Alan B. Slifka Foundation

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OVERVIEW: The Alan B. Slifka Foundation funds grantmaking in overlapping areas of democracy, violence prevention and Jewish causes. It also funds a wide array of biomedical research concerning sarcoma, melanoma, autism and Asperger syndrome.

IP TAKE: The Alan B. Slifka Foundation focuses its Jewish grantmaking on tolerance, understanding and shared society principles, while its biomedical grants name sarcoma, melanoma and autism as specific areas of interest. While Slifka tends to support larger and well-established organizations in these fields of interest, it is an accessible foundation. Submit a letter of inquiry via email at any time. The foundation invites full proposals with due dates in March and September.

PROFILE: Co-founder of Halcyon Asset Management, Alan B. Slifka, established the Alan B Slifka Foundation in 1965. Its mission consists of dedication to “to healing, inclusion, and peace.” Initially, the foundation focused its grantmaking on Judaism and Israel, but it has since broadened its pursuits geographically and thematically. Slifka’s current funding priorities are Shared Society, Jewish life in Israel and the United States and Biomedical Research. The foundation also supports K-12 and higher education through a number of endowments. Grantmaking prioritizes California, Connecticut and New York.   

Grants for Jewish Causes, Democracy and Violence Prevention

The greater part of Slifka’s grantmaking supports overlapping causes for Jewish culture, democracy and “shared society” in Israel and around the world. Grantmaking stems from the foundation’s Shared Society and Jewish Life focus areas.

The Slifka Foundation’s Shared Society program aims to “cultivate a world safe for difference.” The foundation names general strategies for this work, as well as strategies that are specific to support for Israel as “a tolerant, equitable and democratic Jewish state.” General strategies include:

  • Promoting “awareness and understanding of shared society principles” among leaders and institutions internationally;

  • Convening and supporting collaborations to advance productive and peaceful transnational and cross-cultural relations; and

  • Building the capacity of individual and organizational “practitioners in the field of shared society.”

Grantee partners in this work include Human Rights First, the Anti-Defamation League, the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, Interfaith America and the Peace and Security Funders Group. Additionally, the foundation endows the Alan B. Slifka Professorship in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence at Brandies University.

Strategies for the foundation’s work in Israel include:

  • Nurturing “tolerance and understanding” relating to “Jewish-Arab relations within Israel and respect for Israel’s Jewish diversity”;

  • Supporting “equality of opportunity” for all citizens;

  • Supporting understanding of “the complexity of Israel’s Jewish and democratic nature” among Jews in America and elsewhere and supporting “efforts to create a more tolerant Israeli culture.”

The foundation’s grantee partners in these areas include ELEM Youth in Distress in Israel, the America-Israel Friendship League, the TalkIsrael Foundation and the Hand in Hand Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel.

Slifka’s Jewish Life grantmaking supports organizations the U.S. and Israel that support the exploration of Jewish identity, culture and “the diversity of Jewish expression.” Priorities of this giving include initiatives that offer meaningful connections to Israel and those that combat antisemitism.

Grants from this program have supported organizations including Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Shalom Hartman Institute, the Jewish Museum of New York City and the Foundation for Jewish Camp. In New York City, the foundation endowed the Alan B. Slifka Middle School at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School campus.

Grants for Diseases, Brain and Cell Research

The Slifka Foundation’s Biomedical Research grantmaking supports “research and innovative treatments” for cancer. Grantmaking prioritizes sarcoma and melanoma, which “have directly affected the Slifka family” but has supported other types of cancer research as well.

Grantees include the Israel Cancer Research Institute, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Carson Sarcoma Foundation.

A portion of Slifka’s biomedical grants supports research on autism and austism spectrum disorders. Grantees include the International Society for Autism Research and the Child Study Center at Yale University.

Grants for Higher Education

Slifka does not name higher education as a priority giving area but has endowed a number of programs, professorships and fellowships at U.S. universities. In addition to the Alan B. Slifka Professorship in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence at Brandies, the foundation funds the Riva Ariella Ritvo Professorship of Pediatric Oncology Psychosocial Services and the Max Ritvo And Alan B.Slifka Program for the Medical Humanities at Yale University. At Columbia, Slifka has endowed the Max Ritvo Fellowship and the Max Ritvo Poetry Series at Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Important Grant Details:

The Slifka Foundation’s grants mainly range from $5,000 to $450,000.

  • Jewish causes in the U.S. and Israel are the foundation’s largest giving area.

  • This funder tends to provide project-specific support for medium- and large-sized organizations with strong reputations in the Jewish community.

  • This funder accepts applications by invitation only but will accept letters of intent containing brief descriptions of “the project for which  your organization seeks funding, its tangible outcomes, how you see the project as advancing.”

  • Due dates for invited proposals fall in March and September each year.

  • See the foundation’s partners page for information about past grantees.

Questions may be submitted to the foundation via email at programofficer@slifkafoundation.org or  sarcomaLOI@slifkafoundation.org. The foundation can also be reached by telephone at (212) 303-9470.

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