CS Family Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation. It maintains a low profile and does not contribute to a large amount of groups.

Its president is David Elenowitz and its vice president is Victoria Elenowitz. In 2019, the Foundation gave a $50,000 to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as well as $100,000 to the left-of-center seed group Accelerate Change.

Background

According to its tax returns, the CS Family Foundation was in the “care of” a law firm known as FLSV, located in Garden City, New York. ¹ FLSV is short for Frankel, Loughran, Starr, and Vallone, and is an accounting and tax advisory law firm founded in 1995 by professionals hailing from Ernst & Young and Morgan Stanley. It claims to serve high-net worth individuals, families, and businesses, and offers to improve its clients’ profitability. ²

Leadership

In 2020, CS Family Foundation was led by its president, director, and treasurer David Elenowitz and was chaired by its vice president and secretary Victoria Elenowitz. No compensated employees were listed and both Elenowitzes were working for it without compensation. ³

Grantmaking

In 2019, CS Family Foundation gave a grant of $100,000 to Accelerate Change, a left-of-center nonprofit based in Boston. The tagline describing the dedication of the grant said, “Supports some of the fastest growing nonprofit digital media ventures in the country, with a particular focus on communities of color. We also work with a select group of established nonprofit organizations to experiment with new digital media initiatives.” ⁴ Accelerate Change is a left-of-center organizing group which mainly funds and provides organizational consultation services to left-of-center organizations. It was formerly a project of the Center for Public Interest Research within the Public Interest Network, a controversial group of left-of-center advocacy organizations, but is now an independent nonprofit organization unaffiliated with either group. One of its core commitments is to “advancing racial equity,” which it characterizes as the “continuous work of being and becoming an anti-racist organization and dismantling white supremacy” through “an intersectional lens that includes LGBTQIA+ equality, class, ability, and other frameworks that help us understand empowerment and dismantle oppression.” ⁵

CS Family Foundation also donated $50,000 that year to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. ⁶

In 2020, the Foundation reported $421,133 in total assets, according to its tax return. That year it had only spent $4,600, solely on operating and administrative costs. ⁷

1. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). CS Family Foundation. 2020.
2. “About Us.” FLSV. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://flsv.com/about-us/.
3. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). CS Family Foundation. 2020. Part VIII – Information About Officers, Directors, Trustees, Foundation Managers, Highly Paid Employees, and Contractors.
4. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). CS Family Foundation. 2020. Part XV. 3 – Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment.
5. “Values and Team.” Accelerate Change. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://acceleratechange.org/values-team/
6. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). CS Family Foundation. 2020. Part XV. 3 – Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment.
7. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). CS Family Foundation. 2020. Part I, line 24, 26; Part II, 30.