a handful of large, six-figure institutional and nonprofit grants. By dollar concentration, higher education dominates: of the top 50 recipients, roughly 40 are colleges or universities receiving scholarship-designated funds, led by Lewis & Clark College ($2.6M), Portland State University ($1.4M), and University of Oregon ($929K). Nonprofit general-operating recipients are smaller individually but recur — Oregon Food Bank ($213K/5 grants), Stand For Children ($705K + $235.5K across two entity listings), and Portland Art Museum ($80K/4 grants). Geographically, grant counts by state show OR at 254 (28% of grants), CA at 100, IL at 99, NY at 43, MA at 37, PA at 36, WA at 34, DC at 26, VA at 23, and MN at 20 — consistent with the Foundation's stated geographic focus (OR, CA, IL) but spread nationally by where scholars attend college. Financially, the Foundation is shrinking fast: total assets fell from a $19.4M peak in FY2020 to $8.26M in FY2024, a 57% decline in four years, while total giving rose from $2.71M (2020) to $5.51M (2023) — a payout rate far above the 5% IRS minimum. Contributions received were near zero in most years except a $9.89M inflow in FY2019 (pushing total revenue to $10.5M that year); since then the Foundation has not raised significant new capital, suggesting it is running down an existing corpus rather than actively fundraising.

These five peers were matched on near-identical asset size (all $8.25-8.26M) within the same NTEE category, but none has a listed website in available records, implying they are closely-held family foundations that grant primarily to pre-selected recipients with no public engagement channel. Renaissance stands out within this peer set for actually operating a public-facing program (the RSP portal with published deadlines and eligibility criteria) — a meaningfully higher transparency bar than typical for a foundation this size, even though its non-scholarship, general-operating track remains as closed and relationship-driven as its peers.

Public news coverage of The Renaissance Foundation is sparse — it does not appear to issue press releases, and no major 2025-2026 news stories were found beyond its own website updates. The most concrete recent signal is a spring 2025 staffing addition: Marissa, an RSP alumna, joined as Scholarship Program Coordinator, adding to a small existing team (Diana as Director of Operations & Administration since inception, Callie as Scholarship Program Manager since 2020, and Charlotte as Scholarship Communications Manager since 2022). The Foundation's site reports $4M in scholarship support disbursed in the 2024-25 academic year, with 796 enrolled scholars across 151 colleges and an 85% six-year bachelor's degree completion rate — figures the site presents as an update from the previously-cited 87% completion rate, suggesting the program tracks and republishes outcome metrics annually. As of this research, the 2026 scholarship application cycle is listed as closed on the Foundation's site, with the standard February 1 (decisions by April 1) and May 1 (decisions by July 1) deadline structure expected to resume for the next cycle. No leadership changes among the three trustees (Levin, Hoff, Fowler) were identified, and no new grant programs, RFPs, or major institutional gifts beyond the existing RSP and general-operating tracks surfaced in this research. Financial filings (most recently available: FY2024, showing $8.26M in assets and $2.84M in revenue) suggest the Foundation is continuing its multi-year pattern of drawing down assets faster than it replenishes them, which grant seekers should read as an active, well-funded but finite-horizon grantmaker rather than a growing one.

For nonprofits seeking general-operating support (as opposed to student scholarships), there is no public online application — start with a direct call to the Foundation at (503) 726-5970 or a letter to PO Box 80516, Portland, OR 97280-1516, addressed to Diana Hoff (President/Secretary) or Irving J. Levin (Chair), to gauge interest before submitting a full request. When invited to apply, the Foundation's own instructions specify: a project/program description including the number and nature of intended beneficiaries; anticipated outcomes; details on how the organization impacts its community; a brief project budget with the amount requested; a full board of directors roster; a narrative of no more than 3 pages describing the organization's history and achievements; and both an operating budget and a project budget. Critically, the Foundation explicitly states that requests for capital expenses or capital campaign contributions are generally not considered — lead with program impact, not facilities or equipment asks. Given the repeat-grantee pattern (Oregon Food Bank, Stand For Children, and Portland Rescue Mission each received 4-5 separate grants), first-time organizational applicants should expect this to be a multi-year relationship-building process rather than a single successful ask, and should emphasize Portland/Oregon community ties given 28% of all grants by count go to Oregon-based recipients. For students applying to the Renaissance Scholars Program, timing is everything: the high school track closes February 1 (decisions by April 1) or May 1 (decisions by July 1), and incomplete applications are not reviewed. Required materials include unofficial transcripts, one of FAFSA/ORSAA/parent tax return/I-20 for financial verification, two recommendation letters from non-family sources, and two essays (500-1,000 words and 400-600 words) — applicants should start gathering recommendation letters early since two are required from separate, non-family evaluators. Note that a full-ride scholarship elsewhere disqualifies a student from a Renaissance award, so this program targets students with a funding gap, not students already fully funded.