The Goldseker Foundation is celebrating 50 years of grantmaking in Baltimore with the release of its 2025 Annual Report and the relaunch of its redesigned website.

The milestone annual report reflects on a half century of investment in the Baltimore metropolitan area, highlighting the foundation’s most significant accomplishments, grantees and civic partners since its founding in 1975. The redesigned website, GoldsekerFoundation.org, was relaunched in conjunction with the 50th Annual Report and offers improved access to the foundation’s grantmaking history, strategic priorities and resources for current and prospective grantee partners.

Read the full annual report here: https://goldsekerfoundation.org/resources/2025-annual-report/ 

Founded through the estate of Morris Goldseker, the foundation has grown into one of Maryland’s leading private foundations. Goldseker, a Polish immigrant, arrived alone at the Port of Baltimore in 1914 as a 15-year-old boy. He went on to build a real estate business that employed hundreds of Baltimoreans and helped thousands of families access housing and homeownership opportunities.

When Goldseker died in 1973, he left his entire $11 million estate to establish a foundation dedicated to supporting the people and institutions of Baltimore. His founding guidance made clear that grants, loans and investments should benefit Baltimore, with a special focus on Baltimore City. He also directed that no institution imposing restrictions based on race, creed or color should be selected for funding.

Over the past five decades, the foundation has granted more than $140 million to more than 700 organizations and projects across the Baltimore metropolitan area. Its endowment is now valued at approximately $150 million, allowing the foundation to remain both a long-term civic asset and an active funder of community development, education, immigrant services and nonprofit capacity building.

“This milestone is a moment to reflect with gratitude, recommit with urgency, and look forward,” said Sharna Goldseker, Board Chair of the Goldseker Foundation. “Morris Goldseker arrived in Baltimore with little more than his determination. The Foundation he made possible has honored that spirit for 50 years. As we enter our next half century, we do so as engaged and deeply rooted partners in Baltimore’s progress.”

The annual report also highlights the leadership of Sheldon Goldseker and Simon Goldseker, Morris Goldseker’s nephews, who served as founding chair and vice chair. Across more than four decades, they helped establish the foundation’s board, investment committee, professional staff and grantmaking policies. Their leadership helped shape the foundation’s long-term approach to philanthropy and supported the growth of Baltimore’s broader civic and nonprofit ecosystem.

From its earliest years, Goldseker invested in the infrastructure of local philanthropy. In 1978, the foundation provided startup and early operating support to the Baltimore Community Foundation. Today, BCF stewards more than 950 charitable funds, holds assets exceeding $350 million and has distributed nearly $800 million in grants since its founding. Goldseker was also a founding member of the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, now Maryland Philanthropy Network, with Sheldon Goldseker serving as its first board president.

The foundation’s education investments have also been significant. Over the decades, Goldseker has provided more than $12 million in scholarship funding to Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University and invested nearly $4 million in more than 30 elementary and secondary public schools. Its Neighborhood-School Partnership strategy, which ran from roughly 2009 through 2020, helped increase enrollment at partner schools and supported the creation or expansion of school models projected to add more than 1,800 high-quality seats for Baltimore students.

“Fifty years of grantmaking has taught us that lasting change in Baltimore requires patience, partnership, and an unwavering belief in the capacity of this city’s people and institutions to lead their own transformation,” said Matthew D. Gallagher, President and CEO of the Goldseker Foundation. “That conviction has never wavered—not through civic unrest, a global pandemic, or a federal landscape increasingly hostile to American cities. We remain committed to the work, not as an outside observer, but as a partner with genuine stakes in Baltimore’s future.”

In 2025, Goldseker awarded more than $5.6 million in grants to 84 grantees, with an average grant of more than $67,000. Grant recipients included organizations working in housing, neighborhood revitalization, education, immigration, food access, nonprofit capacity, youth development, workforce development and civic life.

One of the report’s major 2025 highlights is the foundation’s role in the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative. Goldseker led the development of a $1.7 million fund, supported by 11 local and national funders, to provide capacity-building support to community development organizations working to address Baltimore’s vacant housing crisis. The initiative is part of a coordinated city and state effort to rehabilitate more than 12,000 vacant properties and reinvest in Baltimore neighborhoods.

The foundation has also deepened its support for Baltimore’s immigrant and refugee communities. Since 2023, immigration-related grantmaking has nearly doubled, supporting organizations that provide legal services, case management, housing, workforce development and youth programming. The annual report notes that immigrants make up about 10 percent of Baltimore’s population, 12 percent of its workforce and 20 percent of its small business owners.

“The Goldseker Foundation always hopes to serve as a role model in private philanthropy,” said Ana and Deborah Goldseker, the foundation’s Co-Vice Chairs. “We will continue supporting Baltimore’s most promising leaders and ideas through the Foundation’s grantmaking.”

As the Goldseker Foundation enters its next 50 years, its annual report presents a story of legacy, stewardship and continued responsibility. What began with Morris Goldseker’s $11 million bequest has become a lasting investment in Baltimore’s neighborhoods, schools, nonprofits and civic future.