Two Lights Foundation Inc.

Two Lights Foundation Inc. is the private family foundation of NFL Commissioner Roger S. Goodell and Jane S. Goodell (a former Fox News anchor), incorporated in 2015 and administered from Denver, CO through IWP Wealth Management, with both Goodells serving as uncompensated part-time directors. This is not an institutional grantmaker seeking applications — it is a personal giving vehicle, and the data bears that out: there is no application form, no published program guidelines, no staff, and the IRS record marks it 'preselected only.' Every dollar traced in the 990-PF filings goes to organizations with a direct personal, professional, or geographic tie to the Goodells: Roger's alma mater Dartmouth ($950,000 across 4 gifts), the NFL Foundation itself, the Reformed Church of Bronxville and the Bronxville Policemen's Benevolent Association (their home community in Westchester County, NY), Buffalo-area nonprofits following the 2022 Tops supermarket shooting, and NFL-adjacent veteran and player-welfare charities (Merging Vets and Players, Warrick Dunn Charities, Tom Coughlin Jay Fund, Thomas Davis Defending Dreams Foundation). For an unaffiliated grant seeker, the realistic path to funding is not a cold proposal but an existing relationship: board or staff overlap with a Goodell-connected institution, a shared alma mater or hometown tie, or high visibility during a crisis the foundation has previously responded to (mass-casualty events, first-responder causes, domestic-violence prevention). Organizations that already sit adjacent to football, Dartmouth, Bronxville/Westchester civic life, or major disaster/crisis response are the best-fit first-time applicants; everyone else should treat this as a low-probability, relationship-first target rather than a standard LOI-to-proposal funder.

Across the years captured in Form 990-PF data (2014, 2015, 2019-2024), total giving has ranged from $450,202 in the foundation's first full year (2014) up to $1,713,055 in 2020, with the most recent complete year (2023) at $1,668,302 against $2,301,866 in total revenue. Total assets stood at $5,566,810 in FY2024, down from $6,677,897 in FY2023 — a roughly $1.1M decline consistent with a large distribution year. Annual contributions received have been remarkably steady at essentially $2,000,000/year from 2019 through 2023, indicating the Goodells fund the foundation on a consistent annual cadence rather than through a one-time endowment; net investment income has added another $220,000-$284,000/year on top. Grant size is highly concentrated at the top: of $5,047,448 in aggregate grants captured across 76 disbursements (average $66,414), the top two recipients — Dia Art Foundation ($2,134,000 across 4 grants) and Dartmouth ($950,000 across 4 grants) — account for 61% of all dollars tracked. Separately, the foundation's own reported typical-grant-size statistics show a median of $20,000, a much wider range ($100 to $535,000), and an average of $65,305 across 20 grants, reflecting a barbell pattern: a handful of six-and-seven-figure signature commitments (Dia Art Foundation, Dartmouth, One Love Foundation at $400,000, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America at $260,000, NFL Foundation at $100,000) alongside a long tail of $100-$25,000 gifts to local causes, first-responder charities, and crisis-response nonprofits. Geographically, New York dominates (27 of 76 tracked grants, reflecting the Goodells' Bronxville, NY residence), followed by California (9), Florida (8), and Maine (4) — despite the foundation's Colorado mailing address, which is purely an administrative/wealth-management location.

All five peers sit within roughly $2,000 of Two Lights' $5.57M asset base and share the same NTEE 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' classification, meaning the data bundle groups them purely by size rather than confirmed programmatic similarity — none of the peer records include grantee or financial detail to verify overlap in practice. Structurally, this is the norm for family foundations of this size: closely held, minimally staffed, and funding a fixed circle of personally connected organizations rather than running a competitive process. Calhoun Family Foundation is the one peer with a live website and is the only one worth investigating directly for a public-facing process; the rest, like Two Lights, are almost certainly relationship-driven and not realistic cold-outreach targets.

No independent news coverage of Two Lights Foundation Inc. itself was found for 2025 or 2026 — it has never issued a press release, and searches for the foundation by name return only IRS/nonprofit-database listings (ProPublica, GuideStar, Cause IQ) or unrelated organizations sharing the 'Two Lights' name. The most recent verifiable activity is indirect: press coverage of Roger and Jane Goodell's personal philanthropy, including a $10,000 gift in September 2024 to the family of a Georgia high school football coach killed in the Apalachee High School shooting, and a $50,000 gift in 2022 to the Bills Social Justice Fund after the Tops supermarket shooting in Buffalo, NY — the same Buffalo-area crisis that produced the $100,000 in foundation grants to the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo visible in the 990 data. Financially, the foundation's asset base declined from $6.68M (FY2023) to $5.57M (FY2024) alongside a steep drop in reported total revenue to $223,600, which likely reflects a large 2023 or 2024 distribution year; the FY2024 Form 990-PF grant list was not yet available to confirm which recipients received that distribution. There has been no leadership change — Jane S. Goodell and Roger S. Goodell remain the foundation's only two directors across every filing year in the data bundle, both uncompensated.

There is no formal application process to game here — the foundation's own record marks it 'preselected only,' with no LOI form, no online portal, no published deadlines, and no listed program staff, so the highest-value move for most organizations is to stop treating this as a solicitable prospect and instead map for genuine relationship touchpoints. Concretely: (1) check for board, alumni, or leadership overlap with Dartmouth College, the NFL or NFL Foundation, or civic/religious institutions in Bronxville and greater Westchester County, NY — these account for the largest and most recurring gifts; (2) if your organization responds to mass-casualty events, first-responder needs, or community trauma, be visible and credible in the immediate aftermath — the Buffalo and Georgia-shooting-linked gifts suggest the Goodells respond to news-driven need rather than proactive proposals; (3) domestic-violence prevention and youth-mentorship organizations (One Love Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Sanctuary for Families) have received repeat, multi-year support, so a warm introduction through any of those existing grantees is more promising than a direct approach; (4) do not submit unsolicited grant proposals by mail or email — there is no confirmed intake address, and the foundation's only public contact point is its registered agent (IWP Wealth Management, PO Box 61020, Denver, CO 80206), which is an administrative address, not a program contact. The single most common mistake would be treating this like a standard corporate or community foundation with an open cycle; every data point — no grants page, no application URL, no funding cycle listed, 'preselected only' status — confirms it is not. Organizations without an existing tie should deprioritize this prospect in favor of funders with disclosed, competitive processes, and instead monitor for board changes or new public commitments that might signal an opening.