OVERVIEW: The New York City-based Poses Family Foundation supports K-12 education, housing for people with disabilities, disease research, mental health and public health. A significant portion of its grants prioritize educational and independent living programs for the disabled.
IP TAKE: This foundation places a strong emphasis on disabilities, supporting a range of interventions for students with learning disabilities and housing and other opportunities for disabled adults. Its education grantees tend to be large organizations with a national presence, but its housing grants often fund small organizations that develop and manage housing for individuals with disabilities in urban areas.
The Poses Family Foundation makes about $10 million in grants each year to preselected organizations that often receive multi-year support. This is a generous but inaccessible funder whose grant space is crowded. Multi-year grants make funds for new grantees less available and competitive. However, this funder likes to support your work for a longer term. It also likes to support grantees in a variety of ways: Poses tends to partner with its grantees for several years and supplements its financial support with pro bono consulting services.
This collaborative funder maintains a low profile and does not accept unsolicited applications for funding.
PROFILE: Based in New York City, the Poses Family Foundation was founded by Nancy and Fred Poses in 2005. Fred Poses is the CEO of Ascend Performance Materials, a private manufacturer of nylon related chemicals, resins and fibers. He previously headed Trane, Inc., which was known as American Standard Companies. This foundation makes grants in the areas of mental health, public health, disease research, education and housing. This funder does not maintain a website, limiting the amount of information about its specific grantmaking interests and goals.
Grants for K-12 Education
Education is the Poses Family Foundation’s largest area of giving. While the foundation does not outline specific goals for its giving in this area, a significant number of grants have gone to programs and initiatives that support K-12 students with learning disabilities including dyslexia, autism and attentional disorders. Other areas of interest include teacher development programs and public charter school networks. Past grantees include the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the New Teacher Center of Santa Cruz, the Achievement Network, New Visions for Public Schools, the Learning Alliance and New York City’s Relay Graduate School of Education.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development
A significant portion of this funder’s grantmaking supports initiatives that provide housing and independent living programs for people with disabilities. In recent years, grants have gone to UCP Heartland of Missouri, the Kessler Foundation, New York Collaborates for Autism, New York City’s Providence House and Community Enterprises of Northampton, Massachusetts.
Grants for Disease Research
The Poses Family Foundation has provided ongoing support to several organizations that fund disease research. Grantees in this area include the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation, the American Diabetes Association, the Facial Pain Research Foundation and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.
Grants for Mental Health
Mental health is a smaller area of giving for this funder. The foundation does not outline specific goals for its grantmaking in this area. Recent grantees include New York City’s Jed Foundation, a suicide intervention organization, and Gallop NYC, which offers therapeutic horsemanship programs to children and adults with depression and other mental illnesses.
Grants for Public Health
The Poses Foundation’s health funding has decreased over the past several years, but hospitals and healthcare initiatives continue to receive occasional funding. Pediatrics appears to be one area of interest. Past grantees include the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, Missouri’s Center for Head Injury Services, the Children’s Hospital Corporation and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Important Grant Details:
The Poses Family Foundation makes over $10 million in grants each year. Grant amounts range from a few thousand dollars to over $1 million, with an average grant size of about $20,000. Education grantees tend to be large organizations that operate nationally and leading teacher education programs in major urban centers. Housing grantees, however, tend to be small, local organizations that develop and provide housing for individuals with disabilities. A significant portion of funding remains in the New York City area. For additional information about the foundation’s past grantmaking, see its recent tax filings.
This funder does not accept unsolicited applications for funding and tends to fund organizations with which it maintains ongoing relationships. An address and phone number are provided below.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
CONTACT:
The Poses Family Foundation
145 Hudson St., Suite 5B
New York, NY 10013
(646) 613-8934