Ted Snowdon Foundation

OVERVIEW: The foundation’s LGBTQ grantmaking prioritizes New York City. LGBTQ grantmaking spans advocacy and policy, health and more.

IP TAKE: The Ted Snowden Foundation takes a proactive approach to grantmaking and keeps a very low public profile. As a result, it does not accept unsolicited proposals. However, applicants are invited to first submit a one-page letter of introduction requesting the grant application procedure. While it is tougher to get through the door here, a concise letter of introduction, and contacting the foundation, will help facilitate the likelihood of funding. This is a consistent LGBTQ funder to know. It prioritizes organizations in New York, where most of its grants go, but a handful of grants have supported grantees in California, West Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut though the latter appear to be one-offs. Securing funding here will require a bit of patience, but worth the time spent for smaller organizations looking for an ally.

Snowdon is among several Snowdons who serve as trustees of the Hill-Snowdon Foundation, which was set up by his grandfather Arthur B. Hill. The foundation is strongly interested in low-income families, particularly low-income, youth of color and low-wage workers.

PROFILE: The Ted Snowden Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Tony-award winning Edward (“Ted”) W. Snowdon Jr.. He received his B.S. in speech and drama from Syracuse University and his M.F.A. in directing from Catholic University. He has produced several Broadway plays and musicals, such as the Tony Award winning “The Elephant Man” and “Spring Awakening.” The Ted Snowden Foundation seeks to “provide financial aid and assistance to organizations attending principally to the concerns and needs of the lesbian and gay community.” This funder invests in LGBTQI issues that affect advocacy and policy, health and more.

Grants for LGBTQ, Education, Health, and Culture

In lieu of a website to guide grantmaking strategy, tax filings reveal a strong interest in broad LGBTQ+ causes. Funding for the LGBTQ community spans a wide range of interests that support seemingly every aspect of the LGBTQ community from health to policy work to youth. An emphasis on related giving to culture and the arts, especially to dance and theater are clear here.

• Recent grantees include the New York LGBT Community Center, The Broadway Association, Mother Jones, the LGBTQ Victory Institute, Anchor Health Initiative Corp, and Signature Theatre, among dozens of others each year.
• Past advocacy and policy multi-year grantees include Lambda Legal Defense Education Fund, “a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work”; the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which provides services which includes counseling and legal assistance to LGBT youth; and Truth Wins Out, a “nonprofit organization that counters antigay propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates the public about gay life.”
• Snowdon has also steadily supported the Astrea Foundation for Justice.
• Furthermore, the foundation also invests in marriage equality and has supported Freedom to Marry.
• The foundation’s health and human services grantees include Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) and TrueChild, which “helps donors, policy-makers and practitioners reconnect race, class and gender through “gender transformative” approaches that challenge rigid gender norms and inequities.”

Important Grant Details:

The Ted Snowdon Foundation made about $800,000 in grants in a recent year, with most grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. The foundation’s average grant size is about $15,000, and grantmaking appears to prioritize organizations operating in the greater New York City area. In a recent year, this funder gave $1,136,000 in grants.

• The Board meets twice annually in April and October and makes decisions quickly, communicating with grantees by the end of each month.
• The Foundation may be reached at:

  The Ted Snowdon Foundation
  50 Riverside Dr., No. 15-C
  New York City, NY 10024

  E-mail: snowdonfound@aol.com

  Tel./Fax: (212) 787-2413

• The Ted Snowdon Foundation accepts a 1 page letter of introduction requesting the grant application procedure:

• • Additional materials/documentation
  • Listing of additional sources and amount of support
  • Copy of current year’s organizational budget and/or project budget
  • Listing of board of directors, trustees, officers and other key people and their affiliations
  • Descriptive literature
  • How project’s results will be evaluated or measured
  • Copy of IRS Determination Letter
  • Qualifications of key personnel
  • How project will be sustained once grantmaker support is completed
  • Copy of most recent Annual Report/Audited Financial Statement/990
  • Detailed description of project and amount of funding requested

PEOPLE:

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