GrantmakersCalifornia

Merona Leadership Foundation

Encino, CA · EIN 47-1603664. Reported 32 grants totalling $2,286,901 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$59,390median reported grant
$2,286,901granted, 2021-2024
31%of grantees funded again the next year
20%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Merona Leadership Foundation, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B90) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 20% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 31% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $59,390. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $108,327; the smallest was $5,440 and the largest $223,521. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
8 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
3 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
7 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
11 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Central Fund of IsraelCedarhurst, NY$468,113332024
FjcNew York, NY$272,827222023
P E F Israel Endowment Funds IncNew York, NY$253,538332023
Impact Forum FoundationEncino, CA$181,624222024
Lets Do Something CorporationYonkers, NY$150,000112024
Opendor Media IncSunrise, FL$138,600112022
Zachor Legal InstituteBozeman, MT$114,280222023
Israeli-American CouncilWoodland Hls, CA$105,414332024
Middle East Media and Research Institute IncWashington, DC$104,200112022
Rimon Club Z IncSan Francisco, CA$99,000112022
Jewish Community Fdn of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater LaLos Angeles, CA$70,000112022
Defending EducationArlington, VA$64,680112022
Capital Research CenterWashington, DC$58,000112022
The Jewish Institute for National Security of AmericaWashington, DC$43,830112022
ElnetLos Angeles, CA$42,300112021
Center for Freedom & SafetyCedarhurst, NY$40,000112023
ISRAEL21CSan Francisco, CA$20,650112022
American Friends of Unit 669 IncLivingston, NJ$19,405112024
Hias IncSilver Spring, MD$10,000112024
Research - Eval - Promoting Org Respon & Transparency-Report-IncJenkintown, PA$10,000112021
Jewish Community Relations Council of New York IncNew York, NY$7,500112024
Students Supporting IsraelMinnetonka, MN$7,500112022
National Council of Young IsraelJamaica, NY$5,440112024

6 of 23 (26%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 20 of 23 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

International Affairs
6 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
4 orgs
Civil Rights
3 orgs
Religion
2 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Crime & Legal
1 org
Public Safety & Disaster Relief
1 org
Education
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20214$75,300$11,500
202213$989,934$70,000
20237$669,957$101,438
20248$551,710$17,202

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

52% of its giving went to organizations in New York. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

New York
$1.2M
California
$519K
District of Columbia
$206K
Florida
$139K
Montana
$114K
Virginia
$65K
New Jersey
$19K
Maryland
$10K

Down to the city

New York, NY
$534K
Cedarhurst, NY
$508K
Washington, DC
$206K
Encino, CA
$182K
Yonkers, NY
$150K
Sunrise, FL
$139K

Find more funders like Merona Leadership Foundation

We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund18 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc18 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust16 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program15 shared recipientsJewish Communal Fund14 shared recipientsAmerican Endowment Foundation13 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $59,390 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding international affairs in New YorkEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding civil rights in New YorkEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding religion in New YorkEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding international affairs in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Merona Leadership Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 8 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 15910 Ventura Blvd 700, Encino, CA, 91436.

EIN 47-1603664 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.