Ben & Estelle Sommers Foundation Inc
New York, NY · EIN 13-3733418. Reported 56 grants totalling $17,121 to 40 recipients across tax years 2021-2023. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.
Does this foundation accept applications?
Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Ben & Estelle Sommers Foundation Inc did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.
How big are its grants?
The median grant is $98. Half of everything it gave fell between $39 and $200; the smallest was $7 and the largest $3,545. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Synagogue | New York, NY | $8,712 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Jacob's Pillow Dance | Becket, MA | $2,173 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| World Central Kitchen | Washington, DC | $1,300 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lincoln Center Theatre | New York, NY | $592 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Temple Emanuel Streicker Center | New York, NY | $475 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Museum of Modern Art | New York, NY | $458 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| New York City Ballet | New York, NY | $453 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY | $304 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| City Center Encores | New York, NY | $285 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Public Theatre | New York, NY | $256 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Untermyer Gardens Conservancy | Yonkers, NY | $200 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| American Friends of Magen David Adom | New York, NY | $180 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| United Hatzalah | Toronto | $180 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Wqxrnpr | New York, NY | $150 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue | New York, NY | $104 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lincoln Center Dance Against Cancer | New York, NY | $103 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| American Dance Festival | Durham, NC | $100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Bp Impact | Geneva | $100 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| King Baudouin Foundation | New York, NY | $100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Israel Congregation of Manchester | Manchester Center, VT | $97 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Guggenheim Museum | New York, NY | $83 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Theatre Development Fund | New York, NY | $83 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Clark Art Institute | Williamstown, MA | $78 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Memorial Sloan Kettering | New York, NY | $70 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| PBS Channel Thirteen | New York, NY | $55 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation | Short Hills, NJ | $52 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Oye Group | Queens, NY | $52 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sigal Music Museum | Greenville, SC | $50 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Jcc | New York, NY | $42 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Baryshnikov Arts Center | New York, NY | $39 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Whitney Museum | New York, NY | $35 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Jilliard School | New York, NY | $30 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| New York Theater Workshop | New York, NY | $25 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Siu Foundation Fundraiser | Carbondale, IL | $25 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tampa Museum of Art | Tampa, FL | $20 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Neue Galerie | New York, NY | $16 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Film Society of Lincoln Center | New York, NY | $14 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Jewish Museum | New York, NY | $12 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| 92ND Street Y | New York, NY | $11 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Brooklyn Botanical Gardens | Brooklyn, NY | $7 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
12 of 40 (30%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold.
Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 50%, across 2 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one.
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 23 grants where we could match the recipient to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's. The match, made from the name and address on the return, is ours.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 10 | $4,288 | $98 |
| 2022 | 18 | $5,346 | $80 |
| 2023 | 28 | $7,487 | $100 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.
Where its money goes
77% of its giving went to organizations in New York. If your organization is based elsewhere, look in the recipient list for grants to your area before writing.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this foundation
- Check you are its size. The median grant is $98. A request many times that size asks for something it has rarely or never given.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in New York.
- Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
- Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Ben & Estelle Sommers Foundation Inc's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 3 returns (tax years 2021-2023). Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: Co G Miller 150 West 56 St 5505, New York, NY, 10019. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.
EIN 13-3733418 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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