Koenig Private Foundation ($150,521)
Letters Foundation AKA Sunshine Lady Humanitarian Grants Program ($268,800)
Mission Increase Foundation ($277,320)
Niswonger Foundation ($200,529)
Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation ($154,800)
Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation ($150,900)
Richard Diebenkorn Foundation ($157,380)
Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation ($103,200)
Walt Disney Family Foundation ($146,700)
Willard G. Pierce and Jessie M. Pierce Foundation ($156,400)
Some of the foundations contacted by NPR said the stock market plunge early this year caused their investment portfolios to decline, and they didn’t want to sell assets at a loss to cover budget shortfalls.
The Boston-based Letters Foundation, officially known as the Sunshine Lady Humanitarian Grants Program, falls in that category. It began as a sibling partnership between Warren Buffett and his late sister Doris: Strangers would often ask them for money, so Doris decided which requests to fund, and she and Warren paid for it. Over time, they gave away millions. Yet the Letters Foundation applied for PPP funding and received nearly $270,000. (Another private foundation affiliated with Doris Buffett, the North Carolina-based Sunshine Lady Foundation, did not apply for the funding.)