A Blue Sky Foundation

A Blue Sky Foundation is a small, closed, family-directed private foundation, not a program-office grantmaker. It is administered through Foundation Source (501 Silverside Road, Wilmington, DE) — a third-party platform many high-net-worth families use to run a private foundation with minimal staff — and its only listed officer is Isabel Snyder, who holds all four leadership roles (Director, President, Secretary, Treasurer) uncompensated. There is no grants page, no application form URL, no published funding cycle, and the foundation's own record flags itself as accepting only preselected applicants. Practically, this means there is no known open door for cold LOIs or portal submissions.

What the historical grant record shows instead is a clear relationship pattern: of 18 recorded grants totaling $420,000, most recipients are large, nationally or internationally recognized organizations — Farm Sanctuary (3 grants, $105,000), Natural Resources Defense Council (2 grants plus its LA regional affiliate, $150,000 combined), World Wildlife Fund (2 grants, $70,000), National Geographic Society ($25,000) — alongside smaller, more regional grantees like Heal the Bay, Coalition for Clean Air, and Galapagos Conservancy. Every purpose on record is "General & Unrestricted" except a single earmarked $20,000 gift to Médecins Sans Frontières for Turkey/Syria earthquake relief, indicating the family prefers trust-based, unrestricted support over funding specific projects or budgets.

For an organization evaluating whether to pursue this funder, the honest read is: this looks like a family's personal giving vehicle that has scaled up (grants paid grew from $5,000 in FY2019 to roughly $245,000–$262,000 in the most recent filing) as the foundation's asset base grew from $1.78M to $4.72M, not an institution building a competitive grants program. The realistic path in is a warm introduction — through a shared board member, an existing relationship with Isabel Snyder or Foundation Source, or membership in the small set of causes (environmental conservation, wildlife/animal welfare, occasional disaster relief) this donor has already funded repeatedly.

Across the 18 grants captured in the data (totaling $420,000), the average grant is $23,333 and the median single grant is $5,000, with individual awards ranging from $5,000 (Galapagos Conservancy, Waterkeeper Alliance, American Red Cross – San Diego/Imperial) up to $50,000 (Natural Resources Defense Council – Los Angeles Regional, the largest single check on record). Farm Sanctuary is the largest cumulative recipient at $105,000 across three separate grants, followed by NRDC at $100,000 (national) plus $50,000 (LA regional) for $150,000 combined, and World Wildlife Fund at $70,000 across two grants — a pattern of deepening, repeat support to a small, stable set of organizations rather than one-time gifts to many.

By cause area, environmental conservation and wildlife protection dominate: WWF ($70,000), NRDC national and regional ($150,000), National Geographic Society ($25,000), Coalition For Clean Air ($15,000 across 3 grants), Heal the Bay ($10,000), Galapagos Conservancy ($5,000), and Waterkeeper Alliance ($5,000) sum to roughly $280,000, or about 67% of tracked giving. Animal welfare, concentrated entirely in Farm Sanctuary, accounts for $105,000 (25%). The remainder, about $25,000 (6%), is disaster/humanitarian relief — a $20,000 Turkey/Syria earthquake grant to Médecins Sans Frontières and $5,000 to the American Red Cross San Diego/Imperial chapter.

Geographically, of the 18 grants, 7 went to California-based organizations, 6 to New York, 4 to Washington DC, and 1 to Maryland — notably, no grants in the sample went to Texas despite the foundation's metadata listing CA and TX as geographic focus areas, suggesting that field is either aspirational or reflects donor residency rather than actual grant destinations.

Total giving has grown sharply with the asset base: grants paid rose from $5,000 (FY2019) to $40,000 (FY2020), $60,000 (FY2021), $125,000 (FY2022), $130,000 (FY2023), and an estimated $245,000–$262,249 in the most recent (FY2025) filing, while total assets grew from $1.78M to $4.72M over the same period — a foundation still in its early growth phase, funded primarily by ongoing contributions ($800,000 received in the most recent year) rather than investment returns alone.

The striking detail here is that all five peer foundations sit within roughly $1,000 of A Blue Sky Foundation's $4,718,943 in assets — a near-identical figure across foundations scattered from New York to Georgia to Missouri. This strongly suggests these are all small family foundations run on the same administrative platform (Foundation Source and similar providers), likely seeded with comparable initial contributions rather than organically arriving at similar sizes. None of the peers have public grant data, application processes, or program staff on record, reinforcing that this entire peer set consists of privately directed family vehicles rather than institutional grantmakers with competitive programs.

No news coverage, press releases, social media presence, or dedicated grants page could be found for A Blue Sky Foundation — the foundation's social_media field is empty, it has no grants_page_url or opportunities_url on file, and general web searches for "A Blue Sky Foundation" return either unrelated organizations (Bluesky the social network, Blue Sky Center in Santa Barbara, Blue Skies Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation) or generic 990-database listings. This is consistent with a small, closed family foundation that does not publicize its giving.

The most recent verifiable activity is financial: the foundation's latest available Form 990-PF (covering what appears to be FY2025) shows $897,871 in revenue, primarily $800,000 in fresh contributions from the founding family, against $320,361 in total expenses, with roughly $245,000–$262,249 of that going out as grants and net assets closing at $4,672,517. That represents the foundation's largest single-year grantmaking total on record, continuing a multi-year growth trend rather than reflecting any specific new initiative or announcement.

Leadership has been stable throughout the foundation's history: Isabel Snyder has held all four officer positions (Director, President, Secretary, Treasurer) since the foundation was recognized as tax-exempt in February 2019, with no reported compensation in any filed year — no turnover or governance changes were found. Granted's own enrichment pipeline last verified this record on 2026-08-15 without surfacing new information, reinforcing that this funder simply does not generate public activity to track.

Treat A Blue Sky Foundation as a relationship-driven, invitation-only funder rather than a competitive-grants program — the foundation's own data flags it as "preselected only," with no application form, no grants portal, no published deadline, and no contact email on file. Do not spend time building a formal LOI packet expecting a portal review; there is no evidence one exists.

The most productive approach is to identify a warm connection: look for board, advisory, or personal ties to Isabel Snyder or to Foundation Source (the Wilmington, DE administrative firm that manages the foundation's filings from 501 Silverside Road). Family foundations administered this way typically make grants based on the founders' personal philanthropic relationships and interests rather than through cold outreach — many of this foundation's grantees (Farm Sanctuary, NRDC, WWF, Coalition For Clean Air) received multiple gifts over different years, suggesting the family maintains ongoing personal relationships with a small, trusted set of organizations rather than rotating through new applicants annually.

If your organization is a nationally recognized name in environmental conservation, wildlife protection, or animal welfare — the two categories that account for roughly 92% of tracked giving — you are a closer fit than a locally focused or narrowly programmatic nonprofit; smaller regional environmental groups (Heal the Bay, Coalition For Clean Air, Galapagos Conservancy) do appear, but generally at the $5,000-$15,000 level versus $70,000-$105,000 for the largest national names. Lead any outreach with a general operating support ask, not a restricted project budget — every grant on record except one earmarked disaster-relief gift was General & Unrestricted. If a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis aligns with the family's past giving (the foundation made a one-time $20,000 gift to Médecins Sans Frontières for Turkey/Syria earthquake relief), a timely, values-aligned appeal tied to current events may be worth a concise letter, but treat this as a long shot absent an existing relationship. Given the foundation's growing asset base and contribution inflows, year-end (Q4) is the most plausible window for any grant decisions, mirroring typical private-foundation payout timing.