The Seabreeze Foundation

The Seabreeze Foundation is not a conventional solicitable grantmaker — it is a closed, trustee-directed vehicle run by President John F. Megrue and Trustee Lizanne G. Megrue, both serving without compensation (officer_compensation is $0 in every filed year from 2011 through 2023). The foundation's IRS contact designation, '% Apax Partners,' reflects Megrue's private-equity background, and Seabreeze functions as a personal philanthropic vehicle rather than a staffed foundation with a program office. There is no grants_page_url, no application_form_url, and IRS filings list application_instructions as literally '__none__' — a strong signal that funding flows through the trustees' existing relationships rather than an open RFP or portal.

The grantee roster confirms this pattern. Across the most recent multi-year grant window on file (14 grants totaling $1.26M to just 7 organizations), two grantee relationships account for roughly 91% of tracked dollars: Grameen America ($600,000 across three grants) and the Global Poverty Project/Global Citizen family of grants ($550,000 across three grants, recorded under two name variants). The remaining ~9% went to Open Doors ($60,000/3 grants), Chi Psi Educational Trust ($20,000/2 grants), Creative Visions Foundation ($20,000, tied explicitly to 'Optimist Project' support), and Norwalk Land Trust ($10,000/2 grants).

For first-time applicants, this pattern means cold LOIs are unlikely to convert. The foundation's observed behavior is to fund a small, stable core of relationship-based grantees at meaningful, multi-year dollar amounts (roughly $150,000-$200,000 per grantee-year for its two anchor partners) rather than distributing widely. Newer relationships entered at far smaller dollar levels ($5,000-$20,000 per grant), suggesting the foundation does test new grantees at modest scale before any relationship deepens — but there is no visible, unsolicited pathway into that initial test grant.

Organizations with a credible warm introduction — through Apax Partners' network, Connecticut/New York civic circles (note the Chi Psi fraternity trust and Norwalk Land Trust grants), or existing anchor grantees like Grameen America or Global Citizen — have a realistic shot. Everyone else should treat Seabreeze as a long-shot, low-priority target and focus outreach effort on funders with published RFPs.

Seabreeze's giving is funded almost entirely by investment income rather than new contributions — the foundation received $0 in contributions in every filed year since 2013 except a 2012 windfall ($9,135,347) and a smaller 2011 gift ($1,000,122). Annual grantmaking tracks market performance closely: net investment income fell from $535,768 (FY2021) to $272,452 (FY2023), and total giving fell in lockstep from $592,595 to $484,065 to $426,632 over the same three years — a 28% two-year decline. The most recent available 990 data (the period ProPublica lists as '2025') shows a partial rebound: $633,940 in revenue and $341,752 in charitable disbursements (89.3% of total expenses), against total assets of $7.45 million — essentially flat with the $7.1M-$7.45M range the foundation has held since 2020.

One outlier deserves note: FY2015 shows $4,206,500 in grants paid, against a typical $130,000-$600,000 annual range in every other filed year — almost certainly a single large, non-repeating distribution. Applicants should not use 2015 as a benchmark for what's realistically obtainable.

At the grantee level (the most recent multi-year grant list: $1.26M across 14 grants to 7 organizations), the two anchor relationships (Grameen America, Global Citizen) received roughly $150,000-$200,000 per grant, while newer or smaller relationships cluster at $5,000-$20,000 per grant. The foundation's own typical_grant_size figure (based on 6 recent grants) shows a median of $31,250, an average of $55,417, and a range of $10,000-$200,000 — consistent with a barbell pattern: a couple of very large, sustained commitments and several small ones, with little activity in the $30,000-$150,000 middle band.

Geographically, tracked grantee dollars concentrate in New York (6 grants) and Connecticut (5 grants), with one grant in California and two in Tennessee — aligning with, but skewing more Northeast-heavy than, the foundation's stated NY/CT/CA/FL geographic_focus. All grant purposes on file are coded 'UNRESTRICTED GENERAL' support except one tied to named 'Optimist Project' programming, indicating a strong preference for general operating support over restricted program grants once a relationship is established.

These five peers were matched almost entirely on asset size — all sit within a $7.45M-$7.45M band and share the same 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE category — rather than on demonstrated program overlap, and only Hartwig maintains a public website; none publish giving totals or an open application in this dataset. That reinforces a broader pattern at this asset scale ($5-10M): foundations here are overwhelmingly family-directed and closed to unsolicited applicants. Seabreeze stands out even within this peer set for having an unusually concentrated, name-brand grantee list (Grameen America, Global Citizen) rather than the hyper-local, diffuse giving more typical of same-size family foundations.

Public reporting on Seabreeze's day-to-day activity is thin — no 2025 or 2026 press coverage, grant announcements, or leadership changes turned up in search, and the foundation has never maintained a public grants portal or communications presence. The most current verifiable data point is IRS Form 990 filing data reflected on ProPublica (the period ProPublica lists as '2025'): total assets of $7.45 million, revenue of $633,940 (up sharply from $298,354 in FY2023), and charitable disbursements of $341,752 (89.3% of total expenses) — suggesting a moderate rebound in both investment returns and giving capacity after the FY2021-2023 decline. Leadership remains unchanged: John F. Megrue as President/Trustee and Lizanne G. Megrue as Trustee, both uncompensated, consistent with every filing back to 2011.

One caveat worth flagging directly to any researcher using this report: the DB record's on-file website, theseabreezefoundation.org, currently resolves to a page describing a foundation 'inspired by Christopher R. Siebach's dedication to service' with a housing/employment/education/health focus — content that does not match this foundation's confirmed grantee list (Grameen America, Global Citizen, Open Doors, Chi Psi Educational Trust) or its Megrue leadership. This is most likely a website-matching error in the underlying data (or the domain has since been repurposed or re-registered by an unrelated organization), not evidence of a genuine program pivot. Treat that website's content as unverified for this specific EIN, and confirm any programmatic detail by phone at (888) 866-3275 or by mail at PO Box 1532, Pennington, NJ 08534-0691 before relying on it.

Because Seabreeze has no published RFP, LOI process, deadline, or online form (application_instructions is on file as '__none__'), the standard grant-seeking playbook — find the portal, submit by the deadline — does not apply here.

• Do not cold-submit through the listed website; its current content does not match this foundation's confirmed profile (see the caveat in Recent Activity) and, regardless, there is no visible submission mechanism there. Route inquiries through the foundation's registered mailing address (PO Box 1532, Pennington, NJ 08534) or phone ((888) 866-3275), and expect a slow, informal response given the all-volunteer, two-trustee structure.
• Lead with a warm introduction wherever possible. Every dollar this foundation has given in its most recent multi-year window went to just seven organizations, and 91% went to two: Grameen America and Global Citizen/Global Poverty Project. That concentration is the strongest available signal that Seabreeze funds people and relationships, not proposals — a referral connected to Apax Partners, the Megrue family, or an existing grantee (Grameen America and Global Citizen both plausibly make introductions to mission-adjacent peers) carries more weight than any written application.
• If a relationship is established, ask for unrestricted general operating support rather than a restricted program grant — every grant on file except one is coded 'UNRESTRICTED GENERAL,' and the sole exception (Creative Visions Foundation's 'Optimist Project' support) was still tied to a specific named initiative rather than a generic proposal-driven ask.
• Calibrate the initial ask small. New relationships (Norwalk Land Trust, Chi Psi Educational Trust, Creative Visions Foundation) entered at $5,000-$20,000 per grant, well below the $150,000-$200,000 level given to the two anchor grantees — suggesting the foundation tests new grantees before scaling commitment. A $200,000 opening ask from an unknown organization is unrealistic; a modest, low-friction first request ($5,000-$25,000) better matches observed behavior.
• Emphasize alignment with poverty alleviation and economic mobility (Grameen America's microfinance model), global citizenship/anti-poverty advocacy (Global Citizen), or humanitarian/refugee relief (Open Doors) — these map to the 'Community Development' focus area on file and represent the clearest thematic through-line in actual giving, more so than education or health despite the foundation sitting under the T21 (Philanthropy/Grantmaking) NTEE code.
• Common mistake to avoid: treating this as a typical proposal-driven foundation prospect with a submission deadline. None is on file (application_deadline is null), and generic proposal-writing effort without an existing connection is very likely wasted time here.