Nasiri Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Nasiri Foundation awards unrestricted grants to organizations relieving human suffering around the world. It supports organizations working for disaster relief, violence prevention, healthcare access, global peace, and Iranian and Persian culture.
IP TAKE: This funder does not aim to be the lead financial supporter of its grantee organizations. Instead, it seeks nonprofits that have support from other sources. It prefers to make unrestricted “seed investments” and does not generally make multi-year grants. It describes its grantmaking process as “fairly informal” and welcomes proposals from interested parties. It is accessible and relatively responsive to both grantseekers and grantees.
PROFILE: Steve Saeed Nasiri established the Nasiri Foundation in 2012 to “support innovative non-profit organizations leveraging technology to alleviate social problems.” Nasiri immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1972 to pursue his post-secondary academic career. Nasiri later co-founded six startup companies, his last being InvenSense, which went public in 2011. The Nasiri Foundation takes an “angel investor” approach to funding rather than a traditional grantmaking approach, in that it seeks to make “‘seed investments’ in early stage organizations” in the areas of education, poverty, healthcare and initiatives promoting non-violence and diplomacy.
Grants for Humanitarian Aid
Nasiri does not have a grantmaking program dedicated to disaster and refugee aid; however, it broadly awards grants to humanitarian aid organizations around the world. Past grantees in this space include Rescue.org, which received support for its humanitarian disaster relief work and Save the Children, which received a grant for its worldwide humanitarian support.
Grants for Violence Prevention
In the violence prevention grantmaking space, Nasiri supports larger national organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as well as smaller, local organizations such as Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. The foundation’s violence prevention work primarily centers on preventing domestic abuse, civil rights abuses, and violence against women and children, among other concerns.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
The Nasiri Foundation’s health-related grantmaking primarily supports access to healthcare and disease research, especially for children. It supports major medical institutions like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, organizations that seek to expand access to healthcare like Ronald McDonald House and Sirum, and major disease-related organizations like the American Heart Association and the International Society for Children with Cancer.
Grants for Global Peace and Security
The Nasiri Foundation supports organizations working to build peace and heal differences, especially between the West, Israel, and the Muslim world. As Nasiri is an Iranian immigrant, it is no surprise that much of this support centers around organizations like the National Iranian American Council, Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, and United for Iran. The foundation also supports groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, the U.N. Refugee Agency,
Important Grant Details:
Nasiri Foundation grants range from $10,000 to $50,000. The foundation does not currently award multi-year grants; however, it imposes a lifetime grant cap of $250,000 for all of its grantees. While the foundation’s grantmaking generally centers around the San Francisco Bay Area, it has no explicit geographical restrictions. To learn more about the types of organizations the foundation supports, examine its grants list.
The Nasiri Foundation accepts unsolicited proposals and requests for funding. Its process is very informal and typically takes eight to 12 weeks.
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