Amdg Foundation

Amdg Foundation (EIN 26-3566999) is a two-person family foundation run by directors Patrick J Dean (President) and Mary R Dean (Secretary), both uncompensated and working minimal hours, with all compliance handled by Foundation Source, a third-party administrator — a strong signal this is a closed, relationship-driven vehicle rather than an open grantmaking program. There is no functioning public application process: the foundation's database record lists no application form, no deadline, and no funding cycle, and our website check of amdgfoundation.com found it actually belongs to an unrelated Indonesian nonprofit (Yayasan Semesta Indonesia) — meaning this Delaware-registered foundation has effectively no public web presence to apply through. The grantee list is the clearest guide to what this foundation actually funds: it favors Catholic parishes, Catholic schools, and Catholic-affiliated ministries (Divine Mercy Academy, $493,600 across 4 grants; Washington Jesuit Academy, $108,000; Fellowship of Catholic University Students, $16,000; Archdiocese for Military Services USA, $15,000), alongside signature national causes like Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation ($500,000 for its veteran "Smart Home" program) and Togo Mission Inc ($620,000 across four grants — its largest sustained relationship). Geographic tagging (MD, DC) and city-level grantee data (Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, Darnestown, Rehoboth Beach) point to a Washington DC–Maryland Catholic community core, even though the foundation's own phone number carries a Memphis, TN area code. For first-time applicants, the realistic path is not a cold LOI — it is a warm introduction through a DC-area Catholic parish, diocesan network, or an existing grantee (e.g., FOCUS chapters, Catholic K-12 schools, pro-life/pregnancy-support organizations like Centro Tepeyac and CT Women's Center, or veteran-support and Catholic missionary organizations like Togo Mission). Once a relationship is established, support tends to be durable and recurring — several parishes have received gifts in 10-11 separate years — rather than a one-time award decided through competitive review.

Across the tracked grant history (54 grants, $2,382,600 total, $44,122 average), the foundation's self-reported typical grant size is a median of $10,000 and an average of $35,273, with most individual gifts falling between $1,000 and $180,000 — though outlier signature gifts to flagship causes have reached $500,000 in a single check (Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation) and $620,000 cumulatively (Togo Mission Inc across four grants). By purpose, the overwhelming majority of dollars are tagged "General & Unrestricted," with smaller allocations to parish/building funds (Our Lady of the Visitation Church, $100,000 Building Fund; various "Parish Fund" line items to St Edmond and St John the Evangelist churches) and one distinct "Smart Home" program grant. Geographically, tracked grants concentrate in Maryland (27 of 54 grants), followed by Washington DC (7), Delaware (11 — likely reflecting the foundation's own administrative domicile), with single-digit counts in New York, Colorado, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. Total giving has fluctuated with the foundation's asset base and periodic large contributions rather than following a smooth growth curve: total giving was $401,460 in FY2011, rose to $754,727–$791,714 in FY2014-2015, dipped through FY2019-2020 ($589,640-$608,658), then spiked to $1,107,822 in FY2021 on the back of a one-time $3,000,000 contribution to corpus that year, before settling back to $690,120 (FY2022) and $566,258 (FY2023). The FY2025 filing (via CauseIQ) shows disbursements of $870,474 against total assets of $12,461,258 — assets that have stayed in a narrow $9.5M-$13.3M band since 2011, indicating the foundation distributes roughly 4-8% of assets annually and is not aggressively growing its corpus through new contributions (contributions_received was $0 in most years outside occasional lump-sum infusions in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2021, and 2022).

Amdg Foundation sits in a tight cluster of similarly-sized private foundations (all roughly $12.4M-$12.5M in assets) identified as its closest peers by focus and structure. None of these peers, aside from Amini Family Foundation, maintain a public website, reinforcing that foundations in this asset band are typically closed, family-administered vehicles rather than open grant programs.

All six organizations are classified under the same "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE category and sit within a roughly $20,000 asset band of one another, which is typical of Foundation Source-administered family foundations built around a single flagship gift or estate. Amdg Foundation is distinguished from this peer set mainly by its unusually transparent, values-driven grantee pattern (Catholic institutions, veteran causes, pro-life organizations) rather than by any difference in scale or governance structure — grant seekers should not expect a materially different application experience across this peer group, since none appear to run open, competitive programs.

The most recent financial data available (FY2025, via CauseIQ's read of the foundation's Form 990-PF) shows revenue of $456,952 — down 55.3% from the prior year and driven almost entirely by dividend income ($422,800) rather than new contributions — against total expenses of $1,008,998, of which $870,474 (86.3%) went to charitable disbursements. Reported 2025 grants include a $200,000 gift to Smile Again Families International, a $130,000 gift continuing the foundation's long-running relationship with Togo Mission Inc (which has now received $750,000+ across its full history with the foundation), and $101,000 to CT Women's Center, a pattern consistent with the foundation's established preference for faith-based, pro-life, and humanitarian-relief organizations. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or public statements from the foundation were identified in press or news searches — Patrick J Dean and Mary R Dean continue as the foundation's only directors, both uncompensated, exactly as in prior filings. No dedicated news coverage, press releases, or social media presence exists for this foundation under its own name (searches for "Amdg Foundation" surface only nonprofit-database listings — ProPublica, GuideStar, Cause IQ, Charity Navigator, Instrumentl — rather than earned media), which is itself informative: this is a quiet, non-publicity-seeking family foundation that operates entirely through personal and institutional relationships rather than public grant cycles or communications.

There is no public application process to prepare for: application_instructions is blank in IRS-linked records, no application form URL or deadline exists, and the foundation's own domain (amdgfoundation.com) turns out to belong to an unrelated Indonesian nonprofit, not this Delaware-registered family foundation — so treat any "apply here" claim about this funder with skepticism. The realistic strategy is relationship-first: identify whether your organization already has a connection to the Washington DC-Maryland Catholic community (parishes, Catholic schools, diocesan offices), to Catholic higher-education campus ministry (FOCUS has received three grants totaling $16,000), to veteran-support causes (Tunnel to Towers received a $500,000 "Smart Home" program grant), or to pro-life/pregnancy-support and humanitarian missionary work (Centro Tepeyac, $375,000 across 4 grants; CT Women's Center, $101,000 in 2025; Togo Mission, $750,000+ lifetime). If no direct connection exists, the highest-probability approach is an introduction through an existing grantee — for example, a parish priest, a Catholic school development office, or a national organization the foundation already funds — rather than a cold letter of inquiry, since there is no portal or address set up to receive unsolicited proposals. When and if a conversation does happen, favor a request for general operating/unrestricted support: the overwhelming majority of the foundation's historical grants (nearly all of the top 50 by dollar value) are tagged "General & Unrestricted" rather than tied to a specific restricted program, so a flexible, mission-aligned ask fits their established giving pattern better than a narrowly scoped project budget. Keep dollar expectations calibrated to relationship depth: smaller, first-time or annual parish-level asks tend to fall in the $1,000-$25,000 range, while six-figure gifts appear reserved for a small number of long-standing, signature relationships. The single biggest mistake to avoid is spending time on a formal written proposal or generic 990-sourced mailing — with two uncompensated part-time directors and a third-party administrator handling only compliance, there is no one positioned to receive, read, or act on unsolicited paperwork.