Alchemy Charitable Foundation

Alchemy Charitable Foundation, a Denver-based private foundation (EIN 31-1805534) administered through Johnson Financial Group LLC with Managing Director Kenyon Fields and President/Secretary Mary Conover on the two-person officer slate, runs a strictly invitation-only model. Its own grant-process page is explicit: "We will reach out to you if we are interested in possibly funding your organization" — there is no open portal, no LOI form, and no cold-application pathway. Organizations cannot self-nominate; the practical entry points are (1) being visible within the foundation's existing network of Western conservation, land-trust, and small-arts grantees, or (2) a warm introduction to Kenyon Fields or the Johnson Financial Group office. The foundation does publish hard eligibility gates for anyone it does invite: U.S. or Canadian 501(c)(3)/(c)(4) status (or Canadian charity registration), an annual operating budget under $750,000, and a project footprint within its geographic priority areas (chiefly Colorado and Utah, with secondary activity in New Mexico, Vermont, and California). It also names explicit exclusions — climate education, open-ocean work, general environmental education, air quality work, grants to educational institutions, and unfocused research — that rule out categories many conservation funders do support. The typical relationship is not LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit; it is invitation-to-full-package, where the foundation asks for governance/IRS documentation, a full budget and balance sheet, project budget and timeline, a concise mission summary, 12-month goals, and a strategic plan if one exists — and explicitly tells invitees they may reuse a proposal already written for another funder with minor edits. First-time (invited) applicants should treat this as a fast, low-friction ask once contacted, not a competitive multi-round campaign. The grantee list (Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen TREE, Art Base, Colorado West Land Trust, Grand Canyon Trust, Western Landowners Alliance, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and similar) skews toward small, regionally rooted land-conservation and arts organizations with occasional civic/peace-building outliers (the U.S. Institute of Peace endowment, New Era Colorado, Rural Utah Project).

Total assets stood at $3,520,006 in FY2024, funded primarily by investment income and periodic contributions rather than a large endowment payout base. Giving is highly uneven: total giving was $984,099 in FY2022 (grants paid $922,500), then fell to just $103,661 in FY2023 (grants paid $56,000), before an estimated rebound to roughly $794,000 across 6 grants in FY2024 per third-party aggregation of the newly filed 990-PF. Earlier years ran steadier and smaller: $281,028 (2021), $165,149 (2020), $170,799 (2019), and a run of $75,000-$130,951 annually from 2012-2015. The foundation's own "typical grant size" metadata (13 recent grants) shows a median of $9,000, an average of $10,038, and a range of $1,500 to $51,500 — this is the realistic band for a standard invited grant. But the portfolio is dominated by one enormous outlier: Salish Coast Marine & Wildlife Conservation received two grants of $728,000 each ($1,456,000 combined), which alone account for 69% of the $2,097,500 in cumulative giving captured across the 38-grant sample the foundation tracks (average $55,197 per grant, skewed entirely by this one relationship). Strip out Salish Coast and the remaining 36 grants total $641,500 at an average of roughly $17,800 — much closer to the stated median. Other notable recipients: The Arts Campus at Willits ($206,000 across 4 grants), the U.S. Institute of Peace endowment ($150,000 across 2 grants), Western Landowners Alliance ($64,000 across 3 grants), and Putney School Elm Lea Farm ($50,000 across 2 grants). Geographically, Colorado dominates with 16 of roughly 38 tracked grants, followed by Utah (5), New Mexico (4), Vermont and California (3 each), DC (2), and single grants each to Arizona, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington — confirming the foundation's own stated CO/UT geographic focus with modest overflow into the broader Mountain West and a few legacy East Coast relationships (Putney School in Vermont).

Alchemy sits in a near-identical asset tier ($3.5M) to all five of its closest peers by IRS classification, but it is a clear outlier in transparency: it is the only one of the six with a public website, a stated grant process, a published exclusion list, and a browsable grantee list. None of the five peers disclose a website, application process, or grant history in public records, which is typical of small, closely held family foundations that give almost exclusively to pre-identified recipients — the same posture Alchemy itself takes, just with more public documentation. At this asset size, IRS minimum-distribution rules imply roughly $150,000-$180,000 in required annual qualifying distributions (5% of assets), a floor Alchemy blew past in 2022 ($984K) but fell well short of in 2023 ($104K), suggesting either a multi-year averaging approach or a large one-time commitment (the $728K Salish Coast grants) drawn down over time.

No press coverage, leadership announcements, or public program launches were identified for Alchemy Charitable Foundation in 2025 or 2026 — this is consistent with a foundation that has no communications function and operates entirely through invitation and IRS filings. The most current hard data point is the FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed and published around December 2025, showing 6 grants totaling an estimated $794,000, a meaningful rebound from FY2023's $103,661 low. The officer roster has been stable across the filings reviewed: Mary Conover as President and Secretary (no reported compensation) and Kenyon Fields as Vice President and Treasurer (reported compensation ranging from $0 to $10,000 depending on the year), both administered under the Johnson Financial Group LLC address at 1144 15th St, Denver. The single largest documented grant relationship in the foundation's history — two $728,000 awards to Salish Coast Marine & Wildlife Conservation, a name that also appears on the site's grantee list as "Salish Coast Land Management & Watershed Conservation Society" — represents the foundation's largest known financial commitment and likely explains the FY2022 giving spike. Absent a dedicated news function or social media presence, grant seekers should treat the grantee list and 990-PF filing cadence (roughly annual, published 12-18 months after the tax year closes) as the only reliable activity signal, and should not expect a public grants calendar, RFP announcement, or media rollout of any kind.

Because Alchemy Charitable Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, the single most important "application tip" is pre-application positioning, not proposal-writing: organizations get funded because the foundation already knows about them, so the practical strategy is building visibility within its existing network rather than submitting cold. Concretely: (1) Confirm hard eligibility before pursuing any contact — U.S./Canadian 501(c)(3) or (c)(4) status, an annual operating budget under $750,000 (larger organizations are automatically out of scope), and a project located in Colorado, Utah, or the foundation's secondary geographies (New Mexico, Vermont, California). (2) Avoid the named exclusions entirely — climate education, open-ocean projects, general environmental education, air-quality work, grants to educational institutions, and unfocused/basic research are all explicitly off the table regardless of quality. (3) Lean into the two demonstrated funding lanes: land conservation/stewardship (land trusts, wilderness alliances, ranching/agricultural conservation groups like Western Landowners Alliance) and small regional arts organizations (Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Art Base, The Arts Campus at Willits) — these two categories account for the bulk of the grantee list. (4) If you do secure an introduction or receive an invitation, move fast and reuse existing materials: the foundation explicitly tells invitees they can submit a proposal written for another funder with only minor edits, and it asks for straightforward documentation (budget, P&L, balance sheet, 12-month goals, strategic plan if available) rather than a bespoke narrative. (5) Align timing to the foundation's two grant cycles, typically early March and early November — an introduction made in January/February or September/October, ahead of each cycle, is better timed than one made mid-cycle. (6) For grants under $10,000, expect minimal post-award reporting (roughly one year out); for larger asks, be ready to show the organizational capacity to manage a sizable award, since the foundation's history shows a willingness to write single grants as large as $728,000 to a trusted partner. The single biggest mistake to avoid is spending effort on a traditional cold LOI campaign — the foundation's own site and every third-party directory confirm this funder does not review unsolicited submissions.