OVERVIEW: The foundation's Los Angeles grantmaking supports educational causes, as well as policy, the arts, and more. The Nazarians are strong supporters of Jewish causes, which informs the work the family does both in L.A. and Israel.
IP TAKE: The foundation’s website is thin on information about its grantmaking strategy, and because the foundation accepts letters of inquiry and grant proposals by invitation only, grantseekers will want to network to get on this funder’s radar. This is not an accessible funder, but they are very collaborative in the Jewish causes space.
PROFILE: Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Younes Nazrian, his wife Soraya, and family. It seeks to promote “education as the most important catalyst for societal change” and support “educational causes in a broad spectrum of institutions and through a wide variety of avenues - academic, public policy, community based social and artistic programs.” Sharon Nazrian, the couple's daughter, serves as foundation president. She is also the founder of the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies at UCLA. Younes Nazarian, born in Iran, came to the U.S. decades ago and settled in Los Angeles. He was an early investor in Qualcomm and founded Nazarian Enterprises. This is a prominent L.A.-area family foundation that focuses much of its philanthropy on the region. Its priority funding areas include Education, Research on Policy Making, Arts and Culture, Jewish Causes, and Iranian Causes. It primarily funds in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, Israel.
Grants for Higher Education
While the foundation does state that education is a funding priority, it does not provide either a grantmaking strategy or clear guidelines for grantseekers. However, tax records indicate that colleges, universities, and other types of higher education organizations receive the lion’s share of support here.
In the early 2000s, the Nazarian Family Foundation gave a $5 million gift to UCLA to establish the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, which "promotes the study of the history, culture and society of Israel as a modern Jewish and democratic state." The foundation also created the Soraya Sarah Nazarian Program in Fine Arts at American Jewish University. Additional past grantees include Brandeis University, University of Pennsylvania, and California State University at Northridge. The foundation also funded The Nazarian Pavillion and the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Distinguished Annual Lecture on Israel at University of Southern California (USC).
The Nazarians also support Israeli educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Younes and Soraya Library at the University of Haifa, the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Academic Library of the Ima Foundation at Sapir College and The Technoda Dorset Science & Technology Center in Israel.
Grants for Jewish Causes and Global Security
The Nazarian Family Foundation has a funding initiative it calls, “Research on Policy Making;” however, it doesn’t provide much insight about what that means practically. An examination of examination of tax records shows an overlap with the foundation’s Jewish and Iranian causes program areas.
Younes Nazarian served as an advisory board member of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy and helped fund the RAND Israel Project to explore energy alternatives. The family foundation has also helped fund the RAND Policy and Public Safety Project in Israel, and the Middle East Media Research Institute, among others. It has also given to Pacific Council on International Policy, Visionary Women, and Friends of the Israel Democracy Institute.
Nazarian’s Jewish Causes grantmaking has given millions to the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles to create The Y&S Nazarian Iranian Young Leadership Initiative. Other grantees include Hadassah ("a volunteer organization that inspires a passion for and commitment to its partnership with the land and people of Israel"), and WIZO (a provider of social welfare services in Israel). It has also given over $500,000 to Friends of Israel Defense Forces. The family's foundation has a regional branch in Israel called the Ima Foundation, which is focused exclusively on grants in that country. It has also supported the Iranian Jewish Women's Organization, the Iranian American Jewish Federation, Sinai Temple, American Jewish Committee, among others. Los Angeles is an important epicenter of philanthropy for this funder.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Arts are an important cause for this funder. Previous grantees include Santa Monica Museum of Art, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, The Cayton Children’s Museum, and the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Lobby at Hammer Museum at University of California. The family foundation also created the Soraya Sarah Nazarian Program in Fine Arts at American Jewish University in Bel Air. In 2017, the foundation gave $17 million to California State U. at Northridge for The Younes and Soraya Center for the Performing Arts.
The Nazarian Family Foundation has also funded Jewish-related arts institutions like Beit Hatfutsot-Museum of the Jewish People and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, the site of the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Building.
Important Grant Details:
Grants range from just a few hundred to over a million; however, the most common amount is $1,000. Most grants either stay in Los Angeles or go to Tel Aviv, Israel.
The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding; grantmaking is by invitation only.
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